Our postcard from Salon Privé 2020

With so many car shows not going ahead in 2020, it was delightful that this years Salon Privé did go ahead, so a big well done has to go out to the organisers. This was the 15th Salon Privé to be held and the fifth or sixth (one or the other) at the wonderful Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire. Gorgeous architecture, stunning gardens and landscapes, then add iconic cars, desirable cars, beautiful cars, collectable classic cars, supercars, hypercars and ‘world-first’ unveiling’s of new cars, and a relaxed and exclusive environment you have one perfect event and our mycarheaven.

At this years event you had 18 first ever unveilings, with 6 World firsts, 4 European firsts, and then 8 UK firsts. Impressive stuff. Here are those cars that stood out to me the most (in no particular order):

Ares Design Panther Progettouno

The Panther Progettouno is the first in the ‘Legends Reborn’ series from Ares Design. Inspired by the original De Tomaso Pantera, the Panther echoes its key design cues but catapults them into the modern era. Beneath the bespoke carbon-fibre bodywork lies a Lamborghini Huracán. What particular grade of Huracán is left at the owner’s discretion but, if you’re keen to be a Panther owner, the team at Ares will help you find a suitable donor car and then set to work transforming it. This is a cool car, and we love it.

Ares Design Project S1

A very cool car. The sort of car I could see Batman driving or appearing on GranTurismo (or any computer game for that matter) as a concept car, yet this car is real. Just 24 examples are planned to be built.  Ares “anticipates” a 0-62mph time of around 2.7sec from calculations. Price likely to be in the region of £450,000-500,000.

Aspark Owl

The Aspark Owl is an all-electric battery-powered sports car manufactured by Japanese engineering firm Aspark, under development since 2018, with the goal of making the fastest accelerating electric car. It made it’s European debut at Salon Privé. It was a truely unique looking car, with a 0-60mph of 1.69 seconds. With 4 PMSM that produce 2012 horsepower (1480 kW), the Owl has a unique battery pack for a range of up to 450 km. Top speed is 248,ph (400 km/h). The Owl has a height of 99 cm: probably the lowest road legal electric hypercar in the world.

Bugatti Chiron

The fastest road car ever, the world record holder for top speed at 304.773 mph (490.484 km/h). Slightly different from the standard Chiron in that the car has a longer rear for improved aerodynamics. Nuts. I was advised that the car will not be cleaned and will stay as it was as a piece of history.

Koenigsegg Gemera

Personally I don’t get the need for this car, but it is cool none the less. The Gemera is the world’s first Mega-GT and Koenigsegg’s first four-seater. Extreme megacar meets spacious interior and ultimate performance. It has 1,700bhp, 2,580lb ft of torque, the ability to go from 0-62mph in 1.9s and up to 250mph in “record matching pace”. Only 300 will be built, and expect it to cost somewhere in the region of £1.55m (€1.7m). Bonkers.

Touring Superleggera Aero 3

What a beautiful and distinctive car. Would we expect anything less from this exceptional coach builder Touring Superleggera. The Touring Superleggera Aero 3 is retro-inspired V12 supercar, it is a dramatically restyled take on the Ferrari F12, with cues from 1930s racers. Touring says each of the 15 cars being built will take more than 5000 hours to complete. 

Zenvo TSR-S

This car has the biggest wing I’ve ever seen on a road car. Yes bigger than that on the McLaren Senna. A ridiculous road car, what road can you really drive this on? One of the most extreme hypercars in the world, and we love it. What a beast.

So what was different about this years event?

Well for starters it seemed a lot bigger, more company stands and even boats and helicopters. More undercover areas, areas to eat and sit down, no doubt due to the unique circumstances we find ourselves in with Covid-19 and social distancing.

Here’s our walk around the show…

I was really impressed with Ares Design, based out of Modena, Italy, and with 100 in their team, their cars and bikes on show were really special.

This year the event was 5 days, up from 3/4 days in previous years. This year there was a dedicated press day on the Tuesday, which we attended, and also we attended the Wednesday which we like to do, as this is the day that the Concours D’Elegance takes the live stage. Here is our video of the Salon Privé Concours D’Elegance.

Personally I saw many cars for the first time at this years Salon Privé (including those mentioned already above), those that stood out to me included the:

Ferrari SF90 Stradale

and the Ferrari F8 Tributo,

All in all a great event. The car of the show was judged to have been 1932 Ex-Scuderia Ferrari 8C Monza. Beautiful.

Before he started building cars under his own name, Enzo Ferrari rose to international prominence by running Alfa Romeo’s works racing team during the 1930s. In 1932, Scuderia Ferrari entered an 8C Monza Zagato in various races and hillclimbs for the likes of legendary Italian ace Tazio Nuvolari. ‘The Flying Mantuan’ took it to victory in the Coppa Principe di Piemonte in July of that year, and also competed in the prestigious Klausenrennen hillclimb.

The 8C later finished second in the Targa Abruzzo at Pescara in the hands of Mario Tadini, but was subsequently disqualified because the event was for standard sports cars – the modified Alfa was not eligible. It is this very car – chassis number 2111044. How cool is that.

All in all a wonderful day out. Well organised, a great selection of cars on display, and for us it’s a must attend event. We cannot wait until next year.

Want to read more about Salon Privé that you can do so here. Loads more car shows featured so take a look around our site, enter some of our competitions, and get in touch, follow us on our social media channels @mycarheaven

Read our Top 10 classic cars from Salon Privé 2020.

Read our Top 10 supercars from Salon Privé 2020

Check out our favourite photos from Salon Privé 2020.

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