Jackie Stewart will be vice patron for the “Royal” Concours of Elegance, to be held September 4-6 at the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh, Scotland, where Stewart will display his three World Driving Championship racing cars.
Also on display will be what is being called the world’s largest array of Ecurie Ecosse racing cars, including the Jaguar D-type “long nose” that finished second at Le Mans in 1957.
Ecurie Ecosse is French for “Team Scotland,” an auto racing effort founded in 1951 by Scottish racer David Murray and mechnic Wilkie Wilkinson. The team’s Flag Blue Metallic-painted cars won the 24 Hours of Le Mans race in 1956 and 1957.
Organizers have announced that the concours also will feature the launch of the Scottish Motoring Hall of Fame, and that proceeds from the concours will benefit charitable projects in Scotland.
The official concours will include as many as 60 vehicles, among them a 1933 Hispano-Suiza J12 cabriolet and the Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost that won the London-to-Edinburgh race in 1911.
In an interesting twist, hundreds of classic car clubs in the UK are invited to display their vehicles at the palace grounds. Those clubs will select the best car from among their own displays and those winners will then be judged by a panel of concours judges with the overall Club Trophy winner then moving onto the concours field.
In conjunction with the primary show, a separate display will honors Scotland’s auto racing heroes, including two Formula One cars driven by Jim Clark and the Le Mans-winning Jaguar XJR-9 driven by Johnny Dumfries.
The Concours of Elegance was begun in 2012 at Windsor castle and is held at a different royal palace each year.
