DS E-TENSE & ALFA ROMEO 8C 2900B Lungo Berlinetta (1938) ARE THE BEST OF SHOW AT CHANTILLY ARTS & ELEGANCE RICHARD MILLE
A few months ago, we took part with BMW in the CHANTILLY ARTS & ELEGANCE RICHARD MILLE, an event of exceptional luxury and refinement. Despite the bad weather, we were able to film a short 360° movie of our day.
Here are the main points to bear in mind.
After two highly successful editions, which immediately established the event as one of the world’s leading elegance competitions, Chantilly Arts & Elegance Richard Mille continues to build on its success. Held on Sunday September 4, the 3rd edition confirmed its status as the elegant rendezvous of the autumn season, welcoming 13,500 visitors to the Château de Chantilly grounds. Attendance was stable compared with 2015, and would certainly have been higher had the weather conditions – overcast skies and scattered morning showers – been as mild as in previous years.
Eight concept cars entered for the Concours d’Elegance were entered by Aston Martin, BMW, Bugatti, DS Automobiles, Lexus, McLaren, Mercedes-Benz and Rolls-Royce. In other words, the presence of the automakers was significantly greater, and this year they were associated with six fashion houses: Balmain, Eymeric François, Giorgio Armani, Jean-Paul Gaultier, Jorgen Simonsen and Timothy Everest. Four prizes were awarded for the Concours d’Elégance. The Best of Show crowned DS E-TENSE alongside a creation by Eymeric François. The People’s Choice Award went to the Vision Mercedes-Maybach 6 paired with an outfit by Jean-Paul Gaultier. The Automobile and Fashion Consistency Prize, for the most beautiful ensemble, went to the 570GT By McLaren Special Operations married to a model also dressed by Jean-Paul Gaultier. Finally, a Special Prize was awarded to the new motorcycle workshop “by Zagato”, the work of the Milanese master coachbuilder, for the Italian manufacturer MV Agusta, presented as a world premiere at Chantilly.
The Concours d’Etat brought together some one hundred exceptional automobiles, brought from all over the world for the occasion, divided into twenty-one classes. Among them, the jury decided to award Best of Show to the 1938 Alfa Romeo 8C 2900B Lungo Berlinetta bodied by Touring, belonging to the American collector Jon Shirley, entered in the class Les Prémices de l’aérodynamisme d’avant guerre – Voitures de route fermées.
The event also provided an opportunity for Jean Todt, President of the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile, to present a number of awards, including one for the class dedicated to him in tribute to Fifty Years of an Outstanding Career. It featured many of the models he drove to victory as co-driver, but also as head of competition at Peugeot and then Ferrari. He had the pleasure of presenting the prize to the Peugeot 504 Rallye Groupe 4 and to Jean Guichet, its driver at the time. The car with which they won the Argentina Rally in 1979.
The presence of forty clubs bringing together eight hundred cars exhibited on the estate was also an integral part of the event, and contributed to the success of the huge Garden Party to which the public was invited to join.
In the end, car enthusiasts of all generations, as well as families, were once again seduced by the program of this 3rd edition of Chantilly Arts & Elegance Richard Mille, which celebrated the art of living and savoir-faire à la Française through the many workshops and events set up on the Chantilly estate.
Awarded the prize for the most beautiful automotive event of the year in 2014 and 2015 by the British magazine Octane, and the sponsorship of the French Ministry of Culture and Communication for 2015 and 2016, the event has definitively earned its place among the world’s exceptional automotive events, with the legitimacy of having brilliantly revived the great tradition of the Concours d’Elegance of the 1920s, of which France was the cradle.
Patrick Peter: We’ve brought to this 3rd edition all the experience gained from the first two, as well as some new features. Starting with the Supercars rally, which brought together on Saturday morning some twenty cars that are extremely rare to see on the road, and which was a great success with the public along the Chantilly route. This is an important link that we wanted to establish and develop with the builders of exceptional cars, who I hope will join us in even greater numbers in 2017. Thanks to the distinctions brought to us by the first two editions, our competition is recognized as one of the finest in the world. This is an important factor in the eyes of manufacturers. We also need to increase attendance to reach 20 to 25,000 spectators in the coming years. With Le Mans Classic, this required several editions. So I’m confident about the future of Chantilly Arts & Elegance Richard Mille”.
COMPLETE COMPETITION RESULTS
www.chantillyartsetelegance.com
Cette publication est également disponible en :
