The 2006 Rolls-Royce Enthusiasts Club Councours and Rally
Kelmarsh Hall, Northants, 2006.

by Terry Walker

June 18, 2006

The annual R-REC Councours and Rally is the biggest single event in the UK Rolls-Royce Enthusiasts Club calender, and probably the biggest R-R event anywhere.

This year it was held at Kelmarsh Hall, a stately home in the Northamptonshire, not far in fact from Boughton Hall, where I last attended one of these rallies in 2004.

Happily there were no rain squalls to send everyone scuttling to raise the tops on their treasures, just an ideal mild, lightly overcast, day. The cars were ranged in two huge groups facing each other across a wide parade: pre-war one side, post-war the other. Across one end lay the tent city of R-REC show headquarters, Bonhams auction tent, and a vast concours of retail outlets, R-R dealers and service providers, a tent bar, and numerous coffee and doughnnut stands.

Glossy program runs to 40 pages.	Kelmarsh Hall in the backgound.	Some of the numerous 40-50 hp Silver Ghosts	This remarkable 40-50, chassis 20RB, was once owned by an aristocratic suffragette	The astounding interior of the blue 40-50hp Barker bodied cabriolet 20RB
The natty accessories box in the back	"The" Ghost: the 40-50 hp AX 201	AX 201's cockpit.	SU-13, the famous 2-cylinder survivor.	Across a sea of proper motor cars lies the tent city. The big long one is the Bonhams tent.
Silver Spirit and derivatives is steadily overtaking Silver Shadow as the most popular type.	Handsome Hooper Silver Wraith - not in the program, so does that make it twelve Silver Wraiths?	Some familiar faces here.	The Traditional Aussie Group Photo	Another Group Photo

Once again my brother drew the short straw and drove me from London to attend the event. Spectator entry was a fairly steep £35 per car, but it was worth it just to see so many fantastic R-Rs and Bentleys all in one place, and from all over the world. There had to be close on one thousand of them. I spotted numerous European plates, and the Netherlands was well supported. A representative of De Mascotte, the Dutch club, attended the traditional noon Aussie Group photo session to take his own photos of us Aussies for the Dutch magazine.

I then had to leave, so I missed the excitement in the Aussie camp as Dick Erskine's 1990 Corniche won its Class, and was then shortlisted into the final six for Best in Show, and then to the final two! Nick Whittaker's beautiful Phantom III was a worthy winner, but as Wellington once said, "it was a damned close-run thing." Dick spent three full days detailing every aspect of the Corniche, which lives full-time in Britain, and his effort was rewarded.

The Entries

Just for the record, there were entered in their respective classes: 19 Forty-Fifty hp Silver Ghosts; 7 Phantom Ones; 10 Phantom Twos; 9 Phantom Threes; 29 Twenties; 42 Twenty-Twenty-fives; 21 Twenty-five-Thirties (including Wraiths); 12 Bentley Three and a half Litres; and 14 Bentley Four and a half litres. That's the pre-war rollup.

The postwar crowd was, well, crowded. You had 43 Bentley Mk VI/R Type; 13 Silver Dawns, and 11 Silver Wraiths. Class 12 (6-cylinder Silver Clouds and Bentley S1s and variants) had a field of 25, with quite a few coachbuilt models. Class 13 (V8 Silver Cloud II and III, Phantom 5 and 6 and variants) had 48 starters, with no less than 8 Phantom 5s and 6s.

Then we get to the Silver Shadow and T1 and variants, and the numbers rise. 56 of them. There were 53 Series 2 and variant entries, just two of which were Camargues. Incidentally, this class cuts off at 1980, and later Camargues are found in the 1980-1990 Spirit class, Class 16. Class 16 had 44 starters, many of them Bentley Turbo Rs. Class 17 covered all the later Spirits and derivatives, another 56 cars.

Once you hit Class 18, however, the numbers drop sharply. Class 18 is for Silver Seraphs and Bentley Arnages; just 4 cars. Class 19 was even smaller: Goodwood Phantoms, 1 entry. Class 20, Bentley Motors Crewe, had 3 cars - two Continental GTs and a Flying Spur.

You might think that was it; but no, there are still more classes. There were two "Etat" classes, Pre-War and Post-War, which between them contained 36 cars from the Twenty to the Azure. "Etat" is for "those members who do not consider their cars up to full concours condition but are of a good standard. Any model may be entered. First and Second prize winners in each class (pre- and post-war) will not be allowed to enter Etat again, but must move into the appropriate Concours classes".

Class 23 is the Masters Class: 1st and 2nd class winners in the previous two concours events. They aren't judged. Another 7 cars.

Classes 24 and 25 are Conservation Pre-War and Conservation Post-War; 11 cars between them. These two classes are for cars which are substantially unrestored, clean, in good mechanical and electrical order which have been preserved as far as possible in original condition.

There is no Class 26, so we move to Class 27, which covers Rolls and Bentley cars which are taking part in the event (which is after all a rally as well as a concours) but who are not entering their cars to be judged. These, off all ages and types, some 66 of them, were all parked together in an engagingly unsorted way.

Classes 1 to 17 have a subdivision called Touring. It's the class for owners who use their cars on the road regularly, and there are minimum annual mileages set out.

All I can say is, Phew!

Footnote

Wandering in Tent City I found a sales brochure for the Series 1 Silver Shadow, which cost me a fiver. Ten minutes later, browsing through it for the first time, I discovered it was in French...

Oh well.