Goodwood Festival of Speed 2024

We were delighted to attend the Cartier ‘Style et Luxe’ Concours at this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed. Away from the noise and bustle of the hillclimb, the Cartier Style et Luxe sets itself apart with stunning static car displays that celebrate incredible automotive design and elegance. This year’s concours included a class dedicated to the ‘ethereal excellence’ of Rolls-Royce Silver Ghosts and we were thrilled to enter three very special examples into the event. We were even more delighted that one of these, a 1925 Silver Ghost (chassis no. 120EU), won ‘Best in Class’ and only narrowly missed out on winning ‘Best in Show’ to a stunning Bugatti Type 57SC with coachwork by Corsica.

Unlike a conventional concours d’elegance, the judges of the ‘Style et Luxe’ are not necessarily car experts but eminent personalities from the arts. This year’s judges included model and car enthusiast David Gandy; actors Thomas Brodie-Sangster and Micheal Ward; and Editor-in-Chief of ELLE, Kenya Hunt. Judging is not a scientific points-scoring process, but a consideration of each car as an object of beauty and practicality.

With stiff competition from other Silver Ghosts in the Class, chassis no. 120EU stood out to the judges for being the final Silver Ghost supplied by Derby to the home market and for the fact it has covered only 135,000 miles from new, across only 4 owners. They admired the car for its stunning proportions, understated presence and unique originality. It is truly deserving of this award and we are extremely proud to have worked closely with its owner to carry out sympathetic conservation and restoration work.

As well as preparing the winning Silver Ghost, we were delighted to enter two additional Ghosts into the concours. The first was a wonderful 1912 car carrying fabulous Arthur Mulliner Torpedo Touring coachwork, featuring all brass fittings and a parallel bonnet. Being an early Edwardian car and representing the epitome of the early series cars, it attracted significant interest from passers by.

The other car was a stunning 1914 London to Edinburgh Silver Ghost carrying ‘Skiff’ coachwork by Labourdette. A car that is currently for sale with us, it is simply one of the most captivating and spectacular Silver Ghosts we have ever seen. The coachwork takes its name from the racing skiff rowing boats, and shares the same construction techniques, with extremely thin laminated mahogany strips being copper riveted to an ash frame. Not only is it spectacular looking, but it is very light and strong.

We thoroughly enjoyed our time at Goodwood and would like to thank the Cartier Style et Luxe team for making us feel so welcome.