Concours D’Elegance is all about classic cars and bikes and the interesting people who own them, who have fascinating stories to tell such as tales of incredible journeys and historical highlights of their restoration. It is an event where old stories are told and new legends are made.
This year, history was made as Veronica Wroe’s grande 1934 Rolls Royce Boatail won the 2018 CBA Africa Concours d’Elegance held at the Ngong Racecourse in Nairobi on Sunday. The 34-year-old becomes the first woman in history to clinch the Concours d’Elegance.
The glamorous, bright yellow Rolls Royce won the hearts of the enthusiastic crowd, many showing their appreciation of the pre-World War Two built machine.
In what went down as one of the closest podium tussle in recent years, Veronica Wroe’s 1934 Rolls Royce Boatail needed just one point to beat the 1977 Nissan 160J of Sati Gata-Aura to clinch her maiden CBA Africa Concourse d’Elegance.
Such was the drama and glamour which treated an enthusiast crowd to some exhilarating displays of the car and motorbike elegance contest at the Nairobi Racecourse. This year’s edition of Concours produced a new bike winner in Peter Giraudu in a 1966 Triumph TR 6C. Giraudu garnered 175 points to beat the 1925 Triumph 550 SD of Dominiqie Antoine to second position. Third in the motorbike class was a 1964 AJS Cafe Racer of South African Martin Kaiser.
What impressed me the most though wasn’t just the glitz and glamour of the finished rides, but the pain and agony of restoring scrap metal into glorious vehicles of mint condition, some taking from 2 to 5 years and some taking even longer than that.
Yet again, the Concours was a great success: elegant, energetic – and delightfully eccentric.
