A L D AUTOMOTIVE
Most of the events I attend have been thought about for weeks in advance. This usually involves preparing the car, the journey and nutrition (usually 2/3 cans of assorted energy drinks).
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However my first visit to Salon Prive started with a surprise phone call from my mate Harry at 8pm the night before. Any call from Harry that starts with "Would you want to come to..." instantly gets my attention, and so this was how I found myself leaving the house at 5am and climbing into his light blue Volkswagen Up!....
Dropping a drink and charging towards a dual carriageway may seem alarming to most people, but for a car photographer, this is an entirely justified reaction to someone yelling "SENNA" at you.
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This arrival set the tone for the rest of the day.
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I was overjoyed to see the Senna, even if I did lose a can of Red Bull in the process...
Having never been to Salon Prive before, I had no idea what to expect in terms of amount and calibre of cars. The answer it turns out is everything... and I mean everything.
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From an Aston Martin One-77 to a Singer 911 and a Pagani Huayra Roadster, pretty much all the modern dream machines rolled past, with a hefty amount of pre-war luxury barges thrown in for good measure.
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The highlights for me were the classics, a Mk1 Esprit (very James Bond), a 280SL Mercedes with skis strapped to the roof (very cool) and a pristine 220SE Mercedes Cabriolet (very.... Hangover??).
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Some notable arrivals were an Alfa Romeo 8C Spider, a Lamborghini Countach, Murcielago SV and what seemed like the entire production line of Boxster Spyders.
(For context, before this event I had never seen 1 Spyder RS, within 20 minutes I had seen 6).
After most of the cars had arrived, it was time to work out where to stand to watch cars leave. This presumably caused much amusement to anyone watching as they would've seen two young guys running across a dual carriageway, with yours truly trying not to lose a second can of energy drink.
​The exits were set up to be a spectacle, with a long straight road meaning the cars could absolutely gun it. This proved to be the case for the first few cars, including a purple Aston Valkyrie, which sounded immense.
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In reality however, the exits were nowhere near as spectacular as first thought. The traffic lights further up the road, coupled with people not knowing how use a filter lane created 1 long line of congestion. Only a ballsy F12 owner decided to merge correctly, creating a cacophony of noise in the process.
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There were a few surpise exits too, a glorious yellow 599 GTO, a blue F12 TDF and a Prodrive P25 Subaru really made the event something special, especially since the P25 owner wasn't afraid of ragging his £500k car.... Legend!!
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All in all, it was a great day with some incredible cars, and a welcome return to the early starts that car show season brings. Of course, seeing an F40 makes any show a good show.
An added bonus was the best sounding Porsche I have ever heard - a 997.1 GT3 which now has me considering an impulse purchase...
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I hope you've enjoyed this first entry and please feel free to drop me a message on social media if you have any questions or requests...
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