Chantilly Arts & Elegance Richard Mille

It was organised on the 4th September and confirmed its status as the elegant rendez-vous of the early autumn attracting some 13,500 visitors to the Chantilly domain.

There were eight concept cars in the running for the Concours d’Elégance entered by Aston Martin, BMW, Bugatti, DS Automobiles, Lexus, McLaren, Mercedes-Benz and Rolls-Royce, an increase in the number of car manufacturers associated this year 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 award went to DS E-TENSE combined with a creation by Eymeric François. The ‘Prix Public’ crowned the Mercedes-Maybach 6 Vision associated with a dress created by Jean-Paul Gaultier. The prize for the motor car and fashion combination for the most beautiful ensemble went to the 570GT by McLaren Special Operations with a model also dressed by Jean-Paul Gaultier. And a special prize was awarded to the new ‘atelier’ motorbike by Zagato, the work of the master coachbuilder from Milan for the Italian manufacturer MV Augusta, which was given its world premier at Chantilly.

The Concours d’Etat attracted around one hundred exceptional cars from all over the world divided into 21 classes. The jury awarded the Best of Show to the 1938 Alfa Romeo 8C 2900B Lungo Berlinetta with coachwork by Touring belonging to American collector, John Shirley, entered in the class Pre-war beginnings of aerodynamics - Closed road-going cars.

Jean Todt, the president of the FIA (Fédération interationale de l’automobile) also awarded several prizes including the one for the class devoted to him in homage to fifty years of an exceptional career. In it were several cars which he had guided to victory as a co-driver as well as competitions manager at Peugeot and then Ferrari. So he was delighted to award the prize to the Peugeot 504 Rally Group 4 and to Jean Guichet, his driver at the time: they won the 1979 Argentinean rally in this car.

Forty clubs made the trip to Chantilly bringing 800 cars that were on show in the domain. They were an integral part of the event and made a large contribution to the success of the big garden party to which the public was invited.

September 15, 2016