The 29th British Classic Car Meeting St. Moritz was held from July 7 to 9, 2023 under the motto "The Royal Edition". The event, which takes place every year at the beginning of summer, no longer really needs any introduction; as always, the 29th edition consisted of a rally on Saturday and the Concours d'Elégance on Sunday. Just over a hundred British vehicles took part, together covering almost 100 years of car manufacturing.
The royal rally
The choice of well-maintained roads in the Upper Engadine is limited, so it is not surprising that the choice of route is at least partially repeated from year to year. Around 210 km had to be completed, the route led from St. Moritz over the Maloja to Chiavenna, then over the Splügen Pass to Andeer. A "Royal Picnic Lunch" was available along the way, with the utensils provided at the start
In the afternoon, the route went via Viamala, Thusis, Tiefencastel and the Julier Pass back to St. Moritz, where the participants were greeted and celebrated in the town center.
Of course, there was no shortage of competitive spirit and so a number of special stages lined the rally route. Scoring was based on penalty points, with the older the cars, the more leniently they were scored.
The winners were Rudolf and Heidi Hug in their 1939 MG TB Tickford, one of the oldest cars in the field, while second place went to another MG TF with Peter Jost and Nocals Schifferle as crew. Third place went to Ronald Egli and Amelia Köhler in the 1974 Jaguar E-Type Series III.
Remarkably, there were five MGs in the top 10 places.
The royal banquet
The gala evening on Saturday was also entirely in keeping with the motto. Everything was organized according to the rules of the British royal family, with guests seated at endlessly long banquet tables adorned with candlesticks.
The menu was designed by Anton Mosimann, who had cooked for the British Queen and her descendants for decades, and realized with the Suvretta team. An unforgettable evening.
Also in attendance was the British Ambassador to Switzerland, James Squire, who has been in office since January 2023. In his speech, he emphasized the many common interests that unite Great Britain and Switzerland.
Concours d'Elégance in the garden
As always, Sunday was dedicated to the Concours d'Elégance, which was organized in the garden of the Suvretta House Hotel, as in previous years. It was not so easy to position the more than 100 cars in a sensible way, but some participants had already left after technical problems during the rally.
The jury under Marco Makaus judged the cars in three classes: Pre-War, Post-War up to 1979 and Young Classics (from 1980).
The winner's trophy in the pre-war category went to the 1927 Rolls-Royce Phantom 1 by Edward Summers. This car is the only survivor of its kind and the restoration was time-consuming, as there was no model and it was no longer possible to determine what was still original on the car and what was not. Thankfully, a descendant of the first owner, now 90 years old, could be found and even photos still existed, which made an important contribution to the restoration.
Summers also had another interesting story to tell. His grandfather had worked at the Lucas company, where the headlights for the Phantom I were manufactured. Each of these headlights passed through the hands of Summers' grandfather, who was responsible for quality assurance. And there were no compromises with the Phantom I.
Second place in this category went to the elegant 1936 Bentley 4 1/4 Litre Park Ward, which Nikoaus and Barbara Dürst had brought to St. Moritz.
Rudolf and Rahel Bosch took third place for their 1927 Bentley Open Tourer.
While the selection of pre-war cars was still manageable, the jury was faced with a huge number of cars from the post-war period up to 1979.
The winner's trophy ultimately went to the Bentley S3 Continental Convertible from 1963, which had been an important car in Rolls-Royce/Bentley's style development. Incidentally, the first owner of the car was the recently deceased Harry Belafonte (keyword: Banana Boat Song).
The jury awarded second place to the 1959 Alvis TD 21, which, according to the owner, is the prototype that Herrmann Graber delivered to England in its unfinished state so that Park Ward could subsequently continue to produce the bodies there. In this respect, this car is a link between Switzerland and Great Britain.
Third place was awarded to the Aston Martin DB4 from 1960, thus indirectly acknowledging the DB4's merit of having initiated a long line of DB models.
In the young cars category, the winner's trophy went to the Jaguar XJ 220 from 1993. Although exactly 30 years old, the car has not yet covered 5000 km. Philip Husistein also had his hands full with the long and wide super sports car, as not all the hairpin bends could be negotiated without reversing.
Second place went to a Bentley Continental R from 1992, while third place went to the still very young Aston Martin V8 Vantage from 2009, which impressed the jury with its tasteful specification beyond black over black.
The jury chose the Bentley W3 Continental Convertible Park Ward from 1963 as "Best of Show".
And there was also a prize for the best-dressed crew. In any case, St. Moritz and the surrounding area were always very stylish, but this was not only due to the participants' outfits, but also to the elegant cars.
Jaguar, Rolls-Royce, Bentley, Aston Martin and Austin Healey
The five "house brands" of the Royalists naturally made up the majority of the vehicles, but the proportion of "other" brands is increasing year on year. In 2023, for example, two sports cars from Lotus stood out, an Esprit S1 and a Europa TC.
The Alvis has already been mentioned, as have the many MGs. They were joined by a Triumph Stag, a TR3 and a Spitfire, a rare Bristol 411, an Austin Mini Cooper S, a Daimler Dart, a Morgan Aeromax, a Threewheeler and two Land Rovers. Together they provided the special splashes of color, but the Jaguar sports cars (E-Types and XK), which were represented in large numbers, were even more striking.
With friendly (Saturday) and very good weather conditions on Sunday, Chairman Peter Egli spoke of "imperial weather", the participants of the BCCM were able to celebrate two days of "Britishness" in the overheated metropolis with due distance to the Zürifest.
Many will be back in a year's time when the 30th BCCM takes place at the beginning of July 2024.
P.S. Almost all the participating vehicles in over 250 pictures are shown in a separate picture gallery .
