It's been said before but it bears repeating: In the U.S., only at Lime Rock Park is there authentic historic racing and a prestigeous concours, on the same property and at the same time; 300 vintage cars in 36 races on Saturday and Monday, the Sunday in the Park Concours and Gathering of the Marques in between. No other venue does this. It's what separates Lime Rock's Historic Festivals -- this is year 32 -- from everything else. It's a weekend of, pardon the hyperbole, motoring magnificence.
That said... There are dozens of elements just recently confirmed for Historic Festival 32 and the Sunday in the Park Concours presented by Bentley. You already know about the Cars of Ralph Lauren and Sir Stirling Moss, but here’s the latest news...
Ralph Gilles (President and CEO - Motorsports and Senior Vice President - Product Design, Chrysler Group LLC) is a car guy of the highest order. He will be on-site, one of the judges of the Sunday in the Park Concours. Gilles is the superstar designer- and design director (the groundbreaking 2005 Chrysler 300 was his) who most recently led the team that created the 2014 Dodge SRT Viper
---------------The fabulous, quasi-eponymously named Plymouth XNR
Speaking of famous automotive designers, Virgil Exner’s stunning dream car, the 1960 Plymouth XNR, has been entered into the Sunday in the Park Concours. The XNR’s “odyssey” has been, as AutoWeek’s Roger Hart wrote, “novel worthy” (click here for the story and photos). This is a very rare opportunity. Early in his career, Exner had a stint with Hall of Famer industrial designer Raymond Loewy... did you know that Loewy drew up all the designs for Lime Rock’s buildings, pit lane and training facilities in 1956? Regrettably, the track’s investors ran out of money before anything of Loewy’s could be built...
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One of the nine Race Groups Chairman Murray Smith created for the vintage and historic racing is for Formula Junior. It’s a large group of 30 cars: Lotus, Cooper, Brabham, Lola, Stanguellini, OSCA... they’ll all be here. They will also be displayed as one collection during Sunday in the Park
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* Ferrari tifosi and other Italian car nuts know about the Ferrari P3/4 race cars from the 1960s. There's one entered in the Sunday in the Park Concours. This car is fantastic, you’ve got to see it live and in color. Click here for more
* More Italia... A fantastic array of Abarths, Abarth Zagatos and OSCA race and street machinery will be on display, including the OSCA MT-4b Moss drove to victory (with Bill Lloyd) in the 1954 Sebring 12 Hour
* Track President Skip Barber has a small but quite worthy collection. He told us he’s bringing at least two very cool cars to the Concours...
* With Bentley Motorcars being the presenting concours sponsor of Sunday in the Park, one can expect a number of pre-war Bentleys to be here (including Lauren's). What one might not expect is to see Dyson Racing’s brand-new Bentley Continental GT3 race car, currently competing in this year’s Pirelli World Challenge series, driven by Butch Leitzinger. The GT3 is not only here to ogle over, but Butch will lay down some very hot laps during the lunch breaks (or is that lunch brakes?) on Saturday and Monday
Not so vintage: Dyson Racing will be hot-lapping its brand-new Bentley Continental GT3
* For the Porsche Speedster 50th Anniversary celebration, eight flawless examples in a special display of the famous made-for-America, stripped-down Porsche will be here
* More Sunday in the Park... A 2000 Dodge Viper GTS-R Daytona 24-Hour & Le Mans race car will be on display in Big Bend, part of the 800-car Gathering of the Marques element... the Westport (Conn.) Electric Car Club will have a special charging station display, with an original, 1898 Riker Electric Car, also in Big Bend... Caffeine & Carburetors is hosting its "Second Annual Caffeine & Carburetors on Vacation” gathering... The Gullwing Group will have a dozen or so fantastic 300SLs all together, in the Lefthander... Porsche Club of America Connecticut Valley Region (PCA CVR) is holding its 55th Anniversary celebration during Sunday in the Park; expect a couple hundred prime Porsches in West Bend
