This week more than 130 of the world’s finest historic racing cars revved up for the 2015 Silver Anniversary Silverstone Classic (24-26 July) Media Day – as organisers predict the biggest and best event yet.
In excess of 200 media and VIP guests descended upon the legendary ‘Home of British Motorsport’ to discover details about this summer’s special 25th anniversary meeting – including an exciting new spectacle featuring F1 cars from the Senna, Schumacher and Mansell era. Many also enjoyed a passenger lap around the full GP circuit in classic racing cars as a tantalising curtain raiser to July’s eagerly-anticipated festival feast.
With interest in historic motor sport at an all-time high, the Silverstone Classic is one of the undeniable blue riband events on the world racing calendar, and having attracted more than 1,100 entries in each of the last three years, a bumper crop is well and truly on the cards in 2015. What’s more, after a record 94,000 fans poured through the gates in 2014, advance ticket sales suggest the 100,000 barrier will be broken in July.
“Silverstone Classic represents the very best historic racing anywhere on the planet,” said Event Director Nick Wigley. “The breadth of cars the event attracts is simply extraordinary, from Pre-War 1920s and ‘30s machinery through early Grand Prix cars, the glamour era of the ‘50s and ‘60s to 1980s F1 turbocharged beasts, Group C sportscars and Super Touring and GT legends from the ‘90s. It really is a comprehensive spectrum.
“That generates massive appeal for enthusiasts, and throw in all the off-track entertainment too – with live music, shopping, the adrenaline zone and vintage fairground rides – and you have a superb weekend for all the family. There’s just a fabulous festival feel.
“The event slogan is ‘One day is not enough’, but perhaps we have got to the stage now where two days are not enough. By the end of March, we had already sold more multi-day tickets than we did in total last year – so it certainly looks like we are in for another record year. Ticket sales in general are running 34 per cent up on 2014, so we’re confident we will reach the magic 100,000 barrier that we have been striving towards.”
25 Shades of Silver
The popularity of the award-winning Silverstone Classic can be attributed to many factors, from the superb retro racing – with quite literally tens of millions of pounds worth of classic cars competing flat-out and wheel-to-wheel around the GP circuit – to stunning displays across the site’s 700 acres, with classic car clubs having been an integral part of the event since day one.
Last year, more than 9,000 privately-owned classic cars were on show, and a record 114 clubs have already signed up for 2015, with 31 anniversaries being celebrated for good measure – from the 25th birthday of the Honda NSX and Mazda MX-5 to 30 years of the Sinclair C5, 40 years of the Jaguar XJS, half-a-century of the Aston Martin DB6, Rolls Royce Silver Shadow, MGB GT and 60 years of the Citroën DS and Rolls Royce Silver Cloud.
In recognition of these momentous milestones and the Classic’s own quarter-century, a new Friday lunchtime track parade has been introduced, in addition to a Silver Sunday Anniversary Parade, open to owners of silver cars of any generation, make or model, who pay – appropriately – £25 extra for the privilege. Statistics show that silver is the nation’s favourite car colour – with more than seven million on British roads – so the fact that this is already half-full is perhaps little surprise.
From Strength-to-Strength
Twenty-five years ago, Stuart Graham – the only man ever to win the iconic TT race in the post-war era on both two wheels and four – was the innovator who first had the brainwave of launching the Silverstone Classic, having noted the popularity and success of similar historic events in Germany and the USA.
Thus was born the International Historic Festival, which took place at Silverstone a week after the British Grand Prix, and proved to be the catalyst that has inspired all retro-flavoured motor sport events that have followed in its pioneering wheeltracks. The 1990 event was praised by a leading magazine as ‘heaven on earth’ – and the same indubitably rings true today.
“It’s extremely satisfying to see the Classic go from strength-to-strength every year,” Graham enthused, with some of the cars that competed in the inaugural edition still racing at the event to this day. “It’s now thoroughly well-established here at Silverstone and is one of the best historic events in the world. It’s exactly what we envisioned a quarter of a century ago – and it’s getting better every year.”
