Check Out All The Most Interesting Cars From The 2024 Hillsborough Concours d'Elegance

We’re starting off strong with the 1996 Mazda Miata M-Coupe concept, which debuted at the 1996 New York Auto Show. The idea of a hardtop Miata first came about in 1992, with designer Tom Matano envisioning a grand tourer with more luggage space and interior comfort. While this concept was made from fiberglass, potential production cars would use metal. I love the look of the double-bubble roof and large rear glass, and it even had reshaped rear fenders and lower-profile pop-up headlights.

The M-Coupe never went into production, and to this day there hasn’t been a Miata coupe. Okay, yes, there was a fixed-roof coupe version of the NB Miata, but only 179 were made and it was only sold in Japan, so that doesn’t really count. The NC generation got a folding hardtop option that still looked like a normal convertible, while the current ND offers the RF model, which looks like a coupe but has a fairly complex folding hardtop targa panel. Maybe the NE Miata will finally offer a series-production coupe from the factory.

The yellow Miata on the left is one of the only surviving prototype NAs, and it was developed in 1989 to show potential MX-5 owners how they could modify their new roadsters. Thirty-plus years later, and I’ve seen thousands of Miatas modified in similar ways, so it definitely worked.

The orange M Speedster concept on the right was “a stylized Miata to gauge public opinion regarding evolutionary changes,” according to a period Motor Trend review. In addition to the chopped windshield, custom rear deck, big-mouthed front bumper and other styling tweaks, the M Speedster had lowered suspension, a wider track, adjustable anti-roll bars, brakes taken from an RX-7 and a supercharger that bumped output to 200 horsepower.

This Bugatti Atalante was my favorite car at the show. It was originally owned by Charles Olivero, a jeweler from Marseille who extensively raced the car and had Bugatti fit it with hydraulic brakes and telescopic shocks. The car was subsequently hidden during World War II, and the current owner is the tenth, having bought the fully restored car at auction earlier this year for $1,380,000. Bugatti only built 17 Atalantes, and this is one of just four with the rollback sunroof option.

Any cab-forward truck is cool, but these Land Rovers especially so. The 101FC was developed for the British army in the late ‘60s as a tow vehicle for heavy artillery, with a tow capacity of one ton. They used a 3.5-liter V8 engine from Rover and had full-time four-wheel drive with a vacuum-operated central differential lock. The cab-forward design made the Forward Control easy to transport by air, as they took up less space.

I always love seeing unrestored cars on display at a Concours, and many of these events now have specific preservation classes, too. This Giulietta Sprint Zagato is said to be the most original SZ in the world, according to the Zagato family themselves, having been in storage from 1969 to 2015 and untouched since it raced in the 1963 Targa Florio.

Another preserved car I loved was this Camaro, mainly because of its fabulous color. The only hints at its original condition are some crackling on the front-end stripes, and its current owner is only the second owner, who bought the car for $2,600 as a high school senior in 1969.

Continuing the blush color theme is this glorious fourth-gen Thunderbird. When is Ford gonna do a retro EV Thunderbird?? It seems like such an obvious move.

I never get tired of seeing Speedtails, and the blue-over-brown spec on this one is just lovely, especially with the silver wheels and accents. It is a bit weird seeing one without the aero discs on the front wheels, and the exposed bolt in the center of the wheel just makes it look unfinished.

That’s right, you’re looking at a fourth-gen Supra on a Concours lawn. One of only 526 Supra Turbos built with the targa roof and 6-speed manual, it’s currently in the possession of its second owner and remains completely stock and low-mileage.

It wouldn’t be a Concours without some cars you’ve never really seen or heard of before, like this Sunbeam-Talbot Alpine. Only 1,592 were produced between 1953 and 1955, and just around 200 are thought to survive. Despite having only 77 horsepower and a 0-to-60 time of 23 seconds, Grace Kelly drove one at high speeds along the Côte d’Azur in Alfred Hitchcock’s “To Catch a Thief.”

Perhaps the strangest car at the show was this Hongqi limo. Built from 1963 to 1981 using the chassis and engine from a Chrysler Imperial, only 847 were built and all were sold to government officials. There were a bunch of different variants available, including armored cars, ambulances and pickups.

Parked next to the Hongqi was this Volga, which the plaque described as being “a motoring icon of a bygone era with fans all over the world. To combat harsh Russian winters it got rugged suspension and more ground clearance, an engine block heater, and even extensive rustproofing. It looks great too, with styling clearly influenced by American cars of the ’50s. More than 600,000 were made between 1956 and 1970.

Here’s another weird-ass “car,” an original Morgan three-wheeler — and one with a long racing history, at that. In the 1930s his Morgan set a record at Brooklands for the standing-start mile and kilometer for piston-driven three-wheelers, and from 1996 to 2017 it was raced all over the United States.

A very different sort of racing vehicle, this 934 has a 3.3-liter flat-6 engine with a Garrett turbocharger and a custom intercooler, giving it 610 horsepower. It also has a 935-style slantnose and a great (if simple) livery, and it was raced at various IMSA events in the early ‘90s.

I really just included this because of the matching leather bag.

There have been a lot of great pace car liveries over the years, and this is one of three different Mustangs that have served as the pace car for the Indianapolis 500 (the others were in 1964 and 1994). I love the red and orange stripes and the gradient horse graphic along the sides, and the slanted nose, sportier bodykit and three-spoke wheels tie the look together. It used the 131-hp turbocharged four-cylinder engine from the Mustang SVO.

The Phantom III was the last large Rolls-Royce model to come out before WWII, and the only Rolls with a V12 until the Silver Seraph debuted in 1998. In 1936 the original owner was “almost immediately” persuaded to sell it to Maharaja Bahadur Sir Kameshwar Singh, who was from one the wealthiest families in India and couldn’t himself get a Phantom III allocation. Singh then had the car rebodied by coachbuilders Thrupp & Mayberly.

If you prefer American luxury, this Packard might be more your taste. The only surviving car out of three built by coachbuilder Walter M. Murphy, it has center-hinged doors with “clear-vision” cast-brass pillars. The car underwent a restoration in the late ‘60s in which this incredible color scheme was chosen, and it won Best of Show at Pebble Beach in 1977. Its running boards are solid rosewood, and just look at the wicker accents on the doors!

You always need to check the parking lot at a car show like this, and Hillsborough didn’t disappoint. I’ve always thought the DB4 was better-looking than the DB5.

As I was getting ready to leave the event I spotted this car parking from afar, and my friend and I couldn’t figure out what it was at first. Turns out it was a Marcos TSO, of which only a handful were ever built.