The 5th annual Wilton House Classic and Supercar Show took place yesterday in the small town of Wilton near Salisbury, England. Highlight of the show is the arrival of over 200+ supercars from all over Great Britain. This year we joined the supercar parade and offer you a behind the scenes look on the ‘Drive to Wilton House 2013’. The drive to Wilton House is only open to participating supercar owners and the route and checkpoints remain secret until the very last minute.
The drive to Wilton House 2013 started with a shockingly early Sunday morning alarm at 5am at the Brooklands hotel, South-West of London. At the hotel and next-door Mercedes-Benz World parking lots over 80 supercars gathered at this early hour. After admiring some of the special cars that arrived on scene including the one-off Pagani Zonda PS, red Ferrari Enzo, Bugatti Veyron, Ford GT, Mercedes SLR McLaren, Porsche Carrera GT among many others, all cars headed out to an improvised start line at the Mercedes-Benz Worlds access road.
For the occasion we were driving a brand new and bright orange Jaguar F-Type V6 (you can read our review here soon!), on the grid behind the Pagani Zonda PS with the roof down we knew it wouldn’t be long until we would be fully awake. The flag dropped and we set up to the first destination on this drive to Wilton House: Reading Services on the M4. Via some B-Roads, entertained by the Zonda PS sound track, we reached the infamous M25, London’s outer ring.
Not long on the M25 we found ourselves in a group with a Porsche Carrera GT, Ford GT, Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder Performante, Ariel Atom V8 and several other exotics. An impressive sight seeing these supercars take over the highway. When the insanely loud red Ferrari Enzo joined the group as well we were treated by one of the best open air concerts we have ever attended. It was a wonderful orchestra of V8, V10 and V12 engines that produced beautiful tunes.
Continuing onto the M4 traffic was still pretty much non-existent and we arrived at Reading Services where we were greeted by another part of the supercar group in no time. There was opportunity to have a coffee and a croissant and take in the incredible machinery in this highway services parking lot. Two more Ferrari Enzos arrived along with about three dozen Ferraris and Lamborghinis.
The clock said 7:15 and we were off to the next stop: Wroughton Airfield, a former Royal Air Force base in Wiltshire. Despite being surrounded by supercars and lacking the sheer performance to impress on the highway, the F-Type did get plenty of looks on the way there. Whether it was other participants in the drive to Wilton or other cars on the M4, we saw plenty of thumbs up and smiling faces when the Jaguar was in sight.
Upon arrival at the Wroughton Airfield we had the opportunity to put the F-Type up against other supercars on one of the airfield’s runways. But more on this mini-Vmax event at Wroughton later! After two hours of fun it was time to drive the final stretch to Wilton. At Wroughton the group grew to over 200 supercars including no less than 6 Pagani Zondas, 3 Enzos, 2 Bugatti Veyrons, a Gumpert Apollo and more exotics than one can count count.
We left the airfield behind us on turned onto some great twisty country lanes in incredible company. Driving through the British country side with a British sportscar surrounded by over 200 supercars was an incredible experience. Coming through small towns whole families were cheering us on as we went past.
The last part of the journey we were escorted by the friendly local police and the closer we came to Wilton House the more crowds there were on the side of the streets. Crossing the main gate we drove through the yard into the garden on the way to the supercar display on the lawn. Having only just arrived at Wilton around noon, the day was already more than memorable!
Stay tuned for more on Wilton House 2013, including the Vmax event at Wroughton and coverage of the Wilton Classic and Supercars Show 2013. Special thanks to Jay Broom and Lord Pembroke for a top event!
