NEWS
Cavallino Classic - Palm Beach, USA - January, 2014
Earlier this year Jonathan Connolly visited this prestigious event in Florida and presented to the Ferrari Originality Committee on the origins of Connolly Vaumol and the importance of provenance and authenticity when it comes to restoring classic, vintage cars. Jonathan also presented the Connolly prize for the most elegant interior – Many visitors were delighted to see a Connolly family member returning to the classic car circuit.
Concours of Elegance - Pebble Beach - USA - August, 2014
Class winner and runner up to the main prize was Lord Anthony Bamford’s 1937 Rolls-Royce Phantom III recently restored in the UK using Connolly VM 3309.
Concours of Elegance - Hampton Court Palace - U.K. - September,2014
Connolly leather were delighted to be exhibiting at this prestigious event set in the beautiful grounds of Hampton Court Palace. The Connolly prize for the most elegant interior was awarded to a stunning Bugatti. Jonathan was also on the judging panel for the Club Trophy with HRH Prince Michael of Kent, Mark Knoppfler, David Gandy and representatives from the sponsor AIG. The winning car owned by Nigel Allen was a stunning Ferrari 275 GTB/4 restored using original Connolly Vaumol 3086.
Pebble Beach Concours, August 2015
At the 2015 Pebble Beach Concours held in August in California, a beautiful early 1927 Bentley 3 Litre Vanden Plas Sports Tourer, recently restored using Connolly claimed first prize in the British Pre War Sports Car Early group. Christian Philippsen’s glorious 1926 Bentley 3 litre Vanden Plas, also recently restored using Connolly came second. For both these cars we reproduced Celstra, a special leather from our period collection exactly matching our archives from the 1920’s. Both were trimmed by Graham Moss in the UK.
Quail Lodge, August 2015
A beautiful Ferrari 250 GT SWB Berlinetta 1962 owned by Bob and Michel Cohen and recently retrimmed in California using Connolly VM 3171 won many awards at various Concours, most notably at Quail Lodge this August winning first prize in the Great Ferrari Award.
Concours d’Elegance - Holyrood Palace 2015
Once again Connolly exhibited as a Royal Warrant Holder at this years Concours of Elegance held in September in the UK. This year it was staged in the magnificent setting of Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh - several cars, resplendent in their original Connolly upholstery made the cut in an elite group of concours cars. An original Jaguar D Type from the Ecurie Ecosse team with its original VM 3510 and an Alfa Romeo 8C deserve particular mention.
Jonathan Connolly joined the Highland Tour that took place prior to this and reached through the magnificent Highlands of Scotland in his Lancia Aurelia along with 50 other wonderful classic cars. Here we see him being waved off by the three times Formula 1 World Champion Jackie Stewart.
New projects/concept cars
We were delighted to see so much coverage for the 6 new Lightweight Jaguar E types manufactured this year for which Connolly supplied original Vaumol in various colour as was used in the original production.We also saw the launch of the Nissan QX30 concept car at the Geneva Motorshow. The specially made Chocolate saddle style leather looked very good in its sleek interior.
Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance, March 2016
This was the first time Connolly had exhibited at Amelia Island and Jonathan Connolly was delighted to be on the judging panel for this prestigious event. It was an incredible feat of organization by Bill Warner and his team and the array of cars, quite outstanding. We so enjoyed catching up with many of our good customers. As sponsors of the event, Connolly were pleased to have the opportunity of awarding the Connolly leather trophy for the Most Outstanding Interior to a beautifully elegant 1952 Rolls Royce Phantom 1V owned by The Tiriac Collection in Bucharest and recently restored by Vantage Motorworks in the US. Best in Show Concours d’Elegance was awarded to a 1930 Rolls Royce Phantom II owned by the Nethercutt collection in California. Best in Show, Concours de Sport, was awarded to a stunning yellow Pegaso Z - 102 owned by the Louwman Museum in the Netherlands. With well over 300 entrants these can’t have been easy decisions.
This year’s event was honouring Hans Stuck’s lifetime achievement in motor racing. Somehow, the organisers had managed to gather all the cars he had raced into one place. We very much look forward to returning to Amelia in 2017.
Concours d’Elegance - Villa d’Este, May 2016
We were delighted that Clive Beecham’s striking Alfa Romeo Disco Volante, designed by Touring with interiors by Connolly, won the Design Award for concept Cars and prototypes at Villa d’Este.
Amelia Island - Florida - March 2017
Once again we visited this wonderful Concours d’Elegance and despite the weather doing its best to disrupt proceedings, Bill Warner and his team worked their magic to ensure all ran smoothly. This year’s Connolly Leather Award for the ‘Most Outstanding Interior’ was won by a beautiful 1952 Rolls Royce Silver Rake trimmed by Vantage Motorworks in Connolly Vaumol and owned by Agata and Robert Matteucci. Jonathan was once again delighted to join the field of judges for this prestigious event.
Salon Prive - Paris, September 2017
A beautiful 275 GTB/2 owned by Guy Berryman and trimmed in Connolly Vaumol by O’Rourke Coachtrimmers won the prestigious Chairman’s Choice Award at Salon Prive Concours d’Elegance 2017.
Hampton Court Palace - Concours d'Elegance - Septermber 2017
Connolly were delighted to be back at this great venue exhibiting and catching up with many of our customers who come from all over the world to attend this annual event. There were many fantastic examples of original Connolly upholstery some dating back over 80 years.
Ferrari 70th Anniversary Cars
Not surprisingly, there was much anticipation and press attention surrounding the production and launch of 350 unique Ferrari’s manufactured by Ferrari’s tailor made department to celebrate the 70th Anniversary of Ferrari’s first road car. We were delighted that Connolly Vaumol was used in the interiors of many of these special cars as it had been used in Ferrari’s first road car 70 years ago.
Connolly are proud to continue our close relationship with ACI Storico, the Italian association with a desire and passion to create a centre of communication and information within the classic car family.
Please see link below to their magazine
https://issuu.com/lautomobile/docs/speciale_auto_storiche_agosto2020?fr=sYzVmODExNjk1OTc
