Heveningham Concours 2023: ex-Senna Porsche 956, Mercedes CLK LM and Lister-Jaguar ‘Knobbly’ set to star

Goodwood Festival of Speed might dominate the headlines at this time of year but Suffolk’s Heveningham Concours has been providing a more sedate and accessible experience for the discerning petrolhead since 2016 - with some equally iconic cars on display. Taking place on the 8th and 9th of July, this year's event celebrates 100 years of the Le Mans 24-hour race and organisers have lifted the bonnet on some of the star attractions.

Visitors will be able to check-out one of the 12 Porsche 956s built for customer teams back in 1983, a car with a unique history. Supplied to the successful Reinhold Joest team, it was driven by Ayrton Senna at the Nurburgring 1,000km race in 1984 becoming the only Group C car that the great man ever drove.

Also on display will be an original 1931 ‘Blower’ Bentley, heading to Suffolk immediately after competing in the 2023 Le Mans Classic, a Lister-Jaguar ‘Knobbly’ from 1958 and a pair of significant Le Mans competitors from the late 1990s - Porsche’s 1997 GT1 Evo and the Mercedes CLK LM that raced in 1998 are both likely to draw a significant crowd.

Heveningham Concours isn’t merely a static display of classic road and race cars, with a few planes thrown-in for good measure, it also incorporates the Horsepower Hill drag race event where some of the vehicles get the chance to put some rubber down on a closed parkland road running through the Heveningham Hall estate. There’s also the Heveningham Tour, a 50-mile route through the Suffolk countryside that gives the wider public the chance to see the cars on the road.

As usual, the Heveningham Concours coincides with the Heveningham Hall County Fair and both are being held on the weekend of July 8, tickets are still available via the website.