We were delighted to invited to this extremely prestigious event, via a contact of George. The invite was to display our cars in the Great Courtyard directly outside the front of Blenheim Palace and alongside the Jaguar Club, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the XJS. George also suggested to his contact it would be a great venue to bring The Princess Royal's car, Salon Privé were delighted to have this car on display, but only thanks to the efforts of George and Alan CT who between them collected & delivered the car to & from the Great British Car Journey in Ambergate, Derbyshire.

George also looked after the Royal car throughout the day and chatted about it to many interested people. Needless to say, George found one of his old tiara's and it was on the dash of the car throughout the day. I'm told he was greeted by one gentleman with 'Good morning Maam' I believe George did a curtsey and said tis a good disguise :) Alan, Bruce and Ian were parked in the great courtyard and had an awesome display topped off with Bruce's mobile display stand and the brand new floor mats that looked truly stunning. (Thank you Bruce).

Thanks to George, we were also invited to have one car judged on the South lawn for the Lifestyle Club Trophy, Richard Hammond of Top Gear & The Smallest Cog fame was the judge, so no pressure then! After my recent Scimfest concours result my gold MB was chosen for two reasons, 1, general condition and 2 the colour would hopefully stand out especially if we have sun. Making my car look good is reasonably easy but me being dressed in full on Blazer, cravat, crisp button-down shirt, tailored trousers, pocket scarf, suitable footwear and of course a panama hat was the real challenge. Tis a long way from Jesus creepers, shorts and my gregarious polo tops. The Lifestyle Trophy judging took place at 11.30 with all of the cars parked in a prime location adjacent to the beautiful gardens. I received a phone call to return to my car for the results and hopefully a guided tour (fingers crossed). Well, we were delighted to be chosen to lead the parade lap driving past many hundreds of people that were lining the route with camera phones going crazy.

What an experience! Many many hundreds of people lining each side of the car and taking an incredible amount of pictures with Bruce in the co-pilot's seat, I very slowly made my way towards the raised rostrum area and answered Middlebridge related questions via the tannoy system. Phew this done, Bruce and I slowly moved forward from the rostrum amid loads of hand clapping. From start to finish took approximately 15 min's, I hope that gives a clue to the sheer amount of people along this 'catwalk' including 5 min's on the rostrum that usually has multi million pound machinery sat on it!

I was stunned when Middlebridge No33 was runner up in the Lifestyle Trophy Awards, See official certificate. What an incredible moment both for me personally and for the Middlebridge marque and against such incredible machinery. Surely this can only be good exposure for the Middlebridge marque and for Scimitars generally.

One man actually stopped the car during the parade lap and signalled for me to fully lower the driver's window, I did and he said 'that in his opinion it was the nicest car in the show' Bruce and I were stunned and thanked him, what a lovely thing to say and in such company too.

We were told that this event is the UK version of Pebble Beach Florida, indeed many of the cars had been flown over especially for the event. After speaking with George, Alan and Bruce at the Brewers Fayre we think it was truly incredible not only to be in such company but even have a car on the podium and attracting such attention from the public and the media. George organised this truly awesomely outrageous and crazy event for us, thank you George. May I also thank Bruce for once again coming up with the goods that made our marque presence stand out from the crowd. Also, a huge thanks to Ian & Chris for coming along for the day and at short notice too.

As at so many events, keen observers regularly refer to HRH Princess Anne, Salon Privé was no different, thanks to George and Alan the Royal car was collected from the Great British Car Journey on the Saturday in time for delivery to Blenheim by 6am on Sunday, returning to the GBCJ on Monday.

The bizarre thing is that the Middlebridge marque seems to be pushing us in various directions and where will we end up next ???