St James's Concours returns to Pall Mall on 31 October with over 80 pre-1905 cars, Alan Titchmarsh and Edd China judging

The Royal Automobile Club's St James's Motoring Spectacle takes over Pall Mall in central London on Saturday 31 October 2026, and the part that concerns this desk is the St James's Concours at one end of the street. Reports published on 26 and 27 October say more than 80 pre-1905 cars will line the road, with a panel of judges that includes Alan Titchmarsh and Edd China picking the winners.

A judged veteran class on a closed public street

The Club's own event page describes the St James's Concours as a competition for about 50 veteran cars, run alongside the wider display. The cars are in London because the RM Sotheby's London to Brighton Veteran Car Run sets off the next morning, so the Saturday show is the one chance to study them standing still, with owners beside them. There is also a prize for the best dressed participants, which rewards the period clothing that many crews wear for the drive to the coast.

That format matters. This is a concours with no ticket and no fence. Admission is free and no tickets are required, and Pall Mall is closed to traffic from 10am to 3pm.

Six zones, 140 years, and some serious anniversary cars

The Spectacle covers 140 years of motoring history across six dedicated zones along the length of Pall Mall. The zones run from the veteran concours itself to motorsport milestones, model anniversaries, urban transport, modern design and an education and careers display, with Imperial College London and Oxford Brookes University taking part.

The anniversary section is the one most Indian readers will recognise. All seven Ford Fiesta generations will be shown together, while the Volkswagen Golf display pairs the earliest surviving GTI with the latest hybrid generation. Elsewhere there is a Brooklands pairing of a Williams FW48 and a 1926 Delage, rally cars of Britain's three World Rally champions Elfyn Evans, Colin McRae and Richard Burns, Ash Sutton's British Touring Car Ford Focus, plus MotoGP and Isle of Man TT machinery. Modern metal includes the Aston Martin Valhalla, Ferrari SF90 XX, a Koenigsegg and a Porsche Carrera GT.

What this says about the concours calendar India now shares

India's own judged shows have moved the other way, towards small, curated, invitation-led fields. The second Oberoi Concours d'Elegance ran at The Oberoi Udaivilas in Udaipur from 20 to 22 February 2026 with Sandra Button of Pebble Beach as chief judge and Manvendra Singh Barwani as curator. Best of Show went to the 1939 Bentley 4¼ litre drophead coupe of Dhanraj Gidwaney, and Best of Show for motorcycles to the 1944 BSA WM20 of Gurmukh Singh Salh.

Both models work, and the Pall Mall event is a useful reminder that a concours can be free to walk into. Indian clubs that already hold judged rallies in city maidans have most of the ingredients, the missing piece being a police permission to shut a central street for five hours.

London Motor Week continues after the weekend. The International Historic Motoring Awards, where this year's global shortlist includes Indian entries, will be presented on Friday 13 November at The Peninsula London.

Sources

• F1, WRC and BTCC cars headline St James's Motoring Spectacle, The Race, 26 October 2026
• St James's Motoring Spectacle, Wheels-Alive, 27 October 2026
• St James's Motoring Spectacle, Royal Automobile Club
• The Oberoi Concours d'Elegance 2026
• International Historic Motoring Awards