Last weekend, Båstad in Sweden welcomed dozens of hypercars and pristine classics for the first edition of The Aurora Concours. Needless to say, it didn’t disappoint.
In many ways, Sweden can be considered the dream destination for any owner of a hypercar or classic. The Scandinavian landscapes are truly breathtaking, while one look at the nation’s network of impeccably-maintained, twisting tarmac will have you dreaming of changing gears while listening to your engine echo through the fjords. It’s no wonder that Sweden is the birthplace of one of the world’s premier hypercar manufacturers, Koenigsegg, and last weekend the country’s latest automotive attraction took place as 10,000 visitors flocked to the beautiful locale of Båstad for first edition of The Aurora Concours.
With our CEO, JP Rathgen, acting as moderator for the show, we were fully immersed in this Scandinavian celebration of horsepower. Proceedings got off to a roaring start on Friday morning as the hypercars and classics in attendance stretched their engines during The Aurora Tour d’Elgance, before returning to Norrviken for the festivities to commence.
HRH Prince Carl Philip and HRH Princess Sofia of Sweden graced the event with their attendance, while more royalty appeared as Swedish King of Speed, Christian Von Koenigsegg arrived accompanied by a full haunt of ghostly carbon-clad hypercars. The CC850 certainly caused quite the stir with its one-to-one power-to-weight ratio and trick manually-actuated automatic gearbox, as did the company’s latest record holder: the Jesko Absolut which recently completed the 0-400-0 km/h sprint in just 27.83 seconds.
However, the biggest unveiling of the weekend was undoubtedly the one-of-one Koenigsegg Chimera, which combines the classic exterior of the Agera with the CC850’s incredible drivetrain and cutting edge gearbox – with the addition of flappy paddles offering three different ways to change gear. Restomod-lovers also had plenty to get excited about, with the HWA EVO making its Scandinavian debut.
Christian even joined Alex Hirschi (aka Supercar Blondie) of SBX Cars and JP for a fascinating high performance panel discussion, while there was plenty of metal to distract visitors between talks, with fantastic exhibitions from BMW Classic, Chromecars — who showed off their Black & Gold Collection — and Motikon, who were the classic car partners for the event.
Naturally, everyone was waiting for Sunday, when the concours winners were announced. We must congratulate the winners of the decade awards, which include a 1920 Rolls Royce Silver Ghost, a 1938 Mercedes-Benz 540K, a 1955 Aston Martin DB 2/4, a 1969 Lamborghini Islero, and finally a Ferrari F40. It would be remiss not to mention The Northern Light Award, given to the contestant who drove the farthest, which went to the owner of an outstanding 1954 300 SL Gullwing who drove 1,400 km to attend.
That leaves us with the two biggest winners of the weekend. Winning the hypercar category was an incredible white-over-red 2012 Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport ‘Wei Long’, while the classic award went to Duccio Lopresto’s beautiful 1955 Lancia Florida Coupe. Our personal favourite? That’s an incredibly tough decision, but we found ourselves returning time and time again to admire RMD’s spectacular 1981 Ferrari 512 BB/LM, while Springbok’s factory-fresh Porsche 718 Spyder RS simply oozed new car appeal.
Overall, the Aurora was the greatest proof that Scandinavians share just as much passion for cars as any other nation, and as far as first editions go, this event was nothing short of a smash-hit. We’re already looking forward to returning to Sweden for next year’s edition!
Photos by Keno Zache
