We’d like you to vote for the 2025 Cars of the Year contenders in this year’s International Historic Motoring Awards. You can jump straight to the voting form here.
Or take a scroll through the contenders, chosen by an expert jury via Magneto and Octane magazines. The winning car will be announced on Awards night, Friday November 14, at Peninsula London.
Tickets are available here.
Blue Bird
The 1920 Sunbeam 350hp ‘Blue Bird’ was the first of Sir Malcom Campbell’s record-breakers, breaking the 150mph barrier in 1925. This year it returned to Pendine Sands in Wales on July 21 to mark the centenary of its triumph, albeit it at a slightly more docile pace. Not content with that, the National Motor Museum’s pride and joy also took Best of Show at the Heveningham Concours in Suffolk. Picture: National Motor Museum
Hispano-Suiza H6C Nieuport-Astra Torpedo
Created in 1924 for racing driver and aperitif heir André Dubonnet, Penny and Lee Anderson Snr’s Hispano-Suiza went straight from a three-year restoration at RM Auto Restoration in Blenheim, Ontario, to the winners’ circle at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. Its body, created by the Nieuport-Astra aviation works, is formed from narrow mahogany strips, fastened by 8500 rivets to resemble an aircraft fuselage. Picture: Josh Sweeney / Shoot for Details
Mercedes-Benz W196R Stromlinienwagen
This streamlined 1954 Silver Arrow became the most expensive racing car ever sold (the more expensive Uhlenhaut coupé never actually competed) and the second most valuable car ever sold at auction when it went for €51,155,000 at RM Sotheby’s. Driven successfully in period by both Fangio and Moss, it was donated in 1965 by Mercedes-Benz to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) Museum, which sold it to refocus its collection on Indy cars. Picture: Mercedes-Benz Classic Archives
Boreham Motorworks Alan Mann 68 Edition
Alfa Romeo 158
This Ford Escort MkI Continuation is a perfect copy of the 1968 British Saloon Car Championship-winning Ford Escort XOO 349F driven in ’68 and ’69 by Australian Frank Gardner. It’s being built by the original team, headed by the son of its creator, with several of the original engineers. It’s also fully sanctioned by Ford and FIA-approved for historic racing. Picture: Jordan Butters
The 75th anniversary of the Formula 1 World Championship has been celebrated worldwide, and central to it all is the ex-Nino Farina, Alfa Corse Alfa Romeo 158 in which the Italian won that first championship. The most poignant appearance of all, however, was at the Silverstone Festival, the venue where 158s dominated the first points-scoring F1 race in its inaugural season, with Farina taking the victory. Picture: Silverstone Festival
Alfa Romeo Tipo B (P3)
The winner of the 2025 Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este ‘Trofeo BMW Group – Best of Show’ was the Auriga Collection’s Vittorio Jano-designed 1932 Alfa Romeo Tipo B, which was run under the Scuderia Ferrari banner during the 1934 season with Achille Varzi, Guy Moll, Louis Chiron and Antonio Brivio. It’s further proof that competition cars are coming into their own at concours. Picture: Villa d’Este
BRM P5781 ‘Old Faithful’
This 1961 car was brought over by Miles Collier’s Revs Institute in Naples, Florida, where it now lives to help celebrate 75 years of BRM. Graham Hill’s F1 World Championship winner has been in the UK all year, appearing at Silverstone, the Oulton Park Gold Cup, Goodwood, the Royal Automobile Club Concours and more. Picture: Michael Holden
BMW M1 Andy Warhol Art Car
BMW rarely shows the 1979 BMW M1 Procar painted by Andy Warhol, but it was out in public this year to celebrate 50 years of the BMW Art Cars. This included appearances at Pebble Beach, The Bridge and in a glass case on the National Mall in Washington DC as an inductee into the National Historic Vehicle Register. Pic: BMW AG
