Benedict Castle Concours Riverside

May 18, 2025

Text by Wallace Wyss and photos by Richard Bartholomew –

Some concours are more regional than others. What I mean by that is that some reflect the local culture more than others and I have to say the Benedict Castle Concours in Riverside is regional, reflecting the relaxed out-in-the-country setting.

In this case the setting is the grounds of an actual castle (If you could count one made of cement as an actual castle) left over from some entrepreneur’s dream of decades ago, that eventually came to be utilized by a charity organisation called Southern California Teen Challenge. The whole event is mounted to benefit the Charity.

In the old days you would call it a “reform” school and their brief is reforming students who got into trouble with drugs and alcohol. The show is very eclectic. There’s some prewar classics, one that caught my eye was remarkable German car that looked much like a prewar Mercedes 500K but a more obscure brand, a car that could be Pebble Beach material.

And then there were hot rods, many ’30s cars originally and most of them chopped, channeled and painted bizarre colors. One even had a sculpture in the back window, commissioned to a sculptor in Wyoming.

Among the sports cars entered was a Marcos from England, the car that used to be made from a wooden chassis so this might have been a model made when the firm graduated to steel underpinnings. What was unusual about it was a convertible top, and the front hood had one of the deepest hood vents I’ve ever seen, basically exposing the back of the radiator to open air so as to get a lot of air through it to a demanding V8 engine.

RACING COBRAS A DRAW

Two of the historically significant cars were two Cobras. Both racing Cobras, both early ’60s, one of them a yellow former team car that I remember a famous movie director crewed on when a lad. It even had a support truck in matching livery.

It is great to see actual race cars made from street cars because you get to see all the switches and gauges added from the stock road car. The red racer had a really mangled history, first hit hard “in period”, then it changed owners several times, then some kit car makers stole the SN to register fake cars as the real thing, etc. but the owner displaying it at the Castle says all that’s been straightened out. Hey, a lot can happen to a race car in three quarters of a century or more.

The one Cobra Daytona coupe was actually a replica but who better to display it than Pete Brock, who I remember reading about in ’64 when he designed it for Shelby American. It was a thrill to talk to him some sixty years after I first read about it (he’s 89 now…)

GARY WALES, FIREMAN

Gary Wales, an esteemed collector who has restored Bentleys and such, was there with another of his passions, an old fire truck. He really likes them despite finding mechanics that worked on those engines–easily 75 years old or more–is difficult.

KIDS CARS

There are car oriented displays if not actual full size cars. I enjoyed talking to two Chinese young men based locally who started a company to make kiddie cars but these are works of art (approaching $8,000) so much so the Bugatti one they displayed where there were real Bugattis displayed brought compliments from the real Bugatti owners. With such remarkable craftsmanship I wonder if they will work toward 1:1 ratio copies?

The terrain around the castle is very hilly and I think just parking your entry safely is a tremendous challenge so it won’t roll downhill. They also had a luncheon area with good home-cooked food and delectable desserts.

Similar to the La Jolla concours two hours away in San Diego they have collateral events you can attend, like a dinner the night before. I think concours initiating these related events are a good idea because a car guy can bring the spouse to a dress up affair and the whole hobby becomes a more family hobby.

One of the highlights of the evening was a huge tractor trailer, minus the trailer, that had at least two engines, may be three, in line, and they all had unmuffled exhausts, so at a certain time it was lit off and great balls of fire headed skyward. When the last piston engine is put in a museum this one will be remembered as the Godzilla truck.

Altogether, this show is not as much of a concours, as say the ones with teams of judges going from car to car looking for non-original bits, but more of a local car show in an interesting environment. I’m glad it is at The Castle…though having toured the castles of Europe spoiled me a little.

Let us know what you think in the Comments.

THE AUTHOR: Wallace Wyss is a fine art painter depicting classic cars.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Richard Bartholomew is an artist and photographer based in Southern California. Visit his Facebook page here. He is open to interesting consignments and can be reached at zeroagenow@aol.com