Nick Mason's Middlewick House open garden, 7 June 2025

[Sabrejet]

Each year Nick Mason opens his gardens in aid of local charities and a key part of this is a display of Nick's rather impressive car collection. Last year we were treated to wall-to-wall sunshine but today it was gloomy and wet. Ah well. The cars really made up for that. So here are my picks of the crop:

 

1961 Aston Martin DB4GT Zagato chassis 0184/R was retained by Aston for development work and then sold to Dunlop for disc brake testing.

 

 

 

Ferrari 512S chassis 1026  - one of nine works cars fielded in the 1970 season and made its debut at the Daytona 24 Hours with Mario Andretti and Arturo Merzario driving. Though they qualified on pole, the race ran like a miniature of the season: fast at times but beaten by the Porsche 917s. This car was also used in filming of the movie “Le Mans”, and driven by Derek Bell, was crashed and largely gutted. In 1978 Nick Mason bought it as several crates of damaged parts and had it rebuilt.

 

 

1934 Ford Model 40 Coupe as restored in the USA by Roy Brizio. It’s named “The Shazz” after Nick Mason’s business partner, Sharon Brittan.

 

 

1901 Panhard et Lavassor B1; this car won the 1901 Paris – Nice race and is now a London – Brighton regular. It has a 5114-cc, four cylinder engine putting out 50bhp for a top speed of 60mph, which I’d say is pretty impressive for a car that’s 124 years old.

 

2008 Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione, one of 500 coupes built: yes please. And they sound awesome.

 

1986 Kraco March 86C Cosworth as raced by Michael Andretti. And like most Indycars of the ‘70s and ‘80s, chassis and engine built in the UK.

 

This innocuous-looking 1923 Austin 7 Chummy is actually the tenth example built of 290,000. I’d imagine it must be the oldest one in existence. It featured in the first brochure for the car too.

 

Nick’s Aérospatiale AS 350B3 Ecureuil G-OOIO is a regular in the helicopter park at Goodwood. The paint scheme is really impressive, with a moon (not the dark side of) depicted on the vertical tail.

 

1987 Aston Martin Zagato Coupe; one of only 52 built, and with an RS Williams 7-litre engine upgrade. I really disliked these when they came out but over the years I’ve grown to like their stand-alone looks.

 

 

1994 Porsche 928 GTS. Quite a ‘normal’ car in such company, but beautifully posed at the edge of the garden.

 

And another beautifully-posed car, and a favourite of mine: a 2018 Alpine A110 (are they really that old already?)

 

Nick Mason has owned Ferrari 250GTO #3757GT since 1978 and its race history is incredible: 3rd overall at the 1962 Le Mans 24 Hours; 3rd overall at the 1962 Tour de France; 6th overall at the 1963 Angola Grand Prix and multiple hill climb wins across Europe as well as (incredibly) at Lulworth in Dorset on 21 June 1964, just as my mum was thinking about the birth of her second child not far away in Bournemouth. It did Sebring and the Nurburgring 1000 in 1965 (both DNF) and only stopped racing in period at the end of that season following an accident at a Silverstone AMOC meet. I’ve seen it race many times though I think it is now only run up the hill at Goodwood rather than being risked in circuit racing. Quite a machine.

 

 

 

Porsche ‘997’ Targa 4S: very understated and probably perfect for a shopping trip to Milan.

 

Maserati T.61 Birdcage chassis #2457. Raced at Sebring twice, in 1960 and 1961, failing to finish both times. But it looks gorgeous, so who cares?

 

 

 

1988 Ferrari F40.

 

Typical of why I love knowing the history of important cars; this Ferrari 250MM Pininfarina Berlinetta was bought be Mexican Efrain Ruiz Echeverria in 1953 after he’d crashed his 212 Europa Vignale Coupe chassis # 0239EU. Echevarria had the wreck shipped back to Italy and traded it for this car, chassis # 0352MM and in order to avoid paying duty on it, had the new car stamped as “0239EU”. So it’s really chassis # 0352MM and raced in these colours in the November 1953 Carrera Panamericana, where it came 11th overall in what is likely the world’s most dangerous race. Later in the 1950s the car was raced with a Chevrolet V8 engine but incredibly when it was restored in the 1970s it was reunited with its original engine and has been owned by Nick Mason since 2011.

 

 

 

I loved this 1928 Austin 7 radio car. It was complete with twin .303 rifles stowed in the rear aerials strapped along the left side. It seemed to lack the actual radio, but since it was open to the elements and raining a lot, I imagine it’s hidden away somewhere dry.

 

 

 

 

1931 Bentley 4½-litre Vanden Plas Tourer has been in the Mason family since 1947 and was raced by Nick’s father in the 1950s and 60s.  

 

APN 938K is a 1971 Fiat 500L named Olivia. And it’s got that sweet little 479cc twin-air engine which sounds awesome when revved to the max.

 

1963 AC Ace Ruddspeed with 2.6-litre Zephyr six engine. And FAR better-looking than a Cobra!

 

 

A trio of Aston Martin Le Mans cars. Number 27 is a 1.5-litre Ulster chassis #LM18 (CML 722, 12th at Le Mans in 1935), the middle one is chassis # LM17 (BML 327, class winner at the 1935 Mille Miglia) and number 21 at rear is #LM21 (CMX 601, 11th in the 1935 TT).

 

1962 Jaguar Mk.II seemed to be a Coombs replica, judging by the bonnet louvres. The gloss black wires really suit it too.

 

A most unlikely race car, 194 FPJ is one of the Austin A35 Academy cars. Hard to think that a sales rep in austere 1956 might imagine his car being hustled round Goodwood by a world-renowned rock star six decades later.

 

Bugatti 35. One of a pair on show. As you do.

 

1949 Frazer Nash Le Mans Replica. And ‘replica’ as in “built by Frazer Nash to commemorate its 3rd overall at Le Mans the year before”, not “kit car”. This was the 1949 Geneva Motor Show car.

 

1923 ‘Brescia’ Bugatti T13. These little 1385-cc, 4-cylinder cars only put out 30bhp but still give you a top speed of 80mph. I’m not really into the ‘£££’ value of cars, but considering there’s not much to them, you can easily spend £250k on a Brescia.

 

And another Bugatti 35, this time a 1926 car. Each one was posed with a little friend. 😊

 

 

This EMI-sponsored Porsche 993 GTR (chassis #WP0ZZZ99ZTS393100) was bought by Pink Floyd manager Steve O’Rourke (he of EMKA Aston Martin Group C fame etc) and raced in the 1995 and 1996 BPR race series. It was raced by Nick Mason at the 1996 Silverstone round.

 

 

Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona Competizione Series II chassis # 15373 raced at Le Mans in 1972 with the Ecurie Francorchamps team. Driven by Derek Bell, Teddy Pilette and Richard Bond it finished 4th in class and 8th overall.

 

 

2015 Ferrari La Ferrari.

 

And a couple from the interesting car paddock. First an Aston DB5:

 

And a lovely AC Aceca:

 

And a bonus. You know when you see something extraordinary in a totally random place? Like the time I saw Irvine Laidlaw’s 250GTO on the road near Chippenham. Well this was another of those. On my way back, and unrelated to the Middlewick House event, I spotted this incredible art deco Delage pulling out of a house not far from home. And even more incredible, it sported a Lalique ‘Spirit of the Wind’ glass bonnet mascot!! Being something of a Lalique fanatic, the mascot almost made more of my day than the car did. I Googled it when I got home: it's a 1939 Delage D6 Olympic ‘Panoramic’ with coachwork by Letourneur et Marchand of Paris.

 

What a great day.

 

[keefr22]

I hope Mr. Mason had the staff properly dry off all those lovely machines - it would be criminal to put them away wet...!! And that brolly doesn't seem to be doing much to protect some electrical gubbins in the Birdcage's cockpit!

 

What a stunning, eclectic collection! And lovely pics of them too!

 

18 minutes ago, Sabrejet said:

Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona Competizione Series II chassis # 15373

 

I'll have that one please - just the thing for this year's Epynt hillclimb... !!

 

Thanks for sharing, looked like a grand day out!

 

Keith

 

 

 

 

[Farmer matt]

Lovely selection, and full marks to Nick Mason for parking them out in the rain for mere mortals to wander around.

 

Matt

[Hutch]

Thanks for posting these. I live about 4 miles from there and have never visited, it seems we are always busy on this particular weekend. Stunning set of motors, and a fabulous way to support the Wiltshire Air Ambulance 😁

[Pete in Lincs]

A very impressive collection. Put me down for that DB4. I always loved the proportions of it. Better looking than a DB5 to me.

[Six97s]

Lovely, though the AM Zagato is a bit too '80s for me... 😁

[HK-500]

Thanks for those stunning pics , how I dearly wish I was there...😍

[Quiet Mike]

I went yesterday for a birthday treat, stunning house and grounds, and an amazing car collection. My wife is a motorsport marshal and has met Mr Mason a few times, says he is a real gent and very down to earth. 
We had better weather, but the downside was we got stuck in the car park as the parking stewards couldn't handle the numbers of cars leaving. We were sat going nowhere in a queue, and could see no movement anywhere in the large field, for over an hour. Took another half hour to crawl out once the stewards had sorted themselves out. It was quite frankly a fiasco and did put a dampener on the day.
I upload some sunny photos in a bit!

[Kitkent]

Thanks for posting these,an unbelievable collection,I didn’t know he had all of these! My favourite is- I don’t know,too many to choose from..Chris.

[Keeff]

That is a seriously impressive collection and nice that Mr. Mason puts them on show too. 

 

Too many for me to choose a favourite ....  so I'll have another look! 

 

Keith ☺️ 

[Sabrejet]

5 hours ago, Quiet Mike said:

I went yesterday for a birthday treat, stunning house and grounds, and an amazing car collection. My wife is a motorsport marshal and has met Mr Mason a few times, says he is a real gent and very down to earth. 
We had better weather, but the downside was we got stuck in the car park as the parking stewards couldn't handle the numbers of cars leaving. We were sat going nowhere in a queue, and could see no movement anywhere in the large field, for over an hour. Took another half hour to crawl out once the stewards had sorted themselves out. It was quite frankly a fiasco and did put a dampener on the day.
I upload some sunny photos in a bit!

 

I suspected as much; it was much of the reason I went on Saturday. Last year it wasn't too bad but we knew to turn left away from Corsham when we finally got onto public roads too. 

[Quiet Mike]

On 6/9/2025 at 4:42 PM, Sabrejet said:

 

I suspected as much; it was much of the reason I went on Saturday. Last year it wasn't too bad but we knew to turn left away from Corsham when we finally got onto public roads too. 

 

While we were queueing in the village to get in, I did see a few people park up there and then walk the last kilometre or so in. Knowing what I know now, they definitely had the right idea!

I do have a classic vehicle, but didn't fancy driving it all the way up.  Apparently getting out of the their own car park was a lot easier.

Nick Mason Open House by Mike, on Flickr

Carnage 😂

Nick Mason Open House by Mike, on Flickr