Gordon arrives first, a little early, catches us off guard. Not that he cares, he’s casual and confident, happy to strike up a chat with whoever’s nearest – hands in pockets, loose-fitting blazer over colourful untucked shirt. His punctuality makes sense, the other three have a combined 6,761 miles of travel to get here, Surrey based Gordon has 28. Mr Hennessey barrels in next – big smiles, even bigger handshakes, thick Texas charm. He and Gordon gravitate towards each other, I flap about trying to find them both a glass of sparkling water – bit too early for a cocktail.
Things are going well. Two of our four star guests have arrived, brawling between rival factions of the performance car elite has yet to materialise, and despite Masterchef final levels of stress there’s hope we might pull this off.
Christian von Koenigsegg rocks up with a small TV crew in tow. They’re filming a documentary on the great hypercar entrepreneur for Swedish TV and thought this might be interesting to include. We shall see. More handshakes, nods, introductions, another sparkling water. A lock-in is looking unlikely.
So it’s Mate Rimac bringing up the rear – not a power move from the 34-year-old whippersnapper, his PR assures us, but sticky traffc on the A40. In he comes, suit, no tie, trainers and orders… a pint of IPA. He’ll go far this Rimac chap.
So that’s it, a full complement, four of the biggest and most influential names in the car industry, in one place. Later tonight we have the Awards ceremony to attend, but for now the rules are simple: there are no rules. We want an open debate,
