Like a Goodwood Festival of Speed for the north of England, the Cheshire event boasts a vast array of performance and racing cars and bikes, classic and modern, while helicopters, aerobatics, military combat displays, powerboats and hovercrafts also appear.

This year’s highlights included the Lotus 18 that Sir Stirling Moss drove to victory in the 1961 Monaco Grand Prix, Jackie Stewart’s 1971 Championship winning Tyrrell and the spectacular Lindner Nocker low drag Jaguar E-type fresh from an exhaustive restoration. Mega capacity pre-war specials included the monstrous 47-litre BMW aero-engined Brutus (which emits 28,000g/km of CO2 - the same as 125 Porsche Boxsters!) and the Packard Bentley.

The supercar collection included this week's Top Gear's stars, the Jaguar XKR-S and new Nissan GT-R, as well as the BAC Mono, Ariel Atom V8, Noble M600 and Lexus LFA.

Rally fans were well served, too, with a Martini-liveried Lancia Delta Integrale and Fulvia, a Ford RS200 and Escort RS1800, Mini Cooper S and Audi Quattro all present.

Click here for a gallery of images from the Pageant's 1st day

Click here for more Cholmondeley Pageant of Power pictures