Classics at the castle

Adil Jal Darukhanawala        9 Oct 2009

German alternative in the making to the Pebble Beach Concours? Maybe in a couple of years says Adil Jal Darukhanawala after taking in vintage and classic thoroughbreds galore at the inaugural Schloss Bensberg Classics.

If you have to be at a classic car concours, you need to have a completely different mind set. No it is not just in terms of getting to grips with old machinery but to see how one is turned out form the other. Let me explain. Classic cars are by themselves one of the most enduring pieces of art there are today and probably some of the prime examples of great brands that are fantastic investments in themselves! However what I look at from a classic these days is not just the brand or the model and its vintage but also whether it has been restored or maintained as original. There is a great deal of fascination for great cars which have been returned to better than original condition by many restorers and one such bagged the public's choice as the best of show at the inaugural Schloss Bensberg Classic car event at Bensberg, on the outskirts of Cologne.

The magnificent 1938 Horch 853A roadster bodied by Erdmann & Rossi looked like a million, nay billion dollars and with its drop dead gorgeous looks and long flowing lines it was natural why the large populace of showgoers voted it as their best of show. Exquisitely turned out and the envy of many Europeans in its prime, the car though didn't meet with the same nod from the jury. The reasons for this were double-fold. The first was that this Horch had a metallic paint finish which was never available in its time and while it did give the car an aura beyond compare it was unoriginal. In the same vein it also didn't have the right wheels as it had when it rolled off the assembly lines and these two traits were noted by the jury which was the second reason.

Yes the jury was made up of some of the greatest names in the motoring world, men like Walter de'Silva the great automotive designer who is now Chief of VW Design and was formerly Head of Design at Alfa Romeo. Speaking of designers, De'Silva was in August company for the great Giorgetto Giugiaro, acclaimed as the automotive designer of the century was his colleague in arms as was Stephen Bayley, the design and art commentator who set up the Design Museum in London. Rounding off the designers quartet in the jury was the renowned Swiss industrial designer Alfredo Haberli.

Matching these four were another quartet drawn from other walks of life, automotive and non-automotive and first among equals was none other than the great Jacky Ickx, a man who everyone knows as a six-time winner of the Le Mans 24 Hours. What many don't know is that Jacky's race records include eight F1 Grand Prix wins and he also took the overall victory in the 1983 Paris-Dakar to add to his massive competition successes. The Belgian great remains as committed as ever to the sport these days and it showed when he was piloting his exquisite 1958 VW Denzel sports car on the Rallye Historique preceding the concours.

Chinese fine art photographer Xiao Hui Wang who was acclaimed as the "Artist of the Year" in China in 2008 was another jury member and also the only one from the fair sex. And rounding off the jury were two members of the automotive press, Jurgen Lewandowski and Bernard Ostmann, two of the greatest German automotive scribes I have had the pleasure to read and meet.

If these eight had a tough job, I could only agree because the quality of the field assembled at the Schloss Bensberg was truly eclectic - Bugattis, Bentleys, Alfa Romeos, Mercedes-Benz, Delahayes, Citroens, Abarths, Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Hispano-Suizas, Cadillacs, Porsches, BMWs, etc. To see reality from make believe was their envious but exacting task. The jury delivered magnificently and one could make out that the 1951 Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 SS they adjudged as the best of show was spot on. This special car was one of a dozen such bodied by Touring of Milan in their all-aluminium body which is known evocatively the world over as Superleggera, or super light. The owner bought this car about three decades ago and it has had just one respray, in its original shade, about 21 years ago and the car is used every day. Truly a timeless classic which got its due in ample measure.