Salzburg, May/June 31-06, 2010
This year's International Bugatti Meeting was held in Salzburg
organized by the Austrian Bugatti Club. Every year another
national club is entrusted with the organisation so 43 Bugatti
headed for Austria this year. One year after the centenary
meeting in Italy and with the fresh impressions of the Alfa Meeting
at the same place the expectations were full of pleasant
anticipation.
Unfortunately this year's meeting was a little bit ill-fated. The very
bad weather forecast persuaded several crews to withdraw their
entry and at least the first days did proof them right.
The remaining crews arrived on Monday in Salzburg in pouring
rain and several cars trailered to Salzburg had problems to start
due to wet ignition and carburettors. A huge puddle in front of the
parking lot showed what to expect the following day. The hotel
itself had the advantage of an underground parking lot and the
nearby fairground where the cars could be parked safely for the
following days. Although the hotel missed the charm of an hotel
at the country the rain proofed it the right decision as parking the
cars on an outdoor parking lot would have caused major problems
for the service crew.
The first day of the rally was a tour around the nearby lakes
Mondsee, Wolfgangsee, Fuschlsee and Attersee through a very
beautiful countryside that unfortunately lay in clouds and rain the
whole day. Some of the Grand Prix cars decided to stay in the
hotel due to a missing top so the group was even smaller that
day. Fortunately most of the cars are used to such a tour and
well sorted out so there were no major problems. On other rallies
there are usually more problems in these wet conditions but the
Bugatti do not seem to be prone to electric failures in the wet.
At the lunch break at the Grundlsee the participants had a
welcome possibility to get out of their rain suits and warm up with
coffee. Although the heavy rain became less intense several cars
took the short way back to the hotel so there were not many
photos possible that day.
At the dinner the organisation had to announce the bad news that
the next day had to be cancelled entirely. Initially the Wednesday
was planned for the tour to the Großglockner intended to be the
highlight of the meeting. The sudden change in the weather of the
previous days brought about half a meter of new snow on the top
of the Alpine pass at about 2600 m above sea level making the
tour impossible that day. With a severe weather warning with
flooded roads and debris flows in the Salzburg region the
alternative program was not safe as well and so the participants
had a day off. Most of them went to visit Salzburg but sightseeing
in the birth-town of Mozart is also more fun in the dry.
Thursday morning started with a visit at the Hangar 7 at the
Airport. The Hangar 7 hosts the plane collection of the flying bulls
and some of the race cars of the Red Bull and Toro Rosso F1
stable. This impressive building made of steel and glass became
a new landmark of Salzburg and is also famous for its kitchen.
The visit to the Hangar was very entertaining and also gave one of
the few opportunities to take a group shot of the cars as the
parking lot in front of the hangar was reserved for the Bugatti.
The lunch break was planned at the nearby Gwandhaus but
unfortunately some of the crews missed the road due to an
surprising diversion so their arrival was delayed. Normally this
would not be a problem but this day was planned in cooperation
with the Gaisbergrennen that had its base at the nearby Schloss
Hellbrunn. Part of the Gaisbergrennen is the town grand prix in
Salzburg were the cars are escorted by the police to the old town
before the start. With a very limited time slot the Bugatti had to
be there in time so reportingly the lunch became some sort of
“fast food”. Being a few minutes late on the Kapitelplatz the time
to sort out the timing was very limited and at the designated time
not every crew was with its car. Having a rather strict timetable
the planned demo run of the Bugatti was rescheduled to the end
of the town grand prix at 5.00 pm. As the course was running
around the old town of Salzburg this meant that the Bugatti were
trapped on the inside of the course making it impossible to leave
for the planned tour to Bad Ischl that afternoon. With further
timing problems the demo run was cancelled at the end as well
and the journey ended at the hotel leaving some of the
participants rather disappointed.
On Friday we had to leave for the Gaisbergrennen (a gallery on
this will follow here later that week) so the Bugatti meeting was a
little bit unlucky. As the weather improved on the next 2 days the
intended tour to Kitzbühel on Saturday might have compensated
some of the disappointments of the first days.
Conclusion: it became clear these days that every event, no
matter how good or badly planned is addicted to the weather. In
this special case it thwarted all the plans, with perfect sunshine
the tour over the Großglockner might have been a highlight for
years leaving everyone satisfied.
The next International meeting was planned in Sweden but due to
the retreat of the Swedish Bugatti Club the meeting will be
organised once more by 2fast4you, this time in Spain.
Text & Images Peter Singhof
www.ClassicCarPhotography.de
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