Baden-Baden 8th - 10th of July 2011
The second weekend in July saw this years Oldtimer-Meeting in
Baden-Baden. In its 35th edition this concours attracted 363
classic cars of 84 different brands to the chic spa town to be
displayed in the gardens in front of the casino. Although the event
is officially a concours with many different classes both pre- and
post-war and a massive 120 trophies (including prizes for the
funniest dog on the passenger seat) it is much more a relaxed
meeting than serious competition. Purists of the concours scene
and regular visitors might criticize the fact that many cars could
be seen at every edition but a good balance of high-profile and
more common classics was found over the years.
Some concours tried to establish high quality events in Germany
comparable with the international events like the Villa d´Este but
many of the 20.000 visitors prefer to see cars they know or even
own with some special highlights in between. Those highlights are
usually cars of the brass era or special coachbuild cars of the
1930s or 1950s that are surrounded and admired by the public.
Some of these highlight were a quartet of Bugatti including a T40
Cabriolet, a T44 with Fiacre body and a duo of T57. Both the
Atalante and the Corsica Cabriolet were awarded with a Grand
Prix Trophy, but Star of the Show was the flamboyant Alfa Romeo
6C 2500 with its splendid body by Bertone. Owner Corrado
Lopresto has entered this cars with success in Pebble Beach,
Amelia Island and this years Concorso d´Eleganza at the lake
Como and certainly won a Grand Prix in Baden-Baden as well.
The radical shape conjured a smile on people´s face and the word
“Batmobile” was heard quite often when looking at the grill of the
car.
On the other side many different cars from the time of the German
economical miracle in the 1950s were crowd pullers showing that
a car does not have to be very expensive to be interesting. Some
of these brands are still around like VW, Porsche and Mercedes,
some others faded existence as Borgward, DKW or NSU but their
proud owners keep the memories alive.
Honored marque this year was Mercedes-Benz celebrationg 125
years of the automobile with a selection of cars in front of the
“Trinkhalle” (drinking hall) including the first model (the Benz
Patent Motorwagen) and the latest SLS. Other examples were
the famous 300 SL as Gullwing and Roadster and its small
brother, the 190 SL that became famous by Rosemarie Nitribitt.
During the day some of the entrants had some stylish picnic with
Champagne as one would expect from this location and in the
evening the park was illuminated by lampions to give a special
ambience. The event ended on Sunday with a cocnorso of the
winning cars through Baden-Baden and the winners ceremony.
Then the cars disappeared in all directions to come back next
year when the 36th edition take place in the park.
Text&images: Peter Singhof
www.ClassicCarPhotography.de
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