Stuttgart, 7-8 May, 2011
In 1886 Carl Benz applied for the patent for a motor-driven
tricycle, the Benz Motorenwagen. Today this date is
internationally accepted as the birth date of one of the most
important inventions of the 19th century. Even 125 years after that
the region of Baden-Württemberg is closely linked to the
automobile being the home of two of the most famous names in
the business (Porsche and Mercedes-Benz) and a strong pillar of
a third marque. Being a company formerly located in the eastern
occupied zone Audi had to be refound after the war in Ingolstadt
and after the fusion with NSU the headquarter was based in
Neckarsulm that is still a large manufacturing plant after the
company moved back to Ingolstadt. So this was a good reason to
join forces with Porsche and Mercedes to celebrate the
anniversary in style in the Capitol of the federal state of the
inventor.
The weekend of the 7th and 8th of May saw the prelude to the so
called “Automotive Summer” that will see more events during the
summer period with a large meeting on the square in front of the
new castle in Stuttgart. Over the weekend the main shopping
promenade was transformed in an outdoor car showroom where
examples of all major brands could be tried out by the masses,
booths of many car clubs and insurance companies invited to get
the latest informations. Games and food stands made the inner
city to a summer park for the whole family. Part of the exhibition
was the new technology of electric powered or hybrid cars like the
Audi e-tron series, an all new electric Mercedes SLS by AMG or
the Porsche GT3 Hybrid that showed his skills on the last 24
hours on the Nürburgring.
The main program consisted of a concours on Saturday and a
corso on Sunday.
Saturday 125 private entered cars sorted in categories Sport,
Oldtimer, Youngtimers and Daily drivers were rated by a Jury of
local celebrities and high-ranking representatives of the three
companies including the heads of the three new museums,
Thomas Frank (Audi), Achim Stejskal (Porsche) and Michael
Bock (Mercedes). The cars ranged from a very rare Porsche Type
64, a splendid Mercedes-Benz 540 K Cabriolet A to more
common youngtimers and classics. Especially the small cars like
a BMW Isetta or a Fiat Abarth drew sympathy by the public, a
VW Samba or Karmen Ghias gave back some memories to many
of the visitors.
Best of Show became a rare Porsche 356 1600 GS Carrera GT in
immaculate condition.
Whereas the Saturday was more driven by private entered car the
corso on Sunday was very much a exhibition of works cars. The
corso with 125 cars as well started in the morning at the Porsche
Museum to a first stop at the Mercedes-Benz Museum before
entering the inner city to be displayed in front of the castle.
Mercedes had the oldest car in the field with a 1902 GP driven by
DTM-racer Susie Stoddard and the famous Blitzen-Benz in the
hands of Jochen Mass. Although the corso was led by the police
the slow speed was quite a problem for the race-cars and
especially the Blitzen-Benz had some thermal problems on its
way. Further Mercedes-Highlights included two reconstructed
race-trasporters with both a pre-war silver arrow (W125) and a
post-war W196 on their back, the 500 K Special Roadster with
Bruno Spengler at the wheel and the iconic 300 SL Gullwing with
Boris Becker on the hot seat.
Audi had some early examples of the marques Horch, DKW and
Audi itself including a very rare streamlined Horch 930 S and a
white Audi Front 225 Roadster.
Porsche started with their first roadster, the famous “No.1” driven
by Wolfgang Porsche himself, several 356 in different
configurations, 911s and some racers. Hans Hermann drove the
917 in the famous livery of Porsche Salzburg just like he did on
his way to the first of the companies Le Mans victories back in
1970, Jacky Ickx was behind the wheel of his Le Mans winning
936/77 Spyder and Derek Bell drove a 924 Turbo. The Porsche
917 lost contact to the corso on its way to the
Mercedes-Museum and Hans Hermann found himself in the traffic
on one of Stuttgarts most frequented roads. It might have been a
new experience for the 917 and its driver to get into traffic and
start at the hill at a red signal, the sound at least was glorious.
Further celebrities in the corso included former Formula 1 driver
and now DTM-pilot for Mercedes, Ralf Schumacher, heavyweight
box champion Wladimir Klitschko and the former German soccer
players Karl-Heinz Riedle and Oliver Bierhoff to name a few.
As the weather was good as well the weekend was a great
success and the countless visitors enjoyed a warm relaxing day
in the city.
Text & Images: Peter Singhof www.classiccarphotography.de
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