Bensberg, 8th - 9th of September
This year´s edition of the annual Schloss Bensberg Classics was
held on the second weekend of September. With two more
concours in London this week (Salon Privé and Windsor Castle) it
is easy to compare the European Concours Circle with the
American one after visiting several events on the other side of the
Atlantic in the last weeks as well.
The first and most obvious difference is the size of the events.
Whereas Americans like the big shows with hundreds of cars the
European Concours are smaller and tent to be more cozy as they
are usually set up in historical surroundings of luxury hotels rather
than on big lawns. But this is not just a question of exclusivity but
also a necessity due to the different mentalities as European
collectors are a little bit less into the show and more into the
driving events, so it would be difficult for the concours to find the
needed amount of high quality cars year by year whereas events
like Pebble Beach or Amelia Island seem to have no problems
getting enough new cars every year. A good example for that was
the European Concours in Schwetzingen ten years ago that tried
to copy the American concept and started promising but failed to
get enough fresh cars the following editions. Another lesson this
event had to learn the hard way was the question of sponsorship.
European spectators are less used to have charity events so they
are usually not willing to pay a entrance fee that is covering the
expenses of the organizers so a big main sponsor is needed to
keep the show going, several concours disappeared because of
that like the Louis Vuitton Concours at Paris, others could only
survive with a major automobile brand behind them. Over the last
years many of the manufacturers recognized the importance of
their heritage in today´s market and most of them are running a
classic car department sponsoring events. Since a few years the
Volkswagen Group is more active in that segment representing
their different luxury marques including Lamborghini, Bentley,
Bugatti and now Porsche in events like the Mille Miglia and 4
years ago they decided to have a concours as well. Instead of
investing in an existing concours like BMW did with the Concorso
d´Eleganza at the Villa d´Este they launched a completely new
event in Bensberg near Cologne in Germany. The Grand Hotel at
the Castle on top of Bensberg was chosen as an appropriate
setting for the first time in 2009 and due to their contacts the
concours was successful right from the start.
An international jury led by Dr.Franz-Joseph Paefgen,
former Head of Bentley Motors and including Jacky Ickx and the
designers Andrea Zagato and Fabrizio Giugiaro to name a few
clearly shows the ambition of the event to play in the major
league and within just 4 years VW managed to establish the
Schloss Bensberg Classics as leading Concours in Germany and
more important as part of the Louis Vuitton Classic Concours
Award showing its international reputation. After the French luxury
brand stopped their efforts in the concours in Paris Bagatelle and
Hurlingham Club they launched the Trophy Best of Concours
were the Best of Show winners of the seven Concours in Pebble
Beach, Amelia Island, Cavallino Classic, The Concours of
America in St. John, The Quail, Villa d´Este and Bensberg
compete. To be named in one go with the former is a big
compliment for the relatively new concours.
The Schloss Bensberg Classics consists of two parts, the Rallye
Historique on Saturday with a tour though the surrounding
Bergische Land and the Concours on Sunday. After visiting
London the days before we had the opportunity to round up a
memorable weekend as this year´s date did not coincide with the
Goodwood Revival for the first time.
Early in the morning, when the sun was still hiding behind the
hotel complex the 39 entered cars were set up in the castle yard
sorted in 8 different classes. The theme “very important cars only”
meant that most of them had a story to tell and we like to
introduce some of the most important cars on the field for you.
The first class was dedicated to the pre-war era and featured
a superb Mercedes-Benz 680 S with original Sindelfingen tourer
coachwork. The supercharged straight six engined chassis was
designed by Ferdinand Porsche and was the best money could
buy at this time and this example was exported to the USA where
it stayed for 70 years before it came back to the country of its
origin to be part of an important collection. This car won its class
and was nominee for the Best of Show becoming runner-up at the
end of the day, the 6.8 litre engine sounded great coming up the
ramp in front of the hotel.
Further cars in this class were a Skoda 860, a Bugatti T57 with a
Swiss Graber body, a Swallow SS1 and a Opel Admiral Cabriolet.
Especially the history of the Swallow Standard was very
interesting for the less inaugurated visitors as William Lyons
started to build cars under that name before the war. Certainly a
car named SS was not appropriate after the war and the company
became famous under the name Jaguar. The car on show was a
Light Saloon, a 4-seater 2-door coupé standing vis-a-vis to
another example of the marque, the SS90 prototype.
The Opel Admiral Cabriolet was the last development of Opel
before the war and compared to the small Laubfrosch it was
designed for the upper market.
Class 2 was dedicated to the sportive side of the pre-war
era. Beside the already mentioned SS90 (named after the
maximum speed of 90 mph) and a Singer Le Mans two Alfa
Romeo and a Bentley were entered. The 1925 3 Litre Bentley
from 1925 was the first factory Le Mans entry in the history of
Bentley. In the first two editions of the 24 hours race 3 Litre
Bentleys were just entered by privateers as Walter Owen (WO)
Bentley was not convinced by the concept of the long distance
race, but the success of Captain John F. Duff and Frank Clement
in the 1924 edition formed the link between Cricklewood and the
Sarthe. In 1925 two cars were entered including the car on show
but unfortunately did not finish. In the early years of the long
distance classic the regulations changed several times and in this
year the drivers had to raise the hood and run 20 laps before
entering the pits for a refill and taking down the hood again. The
tactic of running with as few fuel as possible meant the car retired
after 19 laps with empty tank due to a miscalculation of the
consumption with the additional drag of the hood, a rare mistake
of mastermind WO. After the lesson learned in the premiere
Bentley was dominant in the next year with a total of 5 victories.
The era of Bentley in Le Mans was taken over by Alfa Romeo in
the 1930s. Especially the 8C model was successful on all race
tracks on the world, the long chassis in long distance races and
the short chassis in road and GP races. The 8C Monza was
named after the race track in Italy and this example was entered
by the Scuderia Ferrari when Enzo was running the works entry
for the Milanese manufacturer. As part of the tuning the engine
was enlarged from 2.3 litre to 2.6 and driven by Tazio Nuvolari
amongst others. The Monza with running boards, a Scuderia
Ferrari history and the enlarged engine might be the most
desirable configuration of the 8C 2300 line and so it was not a
surprise that this car was awarded with a class win.
The second Alfa was a beautiful 6C 1750 Grand Sport with
Castagna body. The Grand Sport was the most sportive of the 6C
and beside the race bodies of Zagato or Touring several were
bodied for road use, the Castagna might have been one of the
most elegant options and one of our favorites that day.
When looking at the recent concours one can see that the
microcars become more and more popular. Not few collectors
have several of these and many were built in small series. Class 3
showed a few less know examples including a Scootacar MK1, a
Toyota Sports 800 (looking like a small version of the 2000 GT)
and a Lloyd Alexander. The Llyod Alexander was a very
successful model at that time but just 49 examples were bodied
by Frua.
Star of the Class was without doubt the Bizzarrini Macchinetta,
the first car designed by Giotto Bizzarrini during his student days.
The car is based on the Fiat 500 but a tuned engine and an
aerodynamic lightweight body gave the car a top speed of 155
km/h (about 100 mph). Bizzarrini showed up at Enzo Ferrari´s
office and the Commendatore was impressed enough to hire
Giotto right away, later Bizzarrini became famous for his
construction of the Ferrari 250 GTO.
Kings of Comfort was the name of the fourth class featuring
the luxury cars of the post-war era. Since the beginning of
motorization the street have changed a lot over the decades.
Whereas the early cars of the Edwardian era had to share the
road with the horse-drawn vehicles the freeways of the post war
era increased the cruising speed and many cars were designed
for long comfortable distance travels. This was also the dawn of
the coachbuild era, Swiss coachbuilder Worblaufen existed until
1958, the Jaguar Mark IV was a one-off built in 1947.
After Bentley lost its autonomy they build more and more the
sportive variations of the Rolls-Royce models. The Bentley
Continental was produced alongside the RR Silver Cloud and
H.J.Mulliner built 12 DHC on this car, the one on display was
ordered by John D. Rockefeller Jr.
Chapron was well known for its pre-war creations, after the war
Chapron built several variations of the advanced Citroen DS, the
2+2 Coupé named “Le Dandy” is one of the rarest with just 49
examples.
The class was won by the Mercedes-Benz 300 SC Roadster
brought by marque specialist Klaus Kienle. The 300 SC was the
top model of the era and even more expensive than the Gullwing
or SL Roadster and just about 53 were build making the SL
looking look a mass product. The light green metallic Roadster
was not just awarded best in class but also voted to BoS by the
public.
The Gullwing variation of the 300 series was displayed in the
class Esthetes of Acceleration along a splendid Talbot-Lago
T26 Grand Sport. The Gullwing was owned by Porfirio Rubirosa,
the wealthy Playboy enjoying the savoir vivre in Paris and the
Cote d´Azure. Rubirosa owned several sports car in period
including some Ferrari and he was killed in a road accident at the
wheel of a 250 GT Series II Cabriolet. The Talbot-Lago T26 is one
of just 11 Coupés built by Saoutchik, a sister car of the one
displayed at Pebble Beach at this year's Saoutchik Class. Unlike
Peter Mullins example the car on show was in unrestored
condition and won the best preserved trophy.
The class win was handed over to Andrea Zagato to the owner of
the Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint Zagato.
The Class of Italian Elegance included a Alfa Romeo 6C 2500
S Pininfarina Cabriolet, a Ferrari 250 GT Boano, a Maserati 3500
GT Vignale Spyder and a Lamborghini 400 GT 2+2 but a highlight
was the De Tomaso Vallelunga Prototype. De Tomaso is well
known for the Pantera that was built in larger numbers but the
story of De Tomaso started with the small and nimble Vallelunga.
Unlike the Pantera with a large displacement the Vallelunga
featured a 1.5 litre engine by Ford and with about 105 hp and 700
kg weight this was very sportive. The first three prototypes were
built by Fissore, the later production models (also just 50) by
Ghia.
The Small Series Class was won by the Bentley MK VI Cresta
showing Italian design on the British chassis. The Bentley MKVI
might not be the most elegant car built in Crewe so Jean
Daninos, owner of the Steele Manufacturer Facel Metallon
ordered a special designed Pinin Farina body on a modified
chassis, the car was named Cresta, the design is very similar to
the Cisitalia 202 but enlarged to fit the Bentley chassis. The car
was shown on the Paris Motor Show in 1948 and the interest in
the car encouraged Daninos to build a production version but just
11 cars were built in total but he later built the Facel-Vega.
The other cars in the class were one-offs, the Karmann Typ 1
Coupé was entered by VW and the Italdesign Machimoto by
Giugiaro so they were both not judged. The Beradino is also a
one-off but with a completely different story. Johannes Paulussen
is a privateer who built the car of his dreams by himself over a
seven years period, the car was shown on several concours in
Germany over the last years.
The last class featured the racing sports cars and had some
spectacular entries. Earlier we talked about the work of Giotto
Bizzarrini and this class featured 2 of his creations. The
legendary Ferrari 250 GTO is celebrating its 50th anniversary this
year and the one on show is an ex Ecurie Francorchamps car
finished its original silver/yellow Belgium race colour. After
Bizzarrini parted with Enzo Ferrari he was working for Rivolta and
designed the Iso Grifo. Iso is celebrating its 50th anniversary this
year as well and the displayed A3/C is the competition model of
the Grifo Stradale. Later Bizzarrini built a few more of these under
his own name.
The 1964 Cobra Daytona Coupé came from the same stable as
the 250 GTO and was the evolution of the AC Cobra. During the
so-called Cobra-Ferrari war in the Sportcar Championship Carroll
Shelby soon became aware that the Cobra had a disadvantage in
aerodynamic terms against the GTO so over the winter of 1963 a
Coupé version was build to compete with the Ferrari. With just six
examples built this is the rarest model and this car won last
year's RAC-Trophy at the Goodwood Revival meeting and is one
of the favorites at this year Cobra-Race for the (what else) 50th
anniversary celebration.
Another car to compete with the GTO was the Jaguar E-Type and
12 lightweight versions were built. One of these was modified for
Peter Lindner as a Low Drag version with a fixed Coupe roof
instead of the hardtop. Unfortunately Lindner was killed in this car
at Monthlery but the design was copied on many cars racing
today, the original remains were restored/reconstructed by the
owners restoration shop over the last years and is shown on
various concours since.
But the class was won by a tiny Dino 166/206 P. Although Ferrari
is known for his 12 cylinder models they also built 4 and 6
cylinder models. The 6 cylinder engine was named after his son
Dino who died in 1956, the first versions appeared in the 1957
Formula 2 season. Over the next year the V6 and also a V8 was
used for several sports car, unlike the V12 nomination of the
single cylinder displacement the name 166 indicated a 1,6 Litre 6
cylinder.
In 1965 a new Dino 166 P was announced with a design similar to
the larger prototypes and the small 1.6 litre 6 cylinder engine.
This car served as a prototype for the later production of 2.0 litre
cars and unlike the later production models it has a 4-digit
chassis number 0834. In recent years this small racer was
competing in several historic races and was shown by its new
owner in Bensberg. To his surprise the car did not just win its
class over the favored GTO but he also lost a bet as he did not
think that this could win Best of Show. Former race driver Jacky
Ickx but also Andrea Zagato and Fabrizio Giugiaro seemed to
have a strong vote for the small racer so at the end it won over the
huge Mercedes-Benz 680 S. This was also a strong statement
that not just pre-war cars are able to win concours and now the
Dino will compete for the Louis Vuitton Trophy.
The Schloss Bensberg Classics was a great final of a concours
weekend and the small but selected display in the castle yard
was of a high quality. Hopefully the next years date will again be
separate from the Goodwood Revival making it possible to visit
this one again. Although the event has not a long history like the
Villa d´Este or Pebble it became a fixed date in the classic car
calendar within just 4 years, and as long as VW does not lose
interest without doubt several more edition will follow.
Text & images ... Peter Singhof ...
www.ClassicCarPhotography.de
Schloss Bensberg Classic Entries , Displays & Classes
1925 Bentley 3 Litre Le Mans Team Car s/n 1138
1928 Mercedes-Benz 680 S Sindelfingen Tourer s/n 35939
1932 Skoda 860
1933 Alfa Romeo 6C 1750 GS Serie VI Castagna s/n 121215037
1933 Alfa Romeo 8C 2600 Monza s/n 2211120/SF28
1934 Singer Le Mans
1935 S.S.90 Prototype
1935 Swallow S.S.1 Four Light Saloon
1936 Bugatti Type 57 Cabriolet Graber
1938 Opel Admiral Cabriolet
1947 Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 S Pininfarina Cabriolet
1947 Jaguar Mark IV Worblaufen Cabriolet
1948 Bentley MK.VI Cresta
1948 Talbot-Lago T26 Grand Sport Saoutchik
1949 Delahaye 135 M Guillore Cabriolet
1953 Bizzarrini Macchinetta
1954 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Gullwing
1956 Ferrari 250 GT Boano s/n 0567GT
1957 Mercedes-Benz 300 SC Roadster
1958 Bentley S1 DHC H.J.Mulliner s/n B212LFA
1958 Meadows Frisky
1959 Lloyd Alexander Frua Coupe
1960 Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint Zagato
1960 Maserati 3500 GT Vignale Spyder s/n 101.1073
1960 Scootacar MK.1
1962 Citroen DS 19 Le Dandy
1962 Karmann Typ 1 Coupé Studie
1963 De Tomaso Vallelunga Prototyp s/n ML1606
1963/64 Jaguar E-Type Lindner Lightweight Coupé
1964 Cobra Daytona Coupé
1964 Porsche 356 B 2000 GS Carrera 2
1965 Ferrari Dino 166 P / 206 P
1965 Iso Rivolta Grifo A3/C
1965 Toyota Sports 800
1966 Porsche 906 Carrera 6
1967 Lamborghini 400 GT 2+2
1968 Porsche 909 Bergspyder
1969 Aston Martin DB6
1969 Porsche 908 LH
1969 Porsche 917 PA Spyder
1970 Porsche 917 KH
1975 Beradino
1978 Porsche 911 SC Safari Rallye
1985 Audi Quattro S1
1985 Manta 400 Group B
1986 Italdesign Machimoto
2012 Lamborghini Gallardo
Bugatti T35 from the historic rallye
Chrysler SRT Viper
Class 1 – Wegbereiter des Luxus (Precursors of Luxery)
Class 2 – Pioniere der Sportlichkeit (Pioneers of Sportiness)
Class 3 – Legenden im Kleinformat (Legends in Small Size)
Class 4 – Könige des Komforts (Kings of Comfort)
Class 5 – Ästheten der Beschleunigung (Esthetes of
Acceleration)
Class 6 – Italienische Eleganz (Italian Elegance)
Class 7 – Raritäten in Kleinserie (Rarities in Small Series)
Class 8 – Legenden der Langstrecke (Legends of the Circuit)
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