Bensberg, 17th - 19th of July, 2015
This weekend saw the 7th edition of the annual Schloss Bensberg
Classics in Bensberg near Cologne. Back in 2009 the
Volkswagen Classic group invented the event originally held in
September but a busy event calendar during the last weeks of
summer and the inconsistent weather led to a move forward to
July. What worked perfectly for BMW with a prestigious concours
at a grand hotel would certainly do as well for VW although the
new concours at Bensberg lacks the tradition of the show at the
Villa d´Este. Furthermore the VW group has to manage the
balancing act between the popular marques of VW and Skoda,
the sportive touch of Porsche, Lamborghini and Audi but also the
noblesse of Bentley and Bugatti. Therefore the Classics are
separated into two different events on the same weekend, starting
with the rally on Saturday and the prestigious Concours on
Sunday.
After checking in the day before a field of about 100 cars leaves
Bensberg on Saturday morning for a trip of almost 200 km as a
regularity rally with several groups separated by age and
electronic/analogue watches. Beside many private entries the VW
group provided museum cars to journalists, members of the
different boards and national known actors to add some local
color. Whereas the entrants could enjoy the surrounding
landscape the Schloss Bensberg featured several special
exhibitions on their grounds. In front of the hotel, the place where
the concours cars will be set up the next day, a small display
featured the sporting touch of the brands with the Group B rally
cars like the Audi Quattro S1 and the Porsche 959 Paris-Dakar
along their Italian counterparts, the Martini livered Lancia 037 and
Delta S4. Behind the hotel in the gardens 120 years of Skoda
were celebrated with several examples of the less known history
of the currently largest car importer in Germany. Later in the
afternoon the cars of the rally were welcomed back on the ramp in
front of the main building seeing the checkered flag.
Sunday finally was the day of the much awaited concours. After
the great field of the previous years with several very interesting
cars one was very curious whether the good trend of a more and
more international field could be continued and what entered the
field that morning did not disappoint at all. Unfortunately the
weather changed overnight and after a warm and sunny Saturday
the morning started in rain. The cars were intended to be set up
between 7am and the beginning of the judging at 9am but most of
the cars were covered most of the time lacking any other weather
protection. Fortunately the rain weakened with time and soon the
umbrellas of the judges could be closed and most of the rest of
the day it stayed dry.
In 8 different classes 42 cars were displayed sorted by themes
and ages, one car was missing after failing to finish the rally the
day before. The jury was again very prominent led by former
Bentley CEO Franz-Josef Paefgen, Le Mans racing legend Jacky
Ickx, Pebble Beach chairwoman Sandra Button and Andrea
Zagato to name a few. With the 8 class awards and 8 further
special award the judges were busy throughout the morning to
find the right decision according their jury books. Very interesting
was the mixture with two classes from the German economic
miracle of the 1950s on one side, luxurious pre-war cars open and
close plus pure race cars of the 1960s.
Class 1 – Touch of Elegance
This class featured 5 cars from the roaring 1920s and glamorous
1930s from Germany, Great Britain and Italy. Oldest car in the
class was the Rolls-Royce Phantom I with touring coachwork by
Thrupp & Maberly. After the legendary Silver Ghost the Phantom I
found the base of a long tradition of the Phantom name over the
next decades.
When thinking of the 1930s in Germany certainly the
Mercedes-Benz straight-eight comes to mind. First as 500K, then
as 540K the supercharged Mercedes was available in different
Sindelfíngen works bodies including four different Cabriolets, the
famous Special Roadster or the limousines. The car in Bensberg
was a 500K Cabriolet C with two-doors and four-seats. The
slightly cheaper none supercharged straight-eight counterpart
from the Auto Union was the Horch 853 Sport Cabriolet. Just as
the Mercedes these expensive representation cars were intended
for the wealthy industrialists but ended up with the administration
during the dark years of the war. The Horch on display had a
typical history starting as intended with a Berlin industrialist
before being requisitioned by the Wehrmacht ending with an
American General who took it to the US where it stayed for 25
years. Fortunately the German cars in the US were used as long
as they were working before they were stored whereas many of
the cars going behind the iron curtain had a much worse history
being heavily modified to keep them running.
Today the name Opel is more linked to the lower middle class
vehicles but in the 1930s Opel also built upper middle class cars
like the Opel Admiral Sport Cabriolet. The car in Bensberg was
one of the very rare Gläser bodied two-door cabriolets.
Last but certainly not least was the Lancia Astura with coachwork
by Pinin Farina. The two-tone green-black car was already shown
on various concours including winning the BoS at last year
Schloss Dyck Classic Days. Unsurprisingly the car also won its
class this weekend and was further awarded the most beautiful
open pre-war car.
Class 2 – The Style of Speed
What else would fit this class better than a Bentley Speed Six
and Bensberg did not just show an ordinary model (if there is any
ordinary) but the legendary Blue Train Bentley (HM2855). Captain
Woolf Barnato was one of the wealthy Bentley Boys and
long-time sponsor of the marque from Cricklewood before their
take over by Rolls-Royce. Being a two-time Le Mans winner in the
famous Old No.1 sister car Barnato commissioned a very special
Speed Six at Gurney Nutting with striking low roof line and light
fabric coupé bodywork. Being a sportsman and gambler
throughout his life Woolf had a bet that he would be travelling
faster in his Bentley against the famous Blue Train from the south
of France to central London. For many years this was the car that
was thought to be the car racing against the train until Bentley
authority Claire Hays discovered that HM2855 was not ready in
time to be the car in question but until the current day this is
known to be the Blue Train Bentley. Entered by Bentley Motors
on behalf of its American Collector (who also owns the “real” Blue
Train racing Bentley Saloon) this was without doubt the star of the
show. The car was rarely seen without a crowd of people
surrounding it showing the presence of the car even without
knowing the history behind it. The car certainly did win its class in
addition of the special award for the best closed pre-war car.
The best is the enemy of the good and just next to the Bentley
was the Austro-Daimler ADR Bergmeister that might have been
the star on every other concours. Austro-Daimler became famous
with the constructor Ferdinand Porsche and the Bergmeister was
base for many hill climb successes of the “Bergmeister” (hill
climb champion) Hans Stuck. This elegant grey-white Cabriolet
was a works demonstrator with coachwork by Armbruster. After a
10000 hours restoration at Egon Zweimüllers Austrian restoration
shop the car made its first public appearance at Pebble Beach in
2011 were it just had to give way to the later Best of Show
winning Voisin. Displayed at the Porsche Museum recently the
cars belongs to the personal collection of Dr. Wolfgang Porsche,
in Bensberg it was awarded best restoration.
Further cars in this class were the Mercedes-Benz 290 Cabriolet
A, a Lagonda LG6 DHC and the Bugatti Typ 57 Stelvio by
Gangloff.
Class 3 – Small but Sporty
As mentioned before this year’s concours featured two classes
for German cars of the 1950s. With the growing wealth the
Germans became more and more interested in an own car and
the market was booming during these years. Whereas many
opted for a limousine to get the family to the first holiday on the
other side of the Alps few individualists were looking for a more
sportive alternative. Bensberg featured a few very rare examples
like the Goliath Sport GP700S that was only produced in 26
units. With only 0.7 litre capacity this fuel injected engine had
about 32 PS, unfortunately only two of this car survived and the
one in Bensberg won its class. From the same coachbuilder
(Rometsch) was the Beeskow Coupé that is based on the VW
Beetle and designed by Johannes Beeskow, formerly head of the
construction at Erdmann & Rossi. As the stylish coupé was even
more expensive than a much more refined and powerful Porsche
356 the Rometsch was never a success. At the same time on
Eastern Germany the AWZ Sachsenring invented the duroplast
model of the P70, beside the popular limousine and station wagon
a few coupé were built, powered by the small two-stroke engine.
Legendary names among the collectors of the micro cars are the
Kabinenroller by Messerschmidt that saw its final evolution in the
TG500 (Tiger) of the FMR, the Glas TS400 Coupé “Goggomobile”
and the NSU Sport Prinz. By experience one could see that
these classes are very popular at the German shows as not few
have a personal relation to the models on show and have a story
to tell, something that is rather rare with the blue chip Ferrari or
Maserati of that time.
Class 4 – Elegance meets Extravagance
Whereas the Germans were into the cars of the economic miracle
the international jet set was looking for the sportive car with high
performance and special design. One car spans the bow as
Mercedes-Benz hit the international market with the legendary
300 SL Gullwing. Originally the racing 300 SL based on the parts
of the 300 limousine invented the gullwing doors that was taken
over to the serial production on request of American importer Max
Hoffmann. Although horrible expensive back then the 300 SL was
built in remarkable numbers of about 1400 units and today the
Gullwing is one of the most iconic sports cars ever and well in the
million dollar range. The car in Bensberg was originally delivered
with very sportive features including a sports chassis, stronger
engine and the highly sought after rudge wheels. Just the day of
taking delivery of the car the proud owner raced it in
Spa-Francochamps and later at the Nuerburgring. The car
survived in original 51000 km and was awarded with Best in Class
at Bensberg.
When looking at the classic car market and the auctions, Ferrari
seems to be way above the rest of the field. One of the legendary
sports racers as the 1950s is the 250 MM named after the
success of the marque at the legendary Mille Miglia. As the 250
indicates the displacement by cylinder the 250 is part of the
3-litre line. Originally designed as a race car this particular car
(0338MM) was built as a road car as a gift of Baron Hans Heinrich
Thyssen Bornemisza de Kaszon for his mistress and later wife
Nina Dyer who was later also wife of Aga Khan. Originally in ivory
the grey metallic coupé featured a suede interior by Hermès
making this a very special car. The car was later displayed in the
Le Mans museum and had little use since leaving the interior in
remarkable original form.
Italian design was often seen on foreign marques as the Ghia
bodied Chryslers but rarely can one see an American design on
an Italian car, the Lancia Flaminia Loraymo might be a rare
exception. In the 1950s the name Lancia was very popular and
the Aurelia was especially exported to the US as US Spider.
Raymond Loewy was impressed and the popular American
designer (f.e. The Coca Cola bottle) created this example on the
Flaminia-Chassis to be displayed at the Paris Salon in 1960.
Although it caused a lot of interest it remained a one-off that is
today in the Lancia collection and had one of its rare outings in
Bensberg.
As mentioned above there are more examples the other way
round, an American car with Italian design as the Ghia L6.4 that
once belonged Dean Martin or the Bizzarrini 1900 GT Europa that
was an Italian sports car with American drive train as used in the
Opel GT later on.
Class 5 – We are Family
The second class of the German Economic Miracle was
dedicated to the post-war saloon. The six cars featured the
German design of the Mercedes-Benz 220 A Ponton with the
self-supporting body but few know that this concept was
introduced years before with the Borgward 1500, the first all new
German car after the war with ponton body.
Although German production as well both the Ford Taunus 12M
“Weltkugel” and the Opel Kapitän were designed in the US.
Whereas the Opel still looks much more like the American
pre-war cars the Ford appeared much more modern having its
lines from the contemporary Studebaker.
Built for the same purpose the Italian cars look much more
elegant in comparison and the Lancia Aurelia B10 won its class
aside the Alfa Romeo 1900 Super.
Class 6 – Sunset for Two
Class 6 was dedicated to the post-war convertibles with five very
different cars. Oldest of the quintet was the Delahaye GFA 135
MS taking the tradition of the French coach built design to the
post-war years. Already in the program before the war the Type
135 MS was a refined version and bodied by Guilloré. As seen in
class 5 the Alfa Romeo 1900 was a very popular both as
Limousine and more sportive Coupé. Available as more powerful
Super the best available option was the Supersprint. Touring built
this one-off cabriolet aside 5 coupés, the very sportive Alfa was
awarded with the class award.
Whereas the Italian car of this era were very light and sportive the
American interpretation was very different with the huge Cadillac
Series 62 Convertible featuring an engine of 3 times the
displacement. With a wheelbase of almost 3.3 meters the
Cadillac made the Alfa look like a toy in comparison, the rear fins
and the huge chrome bumpers were typical features of this era.
Going into the 1960s the Mercedes-Benz 300 SE Cabriolet and
the Bentley S3 Continental DHC showed the German and British
way of cruising.
Class 7 – Driving out in style
Although the cabriolets and coupé are often in the focus of the
show events this class celebrated the four door luxury sports
saloons. Few cars match the word luxury better than the Bentley
S1 Continental Flying Spur. The Bentley S1 was also available as
more sportive Continental version, most of them built as Fastback
Coupé by H.J.Mulliner but a few with the four-door Flying Spur
that looked much more elegant than the standard body of the S1
known from the Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud. Today the Flying Spur
again is the 4-door version of the modern Continental GT and the
Bentley in Bensberg won its class.
Almost as rare as the Flying Spur is the Facel Vega Excellence.
Featuring American V8-power the French Facel Vega was
available as Coupé and the rare Excellence on a prolonged
chassis without a B-pillar and with small fins inspired by the cars
from overseas.
Just as before the war Alfa Romeo steadily increased the
displacement of their engines in the 1950s and 1960s to match
the demand for more power. After the 1900 and the 2000 finally
the 2600 was introduced in 1961. Available as Berlina
(Limousine), Spider and Sprint (Coupé) in the beginning, in the
later years 2 more exclusive versions were available, the
Zagato-Coupe and the OSI, a refined limousine by Officine
Stampaggi Industriale (OSI) designed by Michelotti. Built only 54
times the OSI was in remarkable original condition and awarded
“best unrestored condition”.
From the same stable came a duo of Italian-American V8
powered limousines to Bensberg. Both the name Iso Rivolta and
De Tomaso are particularly known for their sportive coupés but
rarely does one see their 4-door limousines, the Fidia and the
Deauville.
Class 8 – Racing Sixties
Safe the best for last...The last class was dedicated to the era
the 1960s race cars, when the engine of the Le Mans racers went
from the front to the middle.
The oldest entrant still was running with the engine in front, the
Maserati Tipo 60/61 from 1959. Chassis 2451 started life as Tipo
60 with 2-litre engine as a works racer driven by Stirling Moss
winning its first outing at Rouen. Although already successful with
the smaller engine it was then upgraded to Tipo 61 specification
with 3-litre displacement and sold to the US to Lucky Casners
“Camoradi”-Team. It was raced by Carroll Shelby, Dan Gurney
and Masten Gregory as well as by Nino Vaccarella and Umberto
Magioli at Targa Florio were it had an accident. It was converted
to the current unique streamliner form to match the requirements
of the long straight at Le Mans including the huge windscreen.
Not uncommon during this time the Maserati was leading the race
due to its refined engineering but failed to finish due to reliability
problems. The car went on to race in the US and came back to
Europe in the 1970s were it was displayed in the Rosso Bianco
museum in Germany. Later it was used in several vintage racing
event before ending up with the current owner just before last
Christmas. Following two Best of Show awards in previous
editions this time he had to give way to the Ferrari in the class
but was still awarded best post-war open car in Bensberg.
Until the late 1960s / early 1970s Ferrari was not just driving force
in the F1 but could also look back on a long history of sports car
racing starting with the small 125S with 1.5 litre to the late 5-litre
512S. Not few see the 1960s with the prototypes of Ferrari,
Porsche and Ford challenging for the crown in the World Sports
Car Championship and at Le Mans as the most exciting time of
endurance racing and the Ferrari P-models are without some of
the most iconic examples. The 330 P3 (Chassis 0844) was the
evolution of the former 330 P-Models with a 4-litre Lucas-fuel
injection to challenge the Ford GT40 that came with the 7-litre to
LM this year. Chassis 0844 was entered in 5 races of which he
won 2 (1000km of Monza and Spa Francochamps) but failed to
finish in the others leaving Ferrari second in the WSCC 1966. For
1967 the P3 was replaced by the P4 and chassis 0844 was sold
to the NART team to be entered in the clients version, the 412P.
But after another DNF at La Sarthe in 1961 the days of the 330 in
the WSCC were counted and just like Porsche did with the 917
years later the 330 P3 was converted to CanAm Spyder
specification to race on in the US. But even more than against the
Ford at Le Mans the Ferrari did not have a chance against the big
bangers in the CanAm series and soon was retired. Over the
years the 330P3/4 became more and more sought after and 0844
was finally reconverted to the more desirable original configuration
in the late 1990s, a fate it shares with the just recently converted
330 P4 (0858). 0858 Being controversy discussed for being the
last of the CanAm-cars getting back to the original shape but
obviously time can heal wounds as 0844 was awarded with the
class award in Bensberg and was runner up for the Best of Show
as well.
Next to the Ferrari was his opponent of Le Mans 1966 when Ford
came back to La Sarthe at full force. After a disastrous 1965 race
where none of the GT40 finished no less than 8 MKII were lined
up entered by Shelby-American, Holman & Moody and Alan
Mann Racing. At the end the podium was all Ford giving Ford the
desired triumph against Ferrari in Europe. The car with the
number 7 as shown in Bensberg (chassis XGT-2) was entered by
Alan Mann Racing but failed to finish due to a front suspension
failure. Today it belongs to a well-known German collection and
could be seen on track days like Spa driven in anger.
Porsche started its racing activities mostly in smaller
displacement categories as the company did not have the
financial means to challenge the Ferrari and Ford, on had to rely
on privateers rather than works racers most of the time. With the
fiberglass bodied prototypes things started to change, the 907
and the following 908 were intended as pure racers rather than
street legal sports cars like the 906 before. During the
Ferrari/Ford war with engines up to 7 litre Porsche was limited to
class victories, things changed when for 1968 when finally the
engine capacity was limited. Although still only running 3-litre
engines the 908 was within range of the private entered Ford
GT40 MKI and 1969 should have its place in the history books as
the closest finish at La Sarthe when the Porsche 908 Long tail
just finished about 100 meters behind the winning GT40 of jury
member Jacky Ickx. Although Porsche already entered the 917 in
Long tail variation as well this year it took another year for the
marque from Zuffenhausen to get the overall victory with the 917K.
The 908 LH in Bensberg was the original car Hans Herrmann
drove to second place in 1969.
Just as Porsche before Alfa Romeo entered the WSCC with a
smaller displacement engined car, the Tipo 33 with 2-litre
displacement. Already in 1968 the very agile T33 won its class at
La Sarthe with no less than three cars from the Autodelta team
finishing on the podium and a respectable 4th overall behind the
Ford and Porsche. The car in Bensberg was raced recently by
Paul Grist, the pre-war Alfa Romeo restorer before changing
hands to the present owner.
Looking over the field one could see a very diversified entry list
with cars from very different categories and eras. The ambience in
Bensberg with its limited space is great for an event like this as it
gives atmosphere rather than sheer volume like the American
shows. Certainly the comparison with the Villa d´Este is very
difficult as one compares a relatively new event with a tradition
grown over many years. Bensberg might not be as prestigious in
the concours circuit but this year’s entries clearly show that it is
on a good way. At about 3 pm finally the most important award
were given and after the Blue Train winning the Best of Show by
Public it was the Bentley, the Ferrari 330 P3 and the Lancia
Astura lined up to crown the best amongst them. It was not really
a surprise that the Bentley entered the stage one further time
receiving the winners’ fireworks making this a perfect weekend
with Class award, best pre-war closed and both BoS by public
and jury. For those who might have missed this car last weekend
it might be of interest that the Speed Six will be shown again in
10 days during the Schloss Dyck Classic Days where it will
center stage in the Orangerie.
Report & images … Peter Singhof
www.ClassicCarPhotography.de
Download Entry List (.txt format) with some Chassis Numbers
>>>
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