St. Moritz, 2nd - 11th of September, 2022 |
It started the first weekend of September with the Kilomètre Lancé, just as it was in the early editions of the
Automobile Week in 1929 and 1930. Back then a sprint race was held on the public road, today the sprint is
held on the Engadin Airport runway. Unfortunately, this and the following rallyes clashed with the Concours
weekend in Hampton Court so we only made it to the second historic event of the Concours at the Grand
Hotel, the Motorsport Rendezvous. |
Friday was the arrival and scrutineering of the hillclimb cars for the Bernina GT run at the weekend. After a
buffet lunch at the hotel the cars were transferred to the top of Bernina that should be closed for the next two
days. The Bernina GT easily can be seen as the highlight of the week and also the conclusion when around
80 cars are doing 6 timed runs up the Bernina over the next 1.5 days. Divided in a competition and the
regularity class there were street, formula and rally cars as well as historic touring cars and even a few
modern supercars that made it up the hill. |
Unlike the other concours throughout the year this is more like an exhibition to the entrants and visitors than
a serious competition with extensive judging and the entry list is more a cross section on the various ages
raging from the Blitzen-Benz or Simplex left over from the sprint race to the modern interpretation of the
classic marques like Bugatti or De Tomaso. After a rather grey and drizzly start the cars and owners could
enjoy a sunny day on the lawn while more and more cars for the next events, the hillclimb, were rolling into
town. This year saw more events than ever and unfortunately some of them even clashed within the week with
the Stick Shift Rally for Supercars with manual gearboxes or the Targa Poschiavo for pre-war cars so there
was a steady coming and going at the parking including the arrival of the cars from the auction partner RM
Sotheby´s that should be sold on Friday. |
Thursday was the second day of the Rendezvous and a few cars went on to a small tour in the rain while the
majority was still on display for the locals and end of season tourists. In the evening once again, a few cars
were transported to the Paradiso restaurant on top of the hill to overlook the region and the lake. With the
welcome dinner for the entrants sponsored by Mercedes-Benz it was not a surprise that this year there were
two 300 SL Roadsters brought up by the Classic Centre whereas the vintage Simplex and the Mercedes-Benz
710 SS even made up the unpaved road under their own wheels to give a nice setting against the spectacular
landscape. |
Most interesting were certainly the Blitzen-Benz, that was rebodied since the Kilometer race from its
streamlined form to the GP form as raced in period. Joined by the Simplex of 1903 also brought from the
Technik Museum Sinsheim these high displacement engines could be well heard several turns before they
were actually seen. Even louder but very different was the screaming of the new De Tomaso supercar that
was taking the hill just like a Bugatti Divo that was just seen in Hampton court the week before. |
We were happy to join a very colorful event with lots to see and we hope the pictures could show more than
just the words and it would be great if the next Automobile Week would attract a few more visitors and also
more international participants making it even more interesting in future. |
Bernina GT |