Certainly, there were several professional race and rally cars (and a rally truck), but calling the show a Race Car Event was a bit far-fetched. Never mind, there were plenty of goodies -both inside and outside the main building- that you normally don’t see at every street corner. The more recent machinery was out in the open, driven to the show by the owners, while the classics were accommodated in the big showroom.
Here’s a 2004 Peugeot 206 RC, 177 hp (@7,000 rpm) from a naturally aspirated 2.0 liter engine.
2016 Ford Focus RS, 350 hp from a turbocharged 2.3 liter engine.
1966 Trabant 601 Universal, that’s the 2-door wagon.
2014 Lotus Elise S, powered by a 1.8 liter Toyota engine equipped with a Magnuson supercharger, maximum power output 220 hp.
2014 Alfa Romeo 4C with a turbocharged 1.75 liter engine, 240 hp.
Side by side, this lightweight, mid-engined and rear-wheel drive duo.
1998 Fiat Barchetta (Little Boat).
2014 Chevrolet Corvette C7.
2003 Toyota MR2.
2017 Alfa Romeo Giulia. Someone didn’t opt for the obligatory D-segment Audi, BMW or Mercedes-Benz.
2014 Maserati Ghibli, powered by the 3.0 liter V6 VM Motori diesel engine. Someone didn’t opt for the obligatory E-segment Audi, BMW or Mercedes-Benz.
PG Motorsport prepared these Neunelfers for the GT3 Cup Challenge. Definitely race cars.
This 1981 Mercedes-Benz 508D, obviously a former fire truck, was the event’s music box. It played Metallica’s One when I took these pictures, and that’s a downright Classic too.
This must be a race car transporter, the tractor is a Mercedes-Benz Actros 1946.
An Iveco Powerstar rally raid truck by Gerard de Rooy. He won the truck class of The Dakar rally raid twice, in 2012 and 2016. He’s the son of living motorcross, rallycross and rally raid legend Jan de Rooy.
Of course professional rally raid trucks are not just factory products.
And naturally it’s all-wheel drive and the whole rolling chassis is extremely heavy-duty. The truck is powered by an FPT Cursor 13 engine (13 liter displacement, inline-6), according to Iveco these engines can be tuned to 1,000 hp for rally driving.
The front drive axle.
The rear drive axle.
Going nuts.
These are Reiger shock absorbers. Reiger is Dutch for a heron, that’s an appropriate name for sure. The company’s products are widely used in the world of professional racing and rallying.
Drifting on a race circuit with a big off-roader.
Let’s have a look what’s inside the main building, starting with this 1972 (year built) BMW E9 3.0 CSL. The real McCoy, with its original engine. Not a clone or tribute.
1973 Opel Ascona A rally car with a 2.4 liter 4-cylinder engine. Its distinctive feature is the automatic transmission.
What a brute, this 1982 Lamborghini Countach 5000 S.
Also from Italy, yet endlessly more practical and affordable, a 1970 Alfa Romeo Giulia 1300 TI.
Save the best for last, a 1957 Alfa Romeo 1900 CSS Touring. This is not a car, it’s pure automotive art.
The Ascona rally build seems to be modeled after the DOT Sweden cars they entered during the 1973 season of the WRC. They actually did choose to use an automatic transmission in their cars, and tellingly, were not competing with the big boys. German firm Irmscher was the leading tuner for these early Ascona rally attempts:
The Countach looks exactly like one I had on a postcard as a teenager.
I read somewhere that Ford had Maserati in mind when they designed the current-gen Fusion; I see a resemblance, albeit a faint one at best.
Dang! That’s a rally big truck!
Thanks Johannes for this wonderful escape from the everyday. Such variety too, Dakar truck, peak-cocaine Lamborghini, simply wonderful Alfa 1900 and a Trabbie that is presumably used to put smiles on faces!
“peak-cocaine Lamborghini”
Great, that’s one to remember.
I would soooo love to drive that Iveco to school one day. The kids would love it!