July 11, 2002
Story and photos by Marcel Massini

Concours d'Elégances for automobiles and their owners were originally founded in the 1920s in Italy and France. In recent years - joining the ever growing enthusiasm for classic cars - there seem to be Concours held all over the world. Some of these events are renowned, legendary and extremely popular, such as Pebble Beach or Villa d'Este. Both of these spectacular car shows are considered the high-end among collectors.

Since 2001 even Germany has its own Concours d'Elégance. This is now being held annually at Castle Schwetzingen, a wonderful Rococo-style building with a huge park located near Heidelberg. To compliment these magnificent motor cars, the Baroque-styled circular French gardens surrounded by the semi-circular castle buildings provided a perfect historical backdrop. Each year a famous marque is featured and this year the history of Bentley Motor Cars, with 3 classes covering all models built at Cricklewood, Derby and Crewe, was featured.

Named the European Concours d'Elégance, the 2nd edition was held on the weekend of 6 and 7 July 2002. No fewer than 150 oldtimers, classic and vintage cars had been invited. The main man behind this show is Britain's Bob Gathercole, who has worked in the automotive industry for decades. Jorge Ferreya-Basso was the chosen artist for this year's poster campaign. It was actually Schwetzingen castle director Dr. Andreas Falz who opened the doors to the magnificent location.

One class included pre-1918 veteran and Edwardian cars. The next class had the open and closed Vintage cars from 1919 to 1930. Class C was for the open/closed post vintage thoroughbreds 1931-1945. The class for European sports and racing cars 1920-1970 There was also a class for Mercedes-Benz 220s and 300 SLs. One class was exclusively for Aston Martins and Lagondas and there were two classes for Special Coachwork pre-1939 and 1945-1970. Class L was for the totally original and unrestored cars pre-1970. Class F then included 19 Gran Turismo and Sports Cars from 1945 to 1970.

The organisers of the Schwetzingen Concours should perhaps create a class for replicars, for several appeared in the regular classes, including a 250 TR pontoon fender, a Formula One Dino 246, as well as the Aston Martin DB4GT Zagato "Sanction." The 375 MM Coupe scheduled to attend would have fit in this class as well. Replicas certainly don't help the reputation, and certainly should be separated from the true classics.

Although the show was supported by Bentley Motorcars, German car magazine Motor Klassik and Meguiars car care and wax company the author noted a certain lack of sponsorship. The jury consisted of 24 judges and it was a bit unusual to see that several judges had their own cars entered in the concours. Among the judges were Peter Kaus, German owner of the largest sports car museum in the world in Aschaffenburg (Rosso Bianco Museum), Anthony Hussey and Jonathan Connolly (leather manufacturers), Urs Paul Ramseier (Organizer of the renowned Villa d'Este event), Laurent Heriou of Belgium (Association of Automobile Artists), Johannes Hübner of the Automobil Club von Deutschland (AvD), Lord Montagu of Beaulieu and Nick Georgano. Besides the class wins and Best of Show Trophy no fewer than 16 special awards were planned for the show.

The various Ferraris in the Concours ranged from Arthur W. Zafiropoulo's black 342 America Cabriolet Pinin Farina, the ex-King Leopold III of Belgium car, to a 250 GT LWB Tour de France Berlinetta. This was brought to Schwetzingen by Dutch venture capitalist Victor Müller, who owns the Spyker sports car manufacturing company. Müller also showed his alloy-bodied 275 GTB/6 C. German collector Siegfried Propfen proudly presented his silvergrey metallic 250 GT Lusso, the prototype originally owned by Battista "Pinin" Farina. This car is highly unusual and is different in many ways from the later production Lussos. It doesn't have the additional fog lamps, has a different hood blister, no quarter window in the left side window, the instruments on the dash are located on the left instead of the centre, the area behind the seats is more elevated because of a different rear axle, the door handles are completely different, the rear spoiler is much more pronounced and the tail is adorned by a chromed surrounding. The front fenders are also much more pronounced and go deep into the doors.

Dutch collector Edgar Schermerhorn brought a fantastic dark green 500 Superfast which belonged until 2000 to first owner Lord Hanson in the UK. The current owner has all the original documents and papers, lots of old photographs and a perfect documentation for the car he purchased at the Bonhams Gstaad auction in December 2000. Alex Fyshe of England showed his metallic grey 365 GTC with RHD. Completing the picture was a brown metallic 365 GTC/4 owned by a local Ferrari enthusiast. First in class F was Zafiropoulo's meticulously restored 342 America Cabriolet and US restorer Wayne Obry of Motion Products, Inc., had been flown in especially for this event.

The 2nd European Concours at Schwetzingen was quite a success and even the weather was good this year. While the organisers still have a lot to learn and there are plenty of things to improve it would most probably be wise to reduce the number of cars in the future. It is not a matter of quantity but much more of quality.