Interclassics Maastricht 2017

Barely back on our feet from the Newyear Celebrations and the biggest oldtimerexpo of the Benelux is already upon us! Over 26.000 visitors made it to InterClassics Maastricht, mainly Dutch but also alot of Belgian and German enthusiasts. The MECC expo building could barely fit the hundreds of classic cars present, not even taking into account the traders in parts, literature and clothes.

A lot of the 2017 reports from oldtimerevents will have something in common: Ferrari! 2017 is the 70th birthday of Ferrari and having a Ferrari party is always a good idea! Enzo Ferrari started building racecars in 1947 and to keep the business afloat he had no other choice but to start building roadcars as well. The cars on display at the main InterClassics Ferrari stand all date back to when “Il Commendatore” was still running the business. The Ferrari Testarossa and Ferrari F40 were the last two cars launched before Enzo passed away in 1988.

The Dutch Ferrari Club brought a mint selection of classic Ferraris. The Ferrari 166 Inter Touring coupé chassis 029S from 1949 was the oldest Ferrari present. One of the most known and succesfull Ferraris is probably the Ferrari 250 GT “Short wheel base”, the one on display was the rare competition version. Calling Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands a Ferrari enthusiasts is an understatement: Bernhard owned several Ferraris, most of them were green, just like the 1964 custom built Ferrari 500 Superfast speziale.

Next to many Classic Supercars, you could also find some present-day Supercars at InterClassics. Especially the limited editions are very popular. The Belgian RSC Automobiles brought a Porsche 911R, that is worth a lot more already than it’s factoryprice, because they are limited to 991 cars. The Dutch Heijstee classics brought one of the 500 McLaren 675LT spiders. The Lamborghini Aventador LP 750-4 SuperVeloce (SV) from the German Klima Lounge is limited to 600 pieces.

The 2nd showstand from InterClassics Maastricht was built around the French luxury brand: Facel Vega. It existed for about 10 years and built 3000 cars, like the Facel Vega HK500. Also a limousine: the Facel Vega Excellence, which did not do very well, only 156 were ever built. Always worth a visit at Interclassics Maastricht is the Speedservice.nl stand, they always bring lots of colorful Porsches. The Belgian Speed 8 classics brought an ISO Grifo A3/C and it’s kid brother the rare Bizzarrini Europa GT.

Some of the winners of the concours also known as the “Autoweek classics IC Maastricht awards”. The Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 with Ghia carrosserie from the Houtkamp collection received the “Best of Show” award. “Best of the 80’s” was awarded to the rare Alpina B6 3.5 from Premium Classics. The jury decided that the Belgian Bavaria BMW club had the best clubstand of InterClassics Maastricht 2017.