It's been a few years now since the classic car and parts market in Zurich on the VBZ premises attracted the classic car scene towards the end of each year. At some point, the transport company lost interest in the event and it had to move to Winterthur.
It was not an easy restart, as trust first had to be rebuilt. The fact that the work of Pierino Keller and his organization team is beginning to bear fruit could be seen on site on 15/16 November 2014. The OTM Winterthur has grown considerably since the last event, and while the number of cars could almost be counted on one hand in 2013, there was already an interesting selection for visitors to see in 2014, ranging from Alfa Romeo to Rover.
The car show in the new "Hall" 2
A second hall had been added, which on closer inspection turned out to be more of a well-built tent.
But it was always dry and warm, so the 30 or so classic cars were shown to their best advantage. And there were also some rare specimens on display, such as a beautiful Fiat 850 Coupé, an Alfa Romeo Sei saloon and a very sprightly Ford Cortina. It was also interesting to compare a Ford T model from 1914 with a new car from today's Ford range.
The visitors were very keen to buy. Heinz Müller from allcarta was delighted on the second evening: "We were able to sell three cars, which clearly exceeded our expectations.
Parts, parts, parts, ...
Spare parts are of course the salt in the soup of a classic car show and this was of course no different in Winterthur. Patience, good eyes and a talent for negotiation were necessary if you wanted to get hold of the goods you were looking for at a good price. The demand was there, even if one or two dealers would have liked a few more interested parties.
Rare automobiles
One of the highlights of this year's OTM was certainly the exhibition of exhibits from Auto Eberhart's private museum. It is rare to see a BMW 1600 GT, a BWM 503 Cabriolet or a BMW 2002 tii on the road.
The two white Alfa Romeo Touring Spiders on the red Alfa stand of Stalder & Moser also attracted a lot of attention.
And conversations, of course
If you ask visitors why they visit a classic car show, meeting like-minded people and talking to old friends are among the most frequently mentioned reasons. With its spacious halls and manageable number of visitors, the OTM Winterthur offered plenty of opportunity for this.
Unfortunately, the weather was not quite as perfect as a few weeks earlier in St. Gallen, but both Saturday morning and Sunday afternoon attracted many classic car drivers to the reserved parking spaces right in front of the exhibition halls.
