Retro Classics Bavaria took place for the second time in Nuremberg from December 8 to 10, 2017.
Although the weather with snow and winter delights was more reminiscent of a Christmas market than a classic car fair, this did not stop car and motorcycle enthusiasts from spending an average of 4.7 hours in the four halls to view the displays of 370 exhibitors on around 40,000 square meters (+5,000 compared to the previous year) ... and even buy one or two vehicles.
Déjà vu?
On the first walk through the stands, the passionate trade fair visitor, who may have already been to Friedrichshafen, Berlin, Cologne or Hamburg this year, wonders whether he has already seen one or two things almost exactly as they were set up.
The red VW SP2 or the yellow TVR Griffith, the Sunbeam Venezia or the Amphicar 770, haven't you seen these cars somewhere recently?
However, one often comes to the conclusion that this was in the same place, simply a year ago, and indeed there are some parallels to the first staging of the exhibition in Nuremberg. For example, the Classic Car Team Franconia's drive-in movie theater had already been on display a year ago, albeit in a slightly different setup. It was still nice.
However, this is no different at other trade fairs and is also quite understandable, as not every exhibitor wants to afford a completely new appearance year after year.
Regional character
The organizers of Retro Classics often like to explain that each of their trade fairs has a high percentage of different exhibitors. In fact, many dealers and specialists are represented in Nuremberg who cannot be found at other trade fairs.
But there are also the big players who occupy comparatively large areas and therefore stand out, such as Allianz, Chrome Cars, Motorworld and Classic Traders of this world.
What Nuremberg does not offer, like Cologne or Berlin, is extensive private trade. It is mainly the dealers who offer their cars here.
Highlight Abarth special show
The special show "Mythos Abarth", in which over a dozen Abarth brand vehicles were on display, was undoubtedly a highlight at the Bavaria.
Among the exhibits, which were always densely packed, there were both hot-blooded sports cars and the famous Fiat-Abarth 1000 TC racing cars.
A second special show should also be mentioned, even if it only included three cars.
But the three Ford Capri, from the RS 2600 works racing car of the European Touring Championship to the Capri Turbo of the 1981 DTM, made the fans' mouths water. Unfortunately, they were not allowed to listen to the three cars ...
Diversity thanks to the clubs
While many classic Porsche and Mercedes cars were on display at the dealerships, the clubs once again offered a great variety.
Whether Fiat X 1/9, the Renault Alpine range or rare classics from the BMW V8 dynasty, you could find them on the club stands.
The BMW 502 Baur Coupé and its Autenrieth counterpart were particularly eye-catching.
Special "displays"
But it wasn't just the clubs that brought exclusive rarities to Nuremberg, there were also events such as the Altmühltaler Classic Sprint, which lined up an entire starting field of special racing cars from the Bugatti 35B to the Frazer-Nash and the Ferrari 500 Mondial, or museums such as the August Horch Museum in Zwickau, which was able to show the first car with a Duroplast body in the form of an AWZ P 70.
Also striking were the three Maico-Mobil scooters, the passenger car on two wheels, as they were called back then, which greeted visitors to the Chrome Cars stand.
The Dodge Charger R/T 440 from the movie "Bullit" almost didn't stand out anymore.
As was the case last year in Nuremberg, the Silberhorn Classics stand, which this time was dedicated to early BMW cars related to the Dixi, but also showed old and modern motorcycles, was remarkable.
Omnipresent neoclassics
The Retro Classics program also includes neoclassics, i.e. vehicles that are far from being classic cars but clearly have classic potential. These included the Aztec from 1992 as well as newer Porsche sports cars and Lamborghinis.
For some fans of old cars there may even have been a few too many, after all there were even new cars (from Tesla) to see or the reinterpretation of the BMW Isetta as an electric "Microlino" from Switzerland.
Auction attraction
The ClassicBid auction attracted a large crowd on Saturday afternoon. Auctions are always exciting for spectators, but many spectators are not enough to make the auction a success.
Of the 60 or so cars on offer, only nine were sold on December 9. Many of the bids came from the Internet, which not only resulted in strangely low increases but also unpleasant waiting times. However, the whole thing was served up in such an exciting way that people enjoyed watching ... but didn't buy.
Even the pretty light blue VW-Porsche 914 did not find a buyer, perhaps the consignor's expectations were a little too high, because the car is now back in the ClassicBid offer with a fixed price of EUR 42,000.
The online marketplace Classic Trader, which has already bid farewell to the purely online model with its advertising magazines and is now also seeking its fortune at analog trade fairs, also had a strong presence with a huge stand.
The stand was around 1500 square meters in size, with around 60 cars on display. The Classic Trader organizers proved to have a lucky hand in the selection and arrangement, as they were able to find such rarely seen cars as an early Mazda 323, a pair of BMW 501/502s, a barn find BMW 321 or two rear-engined Renault representatives, to name just a few examples. Well done!
Local dealers with sales successes
The fact that the efforts of local dealers such as Autohaus Forster and Auto Zitzmann paid off was reflected in the number of vehicles sold.
Andreas Forster reported several sales, while Thomas Hähnel from Lohrinser Classic sold four cars to new owners.
A striking number of the cars sold were comparatively young, but there were generally few pre-war cars in Nuremberg and most of them were used by clubs as exhibits, so they were not for sale.
We'll be back
Both the public, who mainly came from Bavaria itself and gave the trade fair a score of 1.7 in the survey, and many of the exhibitors were more than satisfied and want to return in 2018 in December when the third Retro Classics Bayerns opens its doors again.
