32 years of camaraderie with veteran owners across national borders
10/07/2014
In 1980, some owners of old cars and motorcycles founded the Vorarlberg Motor Veterans Club. Some of them were already members of the SMVC Eastern Switzerland section. Under the leadership of President Osi Tschugmell and his wife Berthi, the young club dared to organize an international meeting just two years later. As a result, a number of Swiss people traveled to Bludenz with their gems.
After the first warm handshake at registration and a brief vehicle inspection, we were sent to the garage of the mayor's office. There I was also greeted by a nice gentleman with the words: "Welcome to Bludenz, I'm glad you're here; I'm the mayor of Bludenz, my name is Hermann Stecher."
After the Peugeot 177 R was parked, he came back to me and asked where we were staying. He immediately helped to load the luggage into one of the "shuttle buses". Hermann Stecher had taken over the honorary patronage for this event and was always there during the meeting, riding along with various participants. The business community sponsored the event very generously and the locals were delighted.
Unfortunately, this real "father" of the town fell seriously ill shortly afterwards and died.
In 1985, the Greens wanted to prevent the second Bludenzertreffen from taking place. They threatened to damage every veteran vehicle. Osi Tschugmell phoned all those registered to warn them. At the same time, the new mayor Dr. Kraft summoned all known Greens to the mayor's office. He made it very clear that he had also taken on the honorary patronage. He had already organized a vigilante group and if just one vehicle was damaged, there would be so many injured people that hospital beds would have to be sought in the surrounding communities. He is not dependent on being mayor!
When we lined up the vehicles for the first stage, it was easy to see from the faces who was happy to see us and who was ill-disposed towards us.
In a good conversation with Dr. Kraft and Osi, I made the suggestion: "We're coming back to Bludenz for lunch today, so we could invite the Greens to ride with us for half a day and explain to them what our concerns are."
No sooner said than done. A mountain guide joined me and my then six-year-old daughter. He spent a good half hour explaining to me how we were harming the environment. Eventually, I had my say and I asked him whether any of the mountaineers he had been with had ever left a paper handkerchief or a small tin can on a mountain, which would be a really big piece of pollution.
After the snack, we were on a first-name basis and I was amused to see our guest enjoying the ride. When we said goodbye before lunch, he asked if he could join us again in the afternoon. We laughed and had a lovely afternoon's ride too.
In 1988, I was in Bludenz with my former vocational school teacher as a passenger. Emil was also amazed at how warm the whole atmosphere was and how interested the locals were in the old cars.
In 1991, I was no longer able to drive my 1929 Peugeot to Bludenz after an accident through no fault of my own. Fortunately, a 1951 Peugeot was available. After I had avoided an accident by braking hard when an everyday driver reversed onto the road, a differential shaft broke after the last special test. Help arrived immediately, the car was taken to a garage and I was able to remove the shaft. One of my employees brought a replacement shaft to Buchs. A car was made available to me free of charge and I was able to collect the shaft in Buchs. The mayor's comment the next morning: "Wow, I wouldn't have believed that I would see this car on the rally route again!"
There were always happy reunions with people from Bludenz at the following meetings, which were now called "Trophy".
Feldkirch was the starting point in 2011 and 2014. The town of Bludenz no longer had enough money to invite us to dinner on the first evening, as was the case at previous meetings. But even in Feldkirch and along the way, many spectators enjoyed the rolling museum.
At the 2014 event, a Stanley steam car was once again the absolute star. Such a steam car had already taken part in the excursion in the 1980s. The fuel consumption figures were known at the time: For 180 km, the co-driver had to buy 35 liters of petrol in pharmacies and fetch 250 liters of water, if possible in cheese dairies, because their water was not completely cold and the steam pressure did not drop as much as when refilling with cold water.
In 2014, there were still two of us from the old guard who had already attended the first meetings in Voralberg. And of course we hope it won't be the last time.
