Retro Classics Stuttgart - pretty exotic!
03/23/2018
Retro Classics Stuttgart 2018, which opened its doors to the public yesterday, is sometimes accused of being primarily a sales exhibition for locally produced Porsche and Mercedes vehicles. Trade fair organizer Karl U. Herrmann said that he was embarrassed by this in the first 10 years of Retro Classics. But for the last eight years, he has been proud of it, because after all, Porsche and Mercedes-Benz cars are the most valuable vehicles of all and are also popular, as they are always at the top of the H-plate registration rankings.
But the diversity is also present in Stuttgart, exotic, rare and special cars (and motorcycles too, by the way) can also be admired in large numbers at Retro Classics. The Mini Moke (pictured above) is a good example of this, beautifully staged by a museum.
The Woodill Wildfire is the first post-war sports car in the USA to be equipped with a plastic body. It appeared in 1952, two years before the Corvette. Nine examples were built as complete vehicles "in the factory", a further 285 as kit cars. The fact that one of these cars was at a dealer in Stuttgart (price on request) can therefore be interpreted as a minor miracle.
Let's stay with the plastic. In the 1950s, the Wacker company built GRP bodies that could be fitted to Ford chassis. One of these transformed Fords can be seen on a club stand as the Brütsch 1200 from 1954.
The bizarre body of the Colani sports car, which was built half a century ago using a Beetle chassis, is also made of plastic.
The Bayol 356, a formula car with Formula V-bonds and a Porsche 356 engine, shows that even Mercedes Classic partners can go off the beaten track.
An Alfa Romeo TZ2 was also on display at a dealer. Although the brand is not an exotic one, the million-dollar TZ2 with its plastic body is, as only very few examples were built.
The Rover 6 HP from 1905, of which only six examples are said to still exist in the world, is a quintessentially British model, which makes it quite exotic.
Also from the island is the Morris Marina, a car that was built for the masses, but which today, especially as a coupé, is probably rarer than many a Ferrari.
Anyone strolling through the huge 140,000 square meter exhibition simply has to keep their eyes open, because between the admittedly widely represented classics (and neo-classics) of the Porsche and Mercedes brands, they will find many special features and rarities from Abarth to Zil, which can only be found in this quantity and breadth at large exhibitions.
