The charm of the charmless at Retro Classics Stuttgart
04/24/2022
"If you have the choice between more than seven types of raspberry jam, you end up buying Nutella." During my visit to Retro Classics Stuttgart this year, I often had to think of this great piece of wisdom from Dr. Eckart von Hirschhausen. Anyone who came to Stuttgart with the intention of buying a Mercedes-Benz 300 SL could quickly become overwhelmed by the choice.
Should I go for the white coupé with the Rudge wheels or the black roadster with chrome hubcaps? Or would I prefer the wonderful, eccentric strawberry red metallic? Or perhaps the grey coupé with the cognac-colored interior? Or one of the other seven 300 SLs spread across the five exhibition halls. Prospective Porsche 911 buyers were presented with a similar picture, which almost turned the decision-making process into a stress test if they didn't want to choose the wrong one.
Redemption was found in Hall 10 in the form of a Fiat Tipo and a Renault 9, each with five-digit mileage for around 6000 euros. Anyone interested in bourgeois cars from the eighties had no choice: either these or none. Because there was not a second example of either model at the fair.
Such cucumbers are not collector's items and don't belong at a classic car show, you say? I'm sure everyone has their own preferences. For some, such wallflowers are the salt in the soup, for others the fly in the ointment. But at least they are 30 and 38 years old and therefore, at least in terms of age, entitled to fill the exhibition halls - in contrast to new Lamborghini Urus or young used Mercedes-AMG GTs. Fiat Tipo and Renault 9 are definitely more exclusive today anyway.
P.S. Retro Classics 2022 is still open to visitors until this evening, Sunday, April 24, 2022. A full final report on Retro Classics Stuttgart will follow on Monday.
