Poster-Mania

Bruno von Rotz
03/31/2026

Die F1-Autos des Jahres 1976 (© Rallye Racing)

When you move house, things from the past often fall into your hands. When unpacking a box, I discovered old posters that once adorned my bedroom as a teenager. They all came from the magazine "Rallye Racing", which I regularly bought from the newsstand at the age of 16.

Formel-1-Helme des Jahres 1976 (© Rallye Racing)

And in the middle of the magazine, there was a fold-out poster that you could hang on the wall, which I did with passion.

McLaren M26 von 1977 (© Rallye Racing)

And as you can see, many of these posters were not photographed, but drawn by hand. These ranged from the Formula 1 cars of one year (at the top, 1976 World Championship) to F1 helmets (also 1976, with signatures), to individual cars such as the McLaren M26 of 1977.

Porsche 935 von 1976 (© Rallye Racing)

But my favorite poster of that time was probably the sectional drawing of the Porsche 935, which dominated the one-make world championship in 1976. Fond memories ...

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Paul Krüger
03/30/2026

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Memories of the Copersucar Fittipaldi

Bruno von Rotz
03/29/2026

Fittipaldi F6/A von 1979 (© Simon Gosselin - Courtesy RM Sotheby's)

RM Sotheby's will be auctioning a Fittipaldi F6/A in Monaco. This yellow F1 monoposto triggers some memories for me, as the predecessor of this car, the F5A, drove in the Grand Prix in Hockenheim in 1978. In fact, this was the first Grand Prix that I watched on site. I had won the tickets in a competition for a car magazine that I had subscribed to before I turned 18.

It was hot that July 30th. But things went well for Emerson Fittipaldi in the F5a. Starting from 10th place, he drove up to fourth place, just behind Mario Andretti in the Lotus, Jody Scheckter in the Wolf and Jacques Laffite in the Ligier.

I remember that warm beer was the only drink you could buy in the grandstand. Not a good idea, because I couldn't keep the beer in my system for long and had to give it up on the way back to the station. At least I felt better afterwards and the return journey on the train with Daniel Reinhard was comparatively uneventful.

Fittipaldi F6/A von 1979 (© Simon Gosselin - Courtesy RM Sotheby's)

Back to the yellow F1 racing car with the eye-catching livery. The F6/A was the successor to the F5A and Emerson Fittipaldi, my F1 racing idol at the time, took part in several Grand Prix races with it in 1979.

Fittipaldi F6/A von 1979 (© Simon Gosselin - Courtesy RM Sotheby's)

The F6/A was not as successful as its predecessor, so perhaps you can buy it at RM Sotheby's for a comparatively modest EUR 500,000 to 700,000 in Monaco .

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A special rarity: the blind plug model!

Martin Sigrist
03/28/2026

Yes, Switzerland - the country where milk and other things flow, such as cash flows. To give the clichés an extra boost, I have delved a little deeper into the model ranges that were once offered in this country. One thing is more than striking throughout the entire post-war history and has been confirmed to me time and again over the past decades, and not just as a motoring journalist: The Swiss despise the basic model! So if you want to boast about a really, really rare piece in this country, the best way to do it is with the basic model. These are hard to find in this country. I even suspect that some of them were only listed on the price list to serve as a decoy. Whether they were actually sold is questionable. The Citroën BX without any additional designation, for example, equipped with the 1.4-liter engine and 62 hp, was in the Swiss catalog in 1983, but never seems to have been homologated. In 1984, the BX range in Switzerland began with the 14E and 72 hp.

Another example was the Opel Kadett, the 1.1-liter bumper engine was not (or no longer) available at the beginning of 1984. Admittedly, the country's stricter exhaust and noise regulations had caused a number of engine variants to fall by the wayside the year before. But it is no coincidence that it was usually at the lower end of the model range that importers made the least effort to take suitable measures to type-approve the car after all.

Swiss version of the '48 Beetle with some chrome trim - even on the still external horn

Out of tradition

As already mentioned, Switzerland has a long tradition of being "particularly sophisticated". There were the first VW Beetles for Switzerland, for example. Unlike on the home market, the bumpers, lamp trim rings and hubcaps were already gleaming in chrome here in the spring of 1948, even before the export model had been presented in Wolfsburg. Or for the market launch of the Citroën 2CV, after initial trials with the mouse-grey models from Paris, which were decried as "ugly" even by the Swiss dealers, only Belgian models were imported, which offered such luxurious features as windshield washers, hubcaps, a sheet metal trunk lid or different body colors.

The Citroën 2CV for Switzerland came from Belgium, recognizable by extras such as the wider aluminium bumpers, the hubcaps or the attached rear lights on the fenders (brochure cover page 1955)

The first Opel Ascona - pictured on the cover - was also built for and especially in Switzerland. General Motors Suisse SA in Biel had specially designed a Rekord "Ascona" with even more equipment for the demanding Swiss clientele and assembled it in the watchmaking town of Biel in the country's largest assembly plant, not without a certain degree of success. However, an exception to the rule postulated here also came from here: at the beginning of the 1950s, the Chevrolet was also available with the 2.5-litre six-cylinder engine from the Opel Kapitän instead of the Stovebolt-Six especially for the domestic market, as a kind of downsizing.

The Lotus Europa Hemi 807 with over 100 hp instead of 86 hp was also only intended for the Swiss market

Even the smallest manufacturers such as Lotus went to the trouble of homologating a particularly attractive Swiss model. The Lotus Europa "Hemi 807" even has its own type certificate. The mid-engined car from Hethel was equipped with a tuned Renault 16 engine with over 100 hp for the Swiss importer, Garage Perrin in Geneva. Even a version with Kugelfischer petrol injection and around 130 hp was homologated, but was probably only built once among the 30 or so "Hemis". The popular "Seven", on the other hand, is nowhere to be found in the Swiss price lists. The first example was introduced by a Lucerne hairdresser in 1972 on a one-off basis.

And at the other end of the scale, the price list in Switzerland remained mostly empty. A standard Beetle was hard to find, the Ford Capri with a 1.3-liter engine? Not a chance! And it has remained that way to this day. During my time as a motoring journalist for new cars, there were also some embarrassing moments, such as when, at a press presentation of the Alfa Romeo Stelvio, they wanted to take the Q4 variants away from the Eastern European journalists and put them in the rear-wheel-drive diesels so that the Swiss "journos" wouldn't have to drive a model version that wasn't even intended for this market. For us Swiss, however, this was a very interesting or at least rare experience...

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Are the youngsters really coming?

Bruno von Rotz
03/27/2026

Honda NSX auf dem Oldtimer Markt Preiseheft Youngtimer 2026

Oldtimer Markt has just published the new price booklet for cars from 1980 to 2005, which is reasonably priced at EUR 8.90 and is over 220 pages long.

In addition to a few introductory chapters, including a generic buying guide, there are above all market valuations of thousands of vehicles and 1000 photos. Anyone working their way through the catalog will get a good feel for the current classic car market.

The car on the cover, a Honda NSX, has become 42% more expensive in recent years and is now worth more than new (without taking inflation into account). And the mid-engined coupé is no exception. If you leaf through the magazine, the black, i.e. positive, percentages clearly exceed those in red. On average, it is perhaps 10-20% by which the listings have grown since 2021. So the young really are coming, i.e. they are enjoying increasing appreciation.
In some cases, such as the Ferrari F40 or the Bugatti EB 110 SS, this can mean a seven-figure increase in value, but for the majority of listings we are talking about a few thousand or even a few hundred euros.

The cars with significant increases in value are often sporty models, but they can also come in limousine guise. For example, the value of the Mercedes-Benz 500E rose by 41% and that of the BMW M3 (E46) by 40%.

On the other hand, it was not only marginal models that lost value, but also previously almost "hyped" cars such as the BMW Z8 (-9%) or the Porsche 993 C2 (-4%).

Of course, the catalog is full of surprises, for example, the value of a Lancia Thesis 3.2 V6 (2003-2007) rose by 72%, for a Mercedes-Benz 250 GD (1987-1989) you have to pay 93% more today than in 2021.

If you then look up your favorite cars that you would perhaps like to buy one day, you often stumble across listings for which you have not yet been able to find an example, or prices that go far beyond your own budget. But dreaming is allowed and free, in this case almost free. You can order the price booklet directly from Oldtimer Markt on their website.

Oldtimer Markt Preiseheft Youngtimer 2026

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Forgotten movie cars: The Pontiac Firebird from "An Eye for an Eye"

Paul Krüger
03/26/2026

Szene aus dem Film "Der Gigant" von 1981 mit Chuck Norris, Originaltitel "An eye for an eye"

Chuck Norris actually died ten years ago, but death hasn't had the courage to tell him yet, was, when I was at school, one of the many well-known "facts" about the man who has counted to infinity twice. However, the Grim Reaper has obviously found his grit again, as the former karate world champion and later actor passed away on March 19 at the age of 86.

Before the multiple middleweight champion made his screen debut, he ran his own martial arts studio in Los Angeles. His most prominent apprentice was a certain Steve McQueen, with whom he developed a close friendship. But while the pupil is almost cultishly revered in the old car scene today, the teacher doesn't even play a supporting role. Yet there is at least one car in Chuck Norris' filmography that is on a par with the Ford Mustang from Bullitt.

Well, the '73 Pontiac Firebird that Detective Sean Cane drives in An eye for an eye is Florentine Red instead of Highland Green. But apart from make and model, that was the biggest difference. Otherwise, the key features are identical: V8 coupé, alloy wheels, car chase through San Francisco. I mean, let's be honest: That's all the Mustang really is. Its value in the millions lies solely with the driver. And he couldn't tie his shoes with his feet or hit a Cyclops between the eyes.

Norris even has a greater cinematic connection to the Firebird than McQueen does to the Mustang, because in Code of silence, the taciturn title character also drives the Camaro twin. In The octagon, however, the roles are reversed: the villains sit in the red US coupé and try – unsuccessfully, of course – to stop the fleeing Scott James. Still, none of the three Firebirds will ever sell for millions. A Chuck Norris owner provenance rather goes to infinity – twice.

Szene aus dem Film "Der Gigant" von 1981 mit Chuck Norris, Originaltitel "An eye for an eye"

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Some passion for the everyday car

Martin Sigrist
03/25/2026

What's your situation? Do you take it easy on your classic car and let an everyday car do the main work? In other words, when it rains, hails or snows, the reliable everyday car has to do the job, and when the weather is glorious, the classic car is allowed out in the sun? Or are the feelings for the new and the old car about the same? Or - even more interesting - is the everyday car cherished and cared for to such an extent that it may one day switch to the status of a collector's car?

It is clear that the everyday car should generally receive at least the same careful care as a classic car. This applies at least if a high level of reliability is required. Or to put it another way: if you want to arrive, you should also look after your everyday car.
However, I used to have a different philosophy. A great classic, for which I spared no effort and no work, stood in contrast to a crate that had been brought over the controls with the last of my strength and whose last life I still used for my transportation purposes. The motto was: "Drive until the next inspection".

Of course, these cars would all be classics today, first and foremost certainly the 1984 Citroën 2CV, bought in 1993 for 450 francs by a young mother who saw the thin-walled vehicle as a safety risk for herself and her baby. Six years and around 120,000 kilometers later, the chassis sagged and after many salty winters, the rust had done its job on my Döschwo.

The Citroën BX Break with a 1.6-liter engine that followed was one of those Swiss versions with the dreadful, electronically controlled carburetor, which not only stole almost 20 horses from the once 92 hp engine, but also all joy from the driver. It was stopped by the wheels grinding on the rear wheel arches because the swing arm bearings were hopelessly worn out and replacing them would have cost twice the current value of the car. The subsequent Xantia turbodiesel, whose clutch was hanging by a thread at some point and which had to go over the Jordan because of the absurd price demands of the brand with the double angle for the corresponding spare parts and a hole in a strut dome, was the last representative of this type of car in my fleet.

I replaced it with a brand new Fiat 500 from 2007, a car from the very first weeks of production of the model. At the time, I was more than unsure whether this would be a short-lived lifestyle car or something with substance. Buying it meant a new chapter in my life - I was buying a new car, which had never happened before.

I shortened the maintenance intervals of 30,000 kilometers specified at the time and had a service every 20,000 kilometers. In addition, I only allowed the car to run at moderate engine speeds for the first 5,000 kilometers and always tried to warm up the engine properly before the 1.2-liter was pushed hard in view of its modest output of 69 hp.

And because I had a trailer coupling fitted - which meant I could use up the money left over from the Xantia - I had this and all the suspension parts carefully sprayed with body wax. After one winter, the very thinly spray-painted towbars in particular are a thorn in my side. The same applies to the front wishbones and the rear twist beam axle. Thanks to a few extra francs spent on a few cans of spray wax, the Polish Italian still looks quite respectable from underneath.

The first stop after the handover from the Fiat garage owner was at a stationery shop, where I bought a logbook. Every liter of petrol I've filled up since then is neatly recorded. And the car currently has 291,500 kilometers on the clock, but now I've reached the last page of the booklet, the reason for these lines. When the booklet is full, I will add up everything, the number of liters and the price paid for it. However, the oil consumption is still barely measurable - and there has only been one breakdown. But even that didn't stop me from driving home. Only the gearbox is slowly getting a little noisier, but the synchronization is still perfect. The Fiat will be 20 years old next year. Perhaps I should consider whether it should be allowed to switch from everyday car to classic status at some point. It certainly deserves it!

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The picture and its story - or: The picture behind the story

Daniel Reinhard
03/24/2026

News Kessel wird GMA-Servicezentrum und Loris Kessel im Brabham

In the announcement "Kessel becomes official service center for Gordon Murray Automotive" , a picture from the Kessel family's "archive" appears, probably by chance, showing Loris Kessel, Ronnie's father, in the Brabham BT44, which was designed by the star designer of the time, Gordon Murray, at the Austrian GP in Zeltweg.

I took this picture on August 15, 1976 as a 16-year-old from the spectator area of what was then the Texaco chicane. The Ticino native started his third and final F1 race as a team-mate alongside the only woman ever to score a world championship point (albeit only half a point in the end), the Italian Lella Lombardi in the English RAM team, from the last row of the grid. Lella Lombardi finished twelfth, 4 laps down, while Kessel had to retire on the 44th of 54 laps.

Loris Kessel im Brabham 1976 beim GP von Zeltweg (© Daniel Reinhard)

Sometime later, I gave Loris an enlargement of the photo and had him sign a second one for me. I was delighted to discover that the photo has not only survived in the Kessel family archive, but is also still in my possession, complete with my personal signature. Unfortunately, the likeable Loris Kessel died of leukemia on May 15, 2010, at the age of only 60.

In the meantime, a long 50 years have passed since the exposure, in other words half a century. Photographs will outlive us all, that is clear, and they are and will forever remain cultural assets of inestimable value. They capture moments of contemporary history forever and ever. Times change, but pictures remain and document events in both good and bad times. Many moments that we have almost completely forgotten, even without signs of dementia, are passed on to future generations.

But I still remember exactly how we stood at the "Oe-Ring" at 5:00 a.m., only to be standing at the front of the fence a full 9 hours later for the start of the Grand Prix. It was wet and it was cold, but we bravely persevered with umbrellas and blankets and as you can see today, it was somehow worth it.

Of course the picture won't win an Oscar, but it clearly shows an ultra-short clip from 1976.

The moment was captured with a still analog Asahi Pentax Spotmatic 135mm camera, equipped with a 135mm telephoto lens and exposed on Ilford HP5 black and white film.

At the end of the day, John Watson (Penske-Ford) surprisingly won his first of five F1 races as a complete outsider ahead of Jacques Laffite (Ligier-Matra) and Gunnar Nilsson (Lotus-Ford).

So things keep coming full circle, not only between Kessel and Murray, but in a way now also between Ronnie (Kessel), Gordon (Murray) and me ...

In my two books "Inside Formula 1" and "Inside Formula 1 Lap 2" you can read countless of these stories and see their pictures. A few of them, whose stories didn't make it into the books, will now find a place here in future.

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People prefer fewer modern cars at classic car shows (question of the month)

Bruno von Rotz
03/23/2026

Frage des Monats 277: Werden auf Oldtimermessen zuviele moderne Autos gezeigt?

New car shows have become much less important in recent years, with manufacturers preferring to show their new models on the Internet rather than at expensive international exhibitions. This is an opportunity for classic car shows, as the major car brands like to present new and old cars together. And it also offers dealers the chance to reach new customers.

But does this convince visitors to classic car shows? A "question of the month" was designed to find out. It was: Are too many new cars shown at classic car fairs?

Only 9.3% of visitors found the mix of old and modern cars at classic car fairs to be okay.

However, 58.8 % generally thought that modern cars had no place at classic car fairs, while 30.4 % were more conciliatory and thought that the presence of modern cars had not yet been too disruptive.

1.4% were unable to answer any of the questions given.

Graphically evaluated, the result looks like this:

Auflösung der Frage des Monats 277: Werden auf Oldtimermessen zuviele moderne Autos gezeigt?

The next "question of the month" has already been posed. It is: Which classic cars can easily keep up with today's everyday traffic?

And of course, all the results of the now almost 280 questions of the week and month can still be viewed on the dedicated channel.

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Arna level red!

Paul Krüger
03/22/2026

Alfa Romeo Arna (1984) – Ein Nissan Cherry mit Alfasud-Motor – Farbe "Rosso Veneziano" oder "Venezianisch-Rot"

Verbal backbiting has always been one of the favorite pastimes of supposed automotive culture gourmets. It was clear that this thing would be a flop. What were they thinking? How could they not realize that? But Lancia Trevi, Morris Marina, Opel Ascona C and the like were once completely serious cars - and not as bad as we would like them to be for the sake of ridicule today.

But there were also cases where even the manufacturer knew from the outset that they had created a cucumber. Like Alfa Romeo with the Nissan stepchild called Arna. Because there is no other way to explain the almost convulsive overemphasis on completely absent characteristics in the brochure : "Fun to drive" - "Different from the others" - "No confusion" - "Typically Alfa Romeo".

The passionate Alfista who is asked to name a Milanese model to which these four short descriptions apply will probably name everything from the first Giulietta to the 8C Competizione - but hardly the most boring, most ordinary, most arbitrary and most atypical Alfa Romeo ever built. And the Arna certainly had a good side somewhere. But apparently even Alfa Romeo didn't know what that was...

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