Last weekend marked my first visit to Retro Classics in Stuttgart, a superb show that packed a huge amount into its eight halls. And all displayed in modern buildings with plenty of natural light – a pleasant bonus when compared to other classic-car events of this ilk.
It was easy to get to as well. Fly into Stuttgart, walk out of the terminal building, cross the road and you’re there.
As you would expect, there was a huge turnout of home-grown cars but – terrible as this sounds – I found myself eventually becoming somewhat blind to such models as the Porsche 911 and Mercedes 300SL Coupe.
They weren’t everywhere, exactly. It’s just that they are stalwarts of this kind of show and you end up taking them for granted. As with Retromobile last month, far more interesting to me were the oddities that I hadn’t seen anywhere else.
The first to stop me in my tracks was an incredible-looking Fiat Barchetta (main image, above). So impressive was it, in fact, that it was stealing the limelight from a collection of Lamborghinis on the same stand – hardly cars that are used to being upstaged.
Only one was built in 1943 for the Italian racer Baroness Maria Antonietta Avanzo, who entered the Mille Miglia and Targa Florio. That amazing aluminium body covered a 1500cc supercharged six-cylinder engine, enough to push the little Fiat on to 180kph.
The NSU Wankel Spider Club Deutschland was celebrating the 50th anniversary of the first appearance of a car with a Wankel rotary engine, but its stand also featured two competition Spyders with conventional powerplants.