The Retromobile event is getting bigger and better every year. The 2018 edition blessed us with some of the nicest stands we have seen in a while.
For those of you who were not fortunate enough to attend, we compiled a selection of the most interesting cars, people and stuff to see in our opinion.
For The Mechanists, the event could not start any better after we spotted Johnny Hallyday’s Iso Griffo being transported on a truck after failing to find a buyer at the Sotheby’s auction the night before.
Starting with cars that are actually not cars… There was a very impressive selection of miniatures, ranging from proper antiques to hand crafted dioramas, to large scale (1/8) hand build realisations, the array of selection and craftsmanship behind those realisations was simply mind-blowing!
At The Mechanists, we were really impressed by many stands including JD CLASSICS and their superb Fiat 8V Supersonic and Mike Hailwood’s MV Agusta, FISKENS with their e-Type Lightweight, AXEL SCHUETTE and their massive selection of Ferrari 250’s or JAGUAR and the magnificent D-type recreation.
There would be way too many cars to list, but we still need to mention a few such as the Lancia Delta S4 by GIRARDO, the Le Mans winning Mc Laren F1 at RICHARD MILLE, or the back to back BMW M1 Procar and Ferrari 512BB LM at ADP Automobiles. Not to mention the many Ferrari 275 Daytona, Porsche 911 and F1 or racing cars with amazing pedigrees that were present at the show.
However, my personal favourites were the Porsche 906 in an amazing Irish Green livery featured in the HISTORIC CARS stand, and the rebuilt Afla Romeo GP Tipo 158 “Alfetta” displayed by Jim Stokes Group (JSW) with an unbelievable story on how they managed to save this piece of history.
The auctions were also quite interesting to witness, even though a fair amount did not sell, it was refreshing to see that prices remained below a certain level.
The atmosphere was unbelievable and we met a lot of car enthusiasts with whom we had in depth talks about, well… cars! It is always nice to find like-minded people and find out about their passion and how different it can be from an individual to another. For instance it was surprising and really interesting to discuss with people in their thirties who were really passionate about pre-war cars and equally interesting to share with people over 60 about newer technologies.
In any case, we will be back for the 2019 edition!
