The reason why there is a return of vintage car events may be manifold, but there is no doubt that the general public is getting excited about the reappearance of some older events and the creation of new ones. Historic vehicle owners and drivers come in two flavors. This one who likes to keep his vehicles in showroom condition, spend hours cleaning and polishing his prized cars, and never take them out on the road. The other extreme is the owner/driver who hardly ever cleans the car of himself; in fact, he may only do the bare minimum to keep it running. These folks seem to be more interested in driving than owning and looking for every opportunity to put their engines on the road, whether it be point to point challenges or even track racing where possible. Another thriving branch of historic motorsport is the discipline of hill climbing, in which racers scale a tight section of mountainous terrain as fast as possible.
The sports section at hand here covers car rallies from place to place or historic competitions on motorsport circuits. These are the events that are attracting the attention of the public and now form an important part of the motor sport calendar in different countries. One of the biggest is the Goodwood Revival Festival in the UK, which attracts cars, owners and visitors from all over the world. There are real races where very expensive cars are put to the test on the track, which has been carefully restored to reflect the bygone era when the cars originally ran. Visitors are invited to dress up in period costume and the entire weekend is a special event.
A similar event on a smaller scale is the new Algarve Historical Festival, being held for the first time this year at the Algarve’s newest motor circuit near Portimao. Like the Goodwood festival, there will be competitive car races in different categories. In fact, there are 16 different races plus plenty of show areas for non-racing cars. Motoring legend Sir Sterling Moss has accepted an invitation to race his own car, a 1956 Osca, in the year he celebrates his 80th birthday. Sir Sterling is well known for not owning a normal car, preferring to travel by public transport or on his own scooter. A charity parade is also planned to celebrate 50 years of the Mini, as well as a parade of Ferrari, Maserati and Osca cars.
The Gambia is the final destination of a historic motoring event in which a group of cars race across Europe from Plymouth in England to Banjul, the capital. This is an unusual event that started several years ago and requires drivers to leave their cars in Banjul after the rally to benefit the local community.
Another rather low-key event is the Volta a Madeira, a car festival taking place on the Portuguese island of Madeira for the 22nd time this year. Some of the vehicles that participated in the most recent version of this event included cars from Ferrari, Mercedes, Triumph, MG, Lancia and BMW. La Volta takes competitors over the island’s beautiful mountain roads during the four-day event.
The island of Mallorca also has its own classic car rally, known as the Isla Mallorca Classic Rally, which challenges drivers on routes all over the island in spring. This is a very popular event and over forty cars have already been entered for the 2010 event, the sixth edition of the event. The oldest car competing so far is a 1954 Jaguar XK 140 that will join the others in various settings around this beautiful island. The most spectacular of the 14 stages for spectators will be the ones that take the cars into the Sierra de Tramuntana, north of Palma. One stage runs between the northern city of Pollensa and Lluc, the location of one of Mallorca’s most famous ancient monasteries.
Another similar event is the Historic Commercial Vehicles Rally which was held on the island of Malta in March this year. Organized by the Malta Historic Vehicle Trust at the Ta Qali location, the event hopes to become the largest motoring event in Malta. Amazingly, in the first edition of the Rally, almost 120 vehicles were on display, including old fire trucks, trucks, vans, and military vehicles.
Finally, France has a great heritage in classic cars and has two similar events in two of its legendary venues. The Magny-Cours track hosts the Masters Historic Festival every other year in July, while other years the Le Mans Classic festival takes place. Both events include competitive races for pre-1974 and pre-1966 racing cars. Another French classic car event is the November Sun Run, which begins in the Champagne region of France on November 4, 2009 and sees the cars drive 1400 kilometers to the south of France, ending on November 7 running on the famous alpine climb of Alp D. ‘Boo.