Among the themes of InterClassics 2021, the most impressive stage is dedicated to the long-overdue tribute to Belgian racing legend Jacky Ickx celebrating his 75th birthday, that was a featured topic in Belgium, well before the pandemic.
Belgium’s most successful race driver has built an impressive record of achievements as the six-time winner of the 24-hour Le Mans race, eight-time winner of the Formula 1 Grand Prix, five-time winner of the 1000-kilometre Spa Francorchamps endurance race, winner of the 1983 edition of the Paris-Dakar rally just to name the essential wins…
Winning in F1, Can-Am, Endurance and Dakar, he is considered one of the most versatile drivers of all time, reaching the peak of several disciplines. During his long career, he raced post-war driving legends like Bruce McLaren and Jack Brabham and Group C titans like Stefan Bellof. He even ran against Michel Vaillant in the iconic Belgian comic series…
To commemorate his 75th birthday, the organisers put together over a dozen cars. This was done with the help of Porsche Belgium, the IMR Club (Jacky Ickx Club), the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart and several private collectors.
The cars encompass some early specimen like the yellow BMW he drove in the trailer of the event and Lotus Cortina that Ickx raced in 1965, taking the Belgian national saloon car championship in that year.
The following year is recalled by a 1966 Ford Mustang with an iconic US racing livery. Ickx managed to draw quite some attention with his abilities in maxing out the abilities of the heavy American muscles.
1968 was a hectic season for Jacky, as he became the leading driver for Ferrari and successfully competed in endurance racing.
In Formula 1, he twice finished as championship runner-up in 1969 and 1970, and most of his wins he earned, driving a Ferrari. The exhibition recalled this period with a red 1971 Ferrari 312 B2.
The year at Brabham was honoured by a 1968 Brabham BT26, which actually stems from the season before his arrival.
Ickx joined the team in 1969 and scored several victories finishing as runner-up with nearly half the points of another Jackie (Stewart, that is). Nevertheless, Ferrari finished sixth in the constructor’s ranking, so the points validated the move, even with the benefit of hindsight.
After Brabham, he returned to Ferrari for three more seasons winning races each year and later driving for other teams like Lotus and Williams.
Nevertheless, it was endurance racing where Mr Ickx earned the fiercest reputation, including his nickname, Mr Le Mans. Besides an incredible career, one of my favourite moments was his walk to the car after casually smoking a cigarette during the traditional run-start, all as a protest against the procedure.
24 hours later, he was the first to drive through the finish line.
Jacky Ickx started racing behind a wheel of a BMW, winning the Spa 24 Hours endurance race in 1966, but he soon switched to Ford technology. In 1967, he won the 1000km of Spa with Dick Thompson in the Gulf-liveried JW Automotive Mirage M1.
In 1968, Ickx changed to Ford GT40 Mk1 taking first place at several endurance races. In 1969 Ickx won the 24 Hours of Le Mans for the first time against the far more advanced Porsches, especially the 917 that debuted that year.
This race also saw the first appearance of the Porsche 917 at Le Mans, which was regarded by far as the favourite.
In the end, he moved to Porsche to reach new heights after two attempts at Le Mans with Ferraris.
The 935 “Baby” recalled the golden era of Ickx’s career. From 1976 on, he was a factory driver for Porsche, and their new turbocharged 935 and 936 race cars brought him three wins at Le Mans.
The 956 is considered the peak of the Group C Porsches with the most dominant period of the Swabian brand. Ickx won at Le Mans in 1982 and finished second in the next year.
The last Porsche of the stage recalled his Dakar achievements as he continued to race in the desert even after retiring from endurance racing.
The 1989 Citroen CX marked his first year at Dakar, returning to the French brand during the early ’90s.
At the peak of his career, he won the Paris-Dakar Rally in 1983, with French actor Claude Brasseur as co-driver, driving a Mercedes 280 GE. The fancy off-road Porsche got brought him another podium, as he finished second in 1989.
One last car to mention is the recent road-legal Porsche 911, as Belgian Legend special edition, that was inaugurated at the Zoute Concours 2019.
65 years of Elva also marked the birth of McLaren
In addition to the spotlight on the 75th birthday of Jacky Ickx, InterClassics Brussels also revisited the history of the British race car brand Elva.
Even though it may not be that well-known among the general public, this brand also played an essential role in the birth of McLaren’s road car operations. The last Elva to be built was also the first McLaren, the McLaren-Elva MK 1A and 1B. As a tribute to this classic, McLaren designed an 800-hp McLaren-Elva Barchetta that was also showcased at the Elva stage.
This car is also the crown jewel of the Elva stage. The design and philosophy of the 2020 McLaren Elva are inspired by the Elva-Mclaren Mk l A, Mk I B and McLaren Mk I C. Entirely in the spirit of Elva, at 1,315 kilos, this is the lightest road-legal McLaren car ever.
It is powered by a 4-litre twin-turbo V8 (815 hp) and reaches 200 km/h in just 6.7 seconds. The list price of 1.7 million in combination with the planned production of 149 cars will ensure that the owners will not encounter another McLaren Elva soon.
While the car has no windscreen, an automatic air deflector in the car’s front ensures that wind is directed over the occupants.
The new Elva was positioned on the central podium to face off with its ancestor, the Mk1A. The car stem from the collaboration between Elva and McLaren, which resulted in a lightweight mid-engined open-top racer.
The low-weight Elva chassis combined with the McLaren drive train secured better times at Goodwood, faster than Graham Hill achieved in his BRM Formula 1 car. The Elva-McLaren marked the end of the Elva era but also meant the dawn of today’s McLaren sports car brand.
The centre podium was surrounded by race cars developed by Elva, such as the green Elva Formula Junior 100 from 1959. Elva race cars used drivetrains from various manufacturers, like the silver Elva-Porsche Mk VII-VI from 1963 or the blue Elva-BMW GTI 60 from 1964.
Autoworld brought a great preview of its upcoming Supercar exhibition
Belgian national auto museum Autoworld makes the end of the year a lot like Christmas, especially for car geeks. Their Super Story exhibition plans to bring together dozens of supercars in a unique and stylish exhibition. That is scheduled to start in a few weeks.
All the Supercars on display have left their mark in history ranging from the post-war years up to 2015. The supercars exhibited emanate from international museums and private collections, and in fact, some of these have never been displayed.
Their stage at InterClassics was built to raise awareness for this exhibition and showcased a Ferrari SP2, a modern-day supercar and a Lamborghini Miura, the car widely credited as one of the first supercars.
On a slighter scale, the sister event InterClassics Brussels also prepared a smaller stage to introduce their upcoming January event.
InterClassics Maastricht 2022 is scheduled to open on 11 January, and its central theme is dedicated to Dutch Grand Prix Classics.
And for an overview of this years car events, check the Egzostive’s ultimate European automotive bucket list!
