Jacky Ickx’s 75th birthday was a central automotive thematic in the Belgian classic car scene this year. Jacques Bernard Ickx (not like I ever encountered it this way : ) ) is clearly the most successful Belgian race driver, and easily one of the most versatile drivers of all time.
He won the 24 Hours of Le Mans six times and achieved eight wins and 25 podium finishes in Formula One. He never conquered the champion title on F1, but he won the Can-Am Championship in 1979 and the 1983 Paris–Dakar Rally. That easily qualifies as a quadruple crown in my books.
In the past year, Mr Ickx was welcomed with a lovely birthday present at the Zoute Concours, the Belgian Legend special edition of the Porsche 911, and I recall the celebrations at this year’s Brussels Car Show.
The main event was scheduled to the weekend of the InterClassic Brussels (i.e. 20 -22 November 2020). But as you can undoubtedly guess, it was cancelled as pretty much everything else since April. At the same time, the theme is not dropped, and InterClassic is committed to celebrating Jacky Ickx’s 75th birthday, kept it up with a quite entertaining video.
Jacky arrives in his cool blue Ford GT to the birthday party, and as you can imagine, he seems fairly pissed off seeing and the sad and empty hall. I love this video!
Of course, the organisers won’t pass on such a lovely thematic, and Mr Ickx will get the party he so richly deserves. The thematic is postponed to next year, and for this special exhibition of around 15 cars. The organisers joined forces with Porsche Belgium, the IMR Club (Jacky Ickx Club), the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart as well as various private collectors.
And of course, the organisers count on the thousands of cars that collectors usually exhibit in the 4-5 giant halls of the Brussels Expo exhibition complex.
