The last weekend kickstarted the car show season with a bang. This was our first time at the International Racing Show, but it will remain a stable item on our agenda.
The event is hosted by Kortrijk Xpo, and it occupied three modern and well-designed halls filled with cars and lots of action. Exhibition halls do not need much, just a neutral background and some decorative lighting, and this appeared to be the guiding principle that the Xpo’s infrastructure follows.
The organisers thought of everything when it comes to the best ingredients for car shows. The central atrium hosted two RC race tracks, with the owners prepping the cars on the tables set up next to the track.
Several simulator specialists offered virtual fun and a few corners with artists and memorabilia.
These are pretty evenly distributed among the halls, with every possible racing category with wheels, some even without them… The cars were piled together by brands, so we will also follow that order.
The event greeted us with a trio of Ford race cars (including an iconic RS 2000 Cosworth), and we started with Hall 5, which greeted the visitors with an impossible selection of Italian beauties.
The white Martini livery looks great on every race car, but we really fell for the 037 and the Stratos. They are both incredible automotive icons taking world rally championship titles, and they can wear the Martini stripes with pride.
In fact, they looked even better than the Ferrari in the corner, not to mention the Delta rally cars.
The Lancia race cars are parked next to a selection of Mercedes cars, and our absolute highlight was the 2022 Formula E world champion car of Stoffel Vandoorne. Meanwhile, his dad was showcasing sculptures he designed, and he also shared stories and real-time updates of his son’s races.
We also loved the classic 300 SLR race car, but we had to realise that Mercedes is not such a household name in affordable classic car racing as in the higher spheres.
The Porsche corner was placed in this hall, with a 911 Dakar stealing the show. Not like Porsche race cars would make that easy.. 🙂
The Citroen corner surprised us with the combo of a Citroen SM, the first one is converted into a towing truck, conveniently called “the Rig”, designed by Jerry Hathaway.
This caravan is a familiar sight from many shows (including Zoute GP and Waregem) with the fitting dual-axis trailer carrying a second SM, wearing the logo of an “SM Club”.
We also loved the classic DS race car with desert rally specification.
Part of the hall hosted a special exhibition of open-wheel cars with prewar Grand Prix cars, Formula 1 cars from several decades, Formula 2 and Formula E.
Now we take a rhetorical break as the size of the gallery is getting really big…. See you soon with our impressions of the other two halls.
