This ultimate events calendar enumerates major automotive events in 2023 and become a tradition at Egzostive. I you are looking for the 2024 Calendar, click the article below:
This list was a fairy straightforward exercise until 2020, but the pandemic rewrote every script. With the passing of the pandemic, we now look forward to a complete 2023 event season. So far Geneva seems to fall out for good, but the Brussels Car Show is taking over its international duties and performed beyond our expectations. InterClassics is not planning another Days of elegance but they kickstarted the year with their signature Maastricht event. Most events started with the usual dates, with very little conflicts. 2023 promised to be a great year for car shows and so far it delivered!
The European automotive events calendar 2022
Autosport International – (12-15 January) – Birmingham, UK – Official website
Brussels Motor Show – (14-22 January) – Brussels, Belgium – Official website
This Brussels Motor Show is one of the best international car shows in Europe. It grew steadily in the 2010s, and by 2020 it sported more brands than Paris or Frankfurt. The Autosalon is organised every year, and the lucrative Belgian market required presence at the show from all brands to remain relevant.
As Geneva seems to fall out for good, Brussels will take over the hosting of the Car of the Year Award. Pretty much every single car brand is coming, and the show celebrates its 100th anniversary. We had really high expectations, and the show exceeded in every aspect!
The Brussels Motor Show is on, big time!
InterClassics Classic Car Show Maastricht – 12-14 January, Maastricht, the Netherlands – Official website
The InterClassics Maastricht is a well-established classic car event of the Benelux region. With some changes on the website, the event acquired the name Classic Car Show Maastricht
It is usually one of the first car events on the calendar, and the central theme of this year’s event is (again) the Dutch Grand Prix Classics.
GP Ice Race – (27 January, CANCELLED), Zell am See, Austria – Official website
The GP Ice Race was cancelled for 2023 due to warm weather.
Festival Automobile International – (CANCELLED), Paris, France – Official website
This event usually anticipates the Retromobile, one of the best classic car shows in the world. A date is not yet available, so it might get cancelled.
Retromobile – 1-5 February, – Paris, France – Official website
We usually refer the Retromobile Paris exhibition as the queen of classic car events. There is always a room to claim to be the largest classic car event, but the sheer quality of Retromobile is what puts it on our A-list. It is not a question that this event is the arena of the real players, where the major classic car collectors face off and chase the world record of auctions.
Aspiring events and major national museum rent space at the vent just to put themselves to the map (the early timing of the event also helps). The Swiss Concours, Schloss Dyck, the Peter Auto Series or the British Motor Museum in Beaulieu are all present to advertise themselves.
The 2020 event was truly great, probably the last show unaffected by the Pandemic. Retromobile 2022 finally took place, but was postponed and detached from the two major auctions of Bonhams and Sotheby’s that already took place in February. In the end, Retromobile proved to be the first major car event actually happening in Europe and still impressed. The 2023 edition promises to be great again. The show returned to its old setting with the largest main hall and several auxiliary halls accounting for larger exhibition area than last year. Also the two counter events (the auctions organised by Bonhams and RM Sotheby’s) are set to happen the same weekend. Retromobile 2023 has all the right ingredients to be a great show.
Paris Auction Week – the auctions of Artcurial , Bonhams and RM Sotheby’s (listed strictly in alphabetical order).
These Auctions usually take place during the week of Rétromobile. In 2020, we still managed to see all three: Artcurial is the show’s official auctioneer, while Bonhams and Sotheby’s bunk is in the city centre. Each auction is a car show in its own right. The webpage of the auctions (with complete catalogue) are linked in the title.
For now, these auctions seems to coincide, RM Sotherby’s Paris action is scheduled to 29 January-1 February, while Bonhams is planned for 1-2 February.
Bremen Classic Motorshow, 3-5 February, Bremen, Germany – Official Website
Retro Classics Stuttgart, 23-26 February, Stuttgart, Germany – Official Website
One of Europe’s flagship classic car events, but the speciality of the organisers is to find dates coinciding with other major events (the Techno Classica event series or the InterClassic series). The current schedule seems to work for everybody, lets hope the plans will work out fine. We attended in 2020, just before the pandemic. It was literally the last car show on earth, for about two years.
The London Classic Car Show, 24-26 February, London, UK – Official website
The ICE, 24-25 February, St Moritz, Switzerland – Official website
Automotoretrò, 3-5 March, Parma, Italy- Official Website
Amsterdam Motor Show, 6-10 April, Amsterdam, Netherlands – Official website
I visited the AutoRAI in 2015, which left a lovely impression. However, it was discontinued, and a new car show event launched a few years ago. For now, the website is inconclusive about the date (the counter is still set to April), but the website indicates a June date. The organisers proved to be unresponsive to approaches.
Essen Techno Classica, 12-16 April, Essen, Germany – Official website
The Techno Classica is also one of the most important automotive events in the continent, which means pretty much the world. The exhibition claims to be the number 1 of classic car fairs, and this show also delivers.
In the past two years, the Techno Classica was cancelled, and in 2022, the ETC was a mere shadow of itself. We still hope to see the good old times this year, and the organisers promised the return of manfacturer stages.
Newsflash: what to expect from the 2023 Techno Classica?
Our first impressions are compressed into this article, the detailed reviews will follow and be linked in the first impressions.
Klassikwelt Bodensee, 5-7 May, Fridriechshafen, Germany – Official website
Oldtimer Messe Tulln, 6-7 May, Tulln, Austria – Official website
Spa Classic, 12-14 May, Spa, Belgium – Official website
The Spa event is part of the classic racing series run by the French Peter Auto series.
While the flagship event is the bi-annual Le Mans Classics (see a bit later), the roaring circus visits Spa every year, and so do we for the past few years.
Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este, 19-21 May, Cernobbio, Italy – Official website
The Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este is one of the most well-known beauty contests of historic cars. It is undoubtedly the most traditional event, held for the first time in 1929. Since its revival in the 1990s, the Concorso has developed into a benchmark of European Concours events.
Nürburgring Classics, 26-28 May, Nürburgring, Germany – Official website
1000 Miglia – 13-17 June, Brescia – Rome, Italy – Official website
Concours d’Elégance Suisse, 16-18 June, Chateau de Coppet, Switzerland, – Official website
Antwerp Classics, 23-25 June (CANCELLED), Antwerp, Belgium – Official Website
This event is affiliated to the organisers of the Techno Classica, but the size is considerably smaller, and the concept is fundamentally different (my favourite stage was the one dedicated to the 70th anniversary of Ferrari in 2017).
This event’s greatest strength lies in the active participation of car clubs, showcasing a couple of really impressive stages of avid owners’ clubs, with excellent dioramas and exciting classics. The event’s main themes revolves around the Delage brand and Jaguar’s iconic E-Type, and both theme were reported from last year. Unfortunately, the organisers announced again the cancellation only a few weeks before the show.
Le Mans Classics, 29 June -2 July, Le Mans, France – Official website
Le Mans Classics is the flagship event of the brilliant Peter Auto classic racing series. As biennial event, it used to take shifts with Hungaroring Classics and Chantilly, but we did not see Hungaroring in the calendar for some time.
Peter Auto’s current calendar includes only Le Mans Classics this year, but the 100th anniversary of the Le Mans race made up for that.
Spettacolo Sportivo, 1-3 July, Zandvoort, Netherlands – Official website
This event was on our wish list for the 110th anniversary of Alfa Romeo, but we still need to see it ourselves.
Spa Summer Classic, 6-9 July, Spa, Belgium – Official website
This event is held annually at Spa-Francorchamps. Although Spa Summer Classics is not as clear-cut as the Spa Classic mentioned earlier, it is still worth visiting. The event combines the regional classic car series to race at this legendary circuit.
Goodwood Festival of Speed, 13-16 July, Goodwood, UK – Official website
London Motor & Tech Show – Date to be announced, London, UK – Official website
Eifel Rallye Festival, 27-29 July, Daun, Germany – Official website
Classic Days, 4-6 August, Düsseldorf, Germany – Official website
Another lesser-known event that promises a great program, and the reports confirmed that it’s a must-see. The core programme is a classic car meeting, that moved out of the usual lakeside castle to a park near Düsseldorf, becoming a major classic car jamboree.
Oldtimer-Grand-Prix, 11-13 August, Nürburgring, Germany – Official website
It seems like a great event from the official photos, definitely worth a visit.
Silverstone Classics, 25-27 August, Silverstone, UK – Official website
One of the UK’s largest classic car events is held at the legendary Silverstone race track. Personally, I have been looking at Silverstone Classics for quite some time. Still, people out there drive on the wrong side of the street without even noticing! : ).
The photos on the website seem spectacular (and after a few classic car races, we can tell : ) ), both in terms of scenery and cars attending on and off track. Visitors get to see classic sports cars and race cars in their natural environment, i.e. on the race track.
Concours d’Elegance Paleis Soestdijk 2022, 1-3 September, Netherlands – Official website
This is a open air castle new event that appeared on our radar quite recently. Though the website only work on Dutch, so it might be a local event.
Salon Privé, 31 August – 3 September, Blenheim Palace, UK – Official website
The Salon Privé might not be that well-known outside the UK, but the event has a distinctively classy and aristocratic flair, covering both classic and supercar shows.
Concours of Elegance, 1-3 September, Hampton Court Palace, UK – Official website
An interesting concept to arrange a similar event to the same week not far away. This might actually work, as tourists can group the two occasions for a visit to the region (we certainly would, had there been no Brexit).
IAA Munich, 5-10 September, Munich, Germany – Official website
In 2021, the well established German car show moved to a new location after many decades of successful trade shows in Frankfurt.
The new location in Munich raised some eyebrows, but in the end t worked out quite well. Thus the show returns to Munich again.
Antwerp Concours, 10 September, Antwerpen, Belgium – Official website
This event was one of the best surprises of 2021, and last year, it did not fall much behind. The venue is a castle near Antwerp, and organisers deliver some 100 dream cars of all epochs.We were genuinely impressed by the 2021 event, and the 2022 was not much far behind. We also loved the 2023 edition.
Goodwood Revival, 8-10 September, Goodwood, UK – Official website
Another legendary event in a legendary site. In addition to the Festival of Speed, Revival is one of the events we would like to visit one day. Unfortunately, with Brexit, this is getting even more unlikely.
Zoute Grand Prix, 5-8 October, Knokke-Heist, Belgium, – Official website
This excellent Concours d’elegance takes place in October by the Belgian coast. The event looks back to a decade of success with a continually growing audience growing beyond 250.000 visitors in 2018.
The Zoute Grand Prix comprises five events held throughout the four days at various locations: the Zoute Top Marques show (last year called Prado Zoute), the Zoute Rally, the Zoute Sale by Bonhams Auction, the Zoute Concours d’elegance and the closing Zoute GT Tour.
Some of these events are public, others might require additional investment. The 2019 event guaranteed a full day of activities with a comprehensive set of programmes. For us, this was the best car event of 2021, hands down. And the same thing happened to the 2022 event. This year’s Zoute GP did not feature a Concours d’Elegance, but it still proved to be one of the best car events of the year.
Rallye Legend – 12-15 October, San Marino, Italy – Official website
Auto-moto d’epoca – 26-29 October, Bologna Italy – Official website
Interclassics Brussels, 17-19 November, Brussels, Belgium – Official website
The Interclassics Brussels is a relatively recent event, will be held for the eight time this year. However, the organisers are far from being beginners.
Their main event, the Interclassics Maastricht is the most important classic car event in the Netherlands with some three decades of history. Even as a newcomer, Interclassics Brussels quickly established itself, thanks to the region’s very active classic car culture.
The last few events were quite impressive. In 2019, I think it surpassed the Maastricht event, the 2021 InterClassics Brussels was one of the few major classic car events actually held. The 2002 edition was good as always, albeit limited to 3 halls. The 2023 edition was slightly larger, but its still not at the level of its prime.
Milano AutoClassica, 17-19 November, Milano, Italy – Official website
Another event on my bucket list, as a stable candidate for a visit.
“The Flanders classic car triangle“
In parallel to the Essen Motor Show, the finest of Belgium was gathering in the area of West-Flanders, where three events will take place during the same weekend: a show specialised on pre-war cars in Kortrijk, another exhibition with post-war cars in Waregem, while a classic rally was happening in the wider area of Ypres.
Classic-Event Waregem, 1-10 December, Waregem, Belgium – Official website
Classic Event Waregem worked well as an exhibition, with a well-laid out choreography. Even with its sister events, the Flemish Trio is no match for the big car shows. Still, the two car shows and the Rallye offer convincing arguments to attend, even from a greater distance.
Prewar Days, 1-10 December, Kortrijk, Belgium – Official website
Prewar Days was on our bucket list for a long time. The event acquired quite a reputation in Belgium, as we encountered their delegations at events like Antwerp Concours.
While prewar cars may not be not for everybody, but this is a perfect complement to the the trio of events in the region.
Ypres Historic Regularity Rallye, 1-3 December, Ypres, Belgium- Official website
Essen Motor Show, 1-10 December, Essen, Germany – Official website
We like to summarise the Essen Motor Show as a European SEMA meets classic car show. It can not be compared to the international car shows, even if a few dealerships exhibit. For a full-blooded international car show, wait a few weeks and go to Brussels. But it’s safe to say that EMS will leave quite a few lasting memories on other fronts, with a clear aim to please everybody by offering everything on all fronts.
2018, I could witness VW’s electric Pikes Peak stormer ID R and Porsche’s 919 Nürburgring dominator, I watched the drift championship training session, I marvelled all forms of beauty and was paralysed by shock and awe in the taverns of tuning.
EMS is organised every year, and with an eventual cancellation of the Techno Classica, the EMS could step in as a backup plan. The 2021 event however could not come close to the Techno Classica, even if we could see quite a few spectacular cars. The 2022 event was a bit more reserved but surpassed ETC in our books, and 2023 saw another major car event.
