It’s been some time since InterClassics Brussels 2023 ended, but we wanted to bring you the most memorable cars from the show with a bit of a twist.
Classic car shows bring together high-end luxury cars and oldtimers with a market value that makes renting a stage at car shows worth renting. You get to see some breathtaking cars at InterClassics, and it’s hard to surpass them again, so we changed the rules this time. Instead of the best, boldest, most expensive cars, we were looking for the weirdest and most unusual cars that we, or at least most petrolheads, never met in real life.
10. You can hardly get less car for your money: the Brütsch Mopetta is an extreme microcar
The Brütsch Mopetta is an egg-shaped, single-seat, three-wheel microcar manufactured from 1956 to 1958. The Brütsch company was best known for small production microcars designed by the founder, Egon Brütsch. Some are now highly coveted collector items, so much so that even some replicas were built.
9. The Honda S800 seemed like the supercar of microcars
Japanese cars are seldom guests at European classic car shows, though Toyota maintains a very impressive fanbase centred around its German HQ in Cologne (Toyota Collection and the Motorsport Museum) and the Louwman family’s facilities (the legendary Louwman Museum, the second-best car museum in the continent and the Toyota World).
This year’s InterClassics hosted a trio of JDM project cars, one of the earliest Hondas that earned a reputation of collectable on their own merits (and not for sentimental purposes).
The S800 is the ultimate evolution of Honda’s sports car lineup from the ‘60s. This model was introduced at the 1965 Tokyo Motor Show, replacing the successful Honda S600 as the company’s halo car. With a redline of 9,500 rpm, it was one of the highest-revving road-legal sports cars of its time.
8. The Venturi 600 LM is so much more than a poor man’s Ferrari F40
Venturi was a short-lived Monaco-registered sports car manufacturer established in 1984 by French engineers Claude Poiraud and Gérard Godfroy. They came up with quite a few memorable Grand Tourers throughout the ‘80s and ‘90s, and they also raced at Le Mans, but the company did not survive the millennia.
The Venturi 600 LM appeared in 1994 as an evolution of the 500 LM. Seven cars entered Le Mans, and five cars saw the finish line. Not bad for a first participation… What puts this pretty cool car on the list is its resemblance to the iconic Ferrari F40. Venturi should have come up with a more original design for such a fine race car.
7. The BMW 600 Is the least sporty two-door BMW ever
Two-door cars from Bavaria are usually kept in the highest esteem. There is, however, an exception: if it has a front door 🙂 … And if you ask the owner about 0 to 100, the answer will be: maybe…
The BMW 600 is a four-seater microcar produced by the German automaker BMW during its harshest postwar years, the late 50s. Essentially, it is the two-door minivan of microcars.
The 600 is partially based on the cute little BMW Isetta two-seater, the Bavarian’s first postwar four-seater economy car. Mind you, by that time, the Eisenach Factory was no longer producing the six-cylinder BMWs and the DKW F9 with an EMW badge, and the first Wartburg was already rolling off the assembly lines. The car did not prove to be a sales success, but at least it led to the design of its more successful brother, the BMW 700. If you ever make your way to Munich, the BMW World honours both in its hall of fame.
6. Amphicar was a highly versatile vehicle that fell between two seats
Officially designated as the Amphicar Model 770, this “thing” is an amphibious automobile made in West Germany and marketed from 1961 to 1968. The name Amphicar refers to “amphibious” and “car”, but the car sucked at both, proving to be a bad compromise. You would be better off with an inflatable boat stacked on the roof of a station wagon.
Amphicars were manufactured by the Quandt Group’s facilities (the Quandt family owns BMW), with a total of 3,878 cars made. Obviously, the model had no successor.
5. The Volkswagen XL1 is a fuel-efficiency wonder for the price of a supercar
The white XL1 was showcased at VW’s own stage and is not a prototype. The XL1 entered into a small production series from 2014 to 2016 with rather unique sales conditions.
Thanks to its groundbreaking features and astronomical sales prices, it swiftly found its way into private collections and museums. There is one in the Abarth Works Museum, and of course, there is one in the Related Rides exhibition in Autostadt.
4. Porsche 356 Autoworld
Autoworld must really like the Porsche 356: they dedicated a brilliant exhibition to this model in 2021 and organised the best birthday exhibition in 2017 with several 356 specimens.
The 356 is a truly iconic car: it is an integral part of automotive history and kickstarted the career of one of the most iconic car brands. What put this car on our list was the fact that the characterful livery is not very time-conform.
If we have to break the barriers of time, we prefer the Salzburg red 356 that we saw at Classic Remise Düsseldorf.
3. The Donkervoort F22 is the evil twin of a Lotus Super 7
The Donkervoort F22 is a limited-production sports car offered by the Dutch company Donkervoort, which earned its reputation by offering respectable replicas of the Lotus Seven.
Some might relate the F22’s name to the F-22 Raptor fighter jet. According to the all-knowing Wikipedia, the car is named after Denis Donkervoort’s firstborn daughter, Filippa, who was born on 22 May 2022. The F22 is Donkervoort’s first completely in-house design using tech from the VW Group. The F22 uses the 2.5-litre inline-5 from the Audi RS3, modified to peak at 500PS. The engine is paired with a 5-speed manual transmission and a Torsen limited-slip differential.
The Donkervoort F22 looks and feels like the evil twin of a Lotus Super 7, although we would find a black colour more fitting than the ever-cool Gulf livery.
2. Lotus Eleven is maximum weirdness employed to maximise speed
The Lotus Eleven is a sports racing car developed and built by Lotus from 1956 until 1958. The Eleven was designed by legendary constructor Colin Chapman in pursuit of lightweight perfection. The sleek and aerodynamic body was paired with an 1100 cc or 1500 cc Coventry Climax engine. The car weighed only 450 kg, even fully loaded, which allowed it to finish 7th overall at the 1956 24 Hours of Le Mans (with a category speed record of 217 km/h).
That does not change the fact that the car is so flat that it is almost two-dimensional, and the design is as elegant as a cheap (albeit streamlined) soapbox.
1. Porsche 936/81, the ugliest winner at Le Mans
Porsche is one of the most iconic brands in motorsport history and one of the most successful manufacturers in endurance. The numerous achievements include some of the ugliest cars in endurance racing, most notably the pink pig.
A race car so ugly that they painted it like a pig: go big or go home. Unfortunately, the car was not particularly fast either. The Porsche 936, however, won Le Mans three times.
The 936 was developed under the Group 6 sports prototype racing car specifications and was launched in 1975. Between 1976 and 1981, the factory entered Porsche 936 won at Le Mans three times with Jacky Ickx (in 1976, 1977 and 1981), while Ickx finished second in 1978. What puts this car on top of this list is the combination of relentless efficiency and ugliness, something we do not see often in Motorsport.
So there you have it, our favourite weirdos from InterClassics. If you don’t like it, we posted a poll below to vote for your own (and added a gallery as a reminder). In case you have another suggestion (we recommend checking out our report from the show), feel free to tell us in a comment.
