This Thursday, the 14th edition of the Zoute GP opened its door to the public. The four-day event became our instant favourite in 2019 and won our choice for the best car event last year and the year before. And we were not the only ones, as Zoute won the prestigious Historic Motoring Award.
The event offers a diverse variety of programs encompassing a classic Rallye (regularity), a GT Tour (for sports cars and supercars), Car and Art Expositions, and an Auction. For more info on timing, location, venue and prices, check out their official website. Their offering is really diverse, for every interest and budget.
Their concept varied throughout the years, but the key elements remained the same: a three-day historic car rally, a GT-Tour for modern luxury sportscars, the Prado tent filled with luxury and premium manufacturers showing their latest models, and a Concours de Vente, built around an auction organised by Bonhams, that grew into one of the most essential car auctions in Europe. While you visit the show, your family can enjoy the beach and the amenities of Belgium’s posh seaside town.
Sadly, the brilliant Concours d’Elegance did not occur this year, reducing the show considerably in size, but the rest is as good as always.
Throughout the years, the event went through quite an evolution. In 2019, it offered a free car show with elegant showroom cabins built on the beach, dedicated for each brand. It was an Autosalon reinvented, attracting over 250000 visitors.
Since the pandemic, the car show is smaller (limited to high-end and luxury brands) and resides in a single (albeit large) tent, accessible for a ticket that costs 45 euros this year. For that, the Prado tent is a high-end car event that offers a true spectacle for petrolheads.
The new component is the Zoute Gallery by EY, an 8000 square metre large pavilion built on the beach at the Albertplein a few hundred metres from the Prado pavilion. The compound hosts the official auction of the event, run by Bonhams.
This year’s Zoute Sale marks the 10th anniversary of the event’s in-house auction, and Bonhams managed to bring together some 150 lots (including cars, motorcycles and memorabilia) that will go under the hammer on Sunday. The organisers aim to break last year’s record when the auction totalled more than 25 million euros.
Their primary mean to achieve this objective is a Ferrari 250 GT Tour de France from 1959. Estimated between 5 to 7 million euros, this car would be the most expensive transaction ever in the auction’s 10-year history.
Between the two pavilions, the beachside strip hosted a few dozen cars and art exposed on podiums. These cars complement the two exhibitions and provide scenery for the start and finish of the Zoute Rally and the GT Tour.
We will post about the show in the coming days, starting with the auction results, so stay tuned for more!
