Zoute GP’s Prado exhibition added the secret ingredients missing from international car shows

Zoute GP offered the second major European car event of the year with its Prado Zoute experience. The classy presentation of premium and luxury cars is the element that went missing from car shows long before the pandemic.

And this is what never came back, judging from the participation at IAA Munich (or the lack thereof). Very few luxury brands attended Munich.

While Prado tent might be no match for the classic international car shows or even the Zoute Top Marques 2019, it still offered more brands than the IAA 2021, delivering a compact but fully loaded experience. Art Cars, concepts, Formula 1 cars, special editions like the V8 Bond edition of the Defender.

The tent hosted over a dozen brands, notably Alfa Romeo, Alpine, Aston Martin, Audi, Bentley, BMW, Carozzeria Touring, Dallara, De Tomaso, Ferrari, Jaguar, Land Rover, Maserati, McLaren, Mercedes, Pininfarina, Polestar and Rolls Royce.

The booths had to make do with a fairly small-sized exhibition space, but sometimes even with one car, they delivered a better show than some of the major exhibitions.

Unlike last year, the show is no longer free, but the hefty €35 ticket gave us access to the chambers of Bonhams.

Lamborghini’s participation was rather indirect. Belgian supercar specialist Bavaria Motors exhibited two cars, and before you take a guess, none of them was from Bavaria.

Red Bull’s presence was far more tangible, with an F-1 race car driven by local hero Max Verstappen.

Alfa Romeo has been traditionally strong on the Belgian market, and the Milanese brand still bothers to show up at major car shows.

They brought two sporty versions of the Giulia executive saloon and a Stelvio with the recently announced 6c special edition.

I was particularly curious about this car. The Stelvio is a dying breed of a road car, pairing classic styling and drivetrain layout.

Alpine is at its element with a genuine 2021 Alpine A521 Formula 1 car and several exquisite A110 editions.

They seem to adapt to the Belgian high-life well, taking centre stage at Antwerp Concours and a big stand at Zoute.

Jaguar Land Rover built up a smaller booth with a racy F-Type and the new Defender V8 Bond edition, courtesy of JLR’s specialist division.

This latter is destined to become a collector’s item, and the 300 special editions will probably reach collectors. At the same time, JLR was not the only representative of the British car industry.

Bentley came with a small booth filled with its entire offering (okay, that means three models).

The front stage is occupied by a lovely cabriolet version of the Continental GT with a Bentayga in the back.

Arguably one of the most striking cars of the Prado Zoute was an Art Car.

The Flying Spur bearing the words “Love is Love”, designed by Rich Morris, was crafted to represent diversity and the unifying power of humanity.

Maserati has clearly set its sights on Belgium. They came with several models, including an overload of the brand new supercar MC20.

Following the arrival of a black MC20 to the Antwerp Concours, I saw 3 three other MC20s in Knokke Heist, two in the Prado tent and one parked in the nearby streets.

In fact, I could even take a seat in the blue MC20, and I think I was not the only one.

BMW is among the top-selling brands in Belgium, and this shows on their stages.

They built up a stand with three highlights, including the electric iX model premiered in Munich a few weeks ago.

Opposite the main stage, the Bavarians brought over one of their iconic Art Car series.

The 2010 BMW M3GT2 with the iconic livery courtesy of Jeff Koons reminded us that we still owe you a report on art cars from Munich.

We will take a short rhetorical break to proceed with the second report with another dozen brands.

For an overview of the Zoute GP, have a look at the landing article with link to all our reports: