The magnificent Bentley Special n°1 of Filip and David Bourgoo resting at the Knokke seafront after two days of rallying...  

From Friday October 15 until Sunday October 17 Knokke has been the pinnacle of automotive elegance, vintage character and history. On Friday morning, a field of 130 thoroughbred classic and vintage cars built between 1920 and 1965 started on a two day regularity rally and tour, driving through the narrow polder routes and dyke roads so typical for the Flemish Westhoek and Dutch Zeeland. They took their Bugatti’s, Bentley’s and Lancia’s through their paces for two consecutive days, on a rally route which was carefully kept secret by the organisers. Nevertheless, we found them Saturday “en route” through the Dutch polders and beach roads, and show you some action photos of this magnificent event…

Hans Knol ten Bensel

The Porsche of Bernard Filliers and Lucie Lambrecht having a go at the beach road between Cadzand and Breskens...

The Zoute Automobile Club can be justifiedly proud of their first ZOUTE GRAND PRIX, which proved to be an instant success. Indeed, despite the rather cold and windy weather which was luckily rather sunny on Saturday, public interest in Knokke was massive, as one could enjoy along the Kustlaan and the Zeedijk an impressive display of new “dream” cars during the whole weekend, with Rolls Royce, BMW, Bugatti, Aston Martin, Ferrari, Audi, Maserati, Lamborghini, Mercedes Benz, Porsche, Maybach, Jaguar and last but not least Alfa Romeo participating.

The sublime Bugatti on display at the Knokke Kustlaan...

Of course, partygoers could enjoy themselves Friday night on the ZOUTE GRAND PRIX Party in the “Knokke Out” on the Astridlaan, and on Saturday night there was a magnificent closing dinner of the ZOUTE GRAND PRIX from 20h30 onwards on the legendary Place Albert.

Despite the (very) secret route, we managed to mix in with the field, and it sure is a magnificent sight to drive behind the 300 SL Gullwing of Christophe and Antoine d'Ansembourg...

Pictures tell more than 1000 words, so we let you enjoy them here. Suffice to say that the straw bales on the Kustlaan created a unique “street race” atmosphere, with the magnificent new cars on display before the elegant shops.

Leo Van Hoorick and his wife Roos Maes enjoying the rally in their Lancia Aurelia B24 Spider
 

Of course we could not resist taking some atmosphere shots of the rally cars resting after their two days of hard work, in the evening sunset at the Knokke dyke and seafront…

the first ZOUTE GRAND PRIX is already a legend, and we are already awaiting the second edition…

The beautiful Alfa Romeo 8C was also on display...

and two historic BMW's on the seafront...

The Mercedes Gullwing legend lives on with the SLS AMG, on display at the Knokke Kustlaan...

 

See you again next year for the second edition of the ZOUTE GRAND PRIX!