Ferraris at the Zoute Grand Prix

Posted on October 30, 2017.

Text & photos by Henk J. Brouwer:  ‘nJoy Media

 

The Zoute Grand Prix in Knokke, on the Belgian coast, was held for the eighth time this year and the concept of “Grand Prix” does not refer so much to the driving aspect but probably to the size of the event, at least in terms of its many constituent parts and the area it covers. There’s probably no other event in Europe that covers as much area of a city as the Zoute Grand Prix, with no fewer than five events in one. This article limits itself to the highlights of the Concours d’Elégance and the Regularity Rally plus the shorter more leisurely version for cars up to 1965.

A two-part rally is an interesting event. On the one hand there is the “Regularity” section which results in a classification, on the other hand there are the “leisure drivers”, where the primary goal is driving pleasure. The rally takes two days starting on Thursday afternoon with a prologue that determines the running order for the “Regularity” on Friday. On Friday all participants took a ride out in the countryside with different aptitude test and time controls and an extensive and excellent lunch-buffet at Oudenaard. Then it went through the same brilliant hinterland back to Knokke.

The next day more of the same, but now the ride partly took place on Dutch soil with a lunch in Yerseke at a renowned Musselcompany. There were various tests on this day as well.

On Saturday the weather was very regrettable. In contrast to last year, this was particularly bad. Despite that, in the wind and weather, it was unexpectedly crowded.

The concours started on Saturday on the small golf course Approach Golf in Het Zoute. There was a Ferrari 70 theme and 50 years of the BMW 507 with various models on show. After three quarters of an hour the weather changed and the fun was gone. In fact, a poncho was needed to stay dry. In the afternoon everything that was organized in the center was completely rained out. Abandoned or completely closed wagons of waffles, ice-cream and fish & chips was the street scene and there were umbrellas … lots of umbrellas… and for many visitors a Godsend at the time.

On Sunday the concourse started in great weather at the Royal Zoute Golf Club, but let’s face it… there’s always something to nag about. Now it was about the setup of the cars, because despite the enormous and beautiful space that one has out there, most of the cars were much too close to each other. What a pity and absolutely unnecessary. Fortunately, there were enough beauties to make the day. And so we took a nice selection of pictures to give a proper impression of this great and big event.

In addition to all this stuff there were other sub-events but, unfortunately, for one photographer it’s just too much to cover. So we missed a lot of exotic Italians and Germans, like Ferrari 458, 488, F12, Lussos, the FF and more variations, Lamborghinis such as the Aventador and Huracan, Porsches in all shapes and sizes, and a choice of Audi R8 variants, Quattros and RSs, Bugatti Chiron (ok, French but a little bit Italian!) and AMGs in many different guises. There were just too many to mention.

 

There are more of Henk Brouwer’s photos on our Flickr page.