As you all know the Porsche 356 community all over the world try enjoy their cars to the most. They take out their 356 as soon as the weather permits and take it for a ride, preferably accompanied by friends in a 356 too, on scenic roads to enjoy both the car and the scenery. This habitude is exactly what the International Porsche 356 Meeting is all about. Having fun by driving the Porsche 356 in a group of people sharing the same passion.
This year, all the honors to make the event at least as good as last years edition in Portugal,went to the Belgian Porsche Club Classic. They choose the outstanding Hotel Dolce in the vicinity of Brussels as the base for the event. This hotel has everything an organization as the International Porsche 356 Meeting needs : splendid service, exquisite foods, intimacy, luxury and last but not least a reserved parking lot for the treasures outside.
This year, over 130 cars were entered. Most of them from Europe, with some people covering large distances to be present at the meeting. How ’bout a Russian Porsche 356, a South-African license plate was noticed, Latvia, a rather large Italian delegation too next to dozens of people from France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Germany, the UK…
Some of you may know Belgium isn’t the country with the most sunshine hours, and when the people woke up on Friday and went the the buffet for breakfast, weather didn’t look very promising. Clouds and rain ruled. Despite the weather conditions, nothing but smiling faces and off they went for a ride direction the Maredsous Abbey near Dinant. By the time the cars arrived at the Abbey, clouds were gone, and sun was doing uttermost best to warm up the air. After entering the Abbey premises through the gates, the cars were welcomed by 2 actor police-officers on stilts who showed them the way to the photographer on duty for a picture of the car in front of the main entrance of the Abbey. After that everyone had a great lunch and the opportunity to enjoy the exquisite abbey beer and Maredsous cheese : 2 products produced at the abbey, and exported worldwide.
After lunch, all participants received a goodie-bag with some beer and cheese, and they continued their way on scenic roads again back to the hotel.
One of the cars that in my personal opinion didn’t belong to the group but didn’t go unnoticed was the yellow Porsche Cayman GT4 driven by Marc Joly, the french journalist. I guess we all know what that means : a report on this car is coming in the magazine he’s working for. Great car, but it just didn’t belong between the other Porsches, that were all classics.
Cars from all ages were entered, Albert Haefner brought his extremely nice 1951 Porsche 356 pre-A to the meeting. From the Uk a lovely pre-A too, in a color I can’t name since never seen before but ooh so nice. Another very exclusive car was a Porsche 356 Carrera 2 Cabriolet, and the magnificent Porsche 356 Carrera, entered by Ron Crijns, who may be familiar to many of you as he’s a man who’s seen regular on vintage car rallies and events all over Europe. All of them participants were noticeably satisfied and had a great day, without any doubt continued on Saturday when the trip took them to the Brussels Atomium, probably unseen before to many and a unique opportunity for the folks to visit the splendid Jacky Ickx – Eddy Merckx exhibition in the direct vicinity of the monument.
