Probably this event is unknown to some of you. Not that strange, since the Classic Days Schloss Dyck is a rather new event, and only in it’s 7th edition yet. It may sound a bit over the top when I call it a Goodwood style event, but it certainly isn’t. The event takes place in the wonderfull environment of Schloss Dyck in Jüchen, Germany, close to the dutch and belgian borders. Next to the historical environment of a great water-castle, you can walk throughthe park of the castle and enjoy the park itself, and the great cars and lovely vintage atmosphere that reigns.
Just as in Goodwood, you can see people dressed in the period-like clothing of their cars, from the early 1900’s on. Lots of them sitting on a blanket in the grass, tasting some champagne or enjoying a healthy picknick. All over the premises of the castle Schloss Dyck, you can find shops with paraphernilia , clothings, books, and so on.. without giving you the impression that this is a commercial show. The atmosphere is amazingly convenient.
This year, you could enjoy the Classic Days Schloss Dyck for 3 days, even though some people might be a little bit disappointed when they only visited on Friday.Nonetheless, even Friday was spectacular, as it was a constantly arriving of cars of all makes, the speaker who encouraged some guys to rev their engines, which made sure you could hear roaring engines all over the place.
Saturday and Sunday are the 2 most important days for the Classic Days Schloss Dyck. The program starts at 9 in the morning and goes on without interruption till 6 PM.Action took place on different places, with a concours d’elegance at the peninsula near the castle. Among the jury of the concours d’elegance, Dieter Landenberger, head of the Porsche Archives, and Werner Eisele, the world famous F1 photographer. Some of the most remarkable competitors in the concours, for us Porsche and VW aficionados, were a Porsche 356 B Carrera GT, a Rometsch Beeskow and a Volkswagen Hebmuller.
State-of-Art brought his 3 Porsche 550 Spyders to the event, one constantly parked on a prolonged VW Trailer, as could be earlier seen at the Technoclassica. The 2 others could be admired both on the track and when not running, close to the ‘Racing Legends’ place, where sir Stirling Moss resided for a weekend. There were some autograph sessions with Sir Moss, and if you were lucky enough you could have a chat with him, or another racing legend, like Hans Herrmann , Schickentanz or others…
To me , highlight of the event was the presence of the Porsche 718 Spyder , once heavily raced by the Swedish driver Joakim Bonnier, and with a history in the Netherlands too, as Ben Pon used to own it too.
This car could be seen on the track twice a day both on Saturday and Sunday, just as the Porsches 550 Spyder mentioned before. About every 15 minutes another class started on the track, from early motorcycles up to the most powerfull tuned ZAKSPEED Turbo’s, and ofcourse the amazing early 1950’s Mercedes SL , and the Mercedes 300 SLR , piloted byHans Herrmann with sir Stirling Moss as passenger, which made the audience applaude as if he just won a grandprix!!
You could really see sir Moss enjoying the attention, which afterall, he deserves at full glance.
On the other side of the street of the castle, you could walk in the large lawns in the corn fields, where the vintage car clubs had their residence for a weekend, which made it a great walk in the sun, spotting any car you can imagine, sipping a cold drink, enjoying a german bratwurst or chatting to folks sharing the same passion.
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