Zoute GP 2019

10th edition of the best car event in Belgium

Regular visitors of this website don’t need an introduction to the Zoute Grand-Prix. This is, by far, the best classic car event in Belgium, and probably even the Benelux. In just 10 years, the organization managed to bring a level of quality that is hard to equal, let alone outperform it. Can you imagine a car event attracting over 250.000 visitors in a weekend? After all, there is much more to explore in Knokke than just the start and finish of the Zoute Rally.  The complete city of Knokke Heist is transformed into a giant open-air car show. And that means both classic and modern. Stages are placed on the streets for the major luxury and sportscar manufacturers to place their stars in the spotlight. Thursday it is a coming and going of classic cars to have them scrutineered for the Zoute Rally.

The Zoute Rally alows cars from 1920 to 1965.  With  200 entries, you can imagine the streets of Knokke look like a beehive.  Friday and Saturday morning, the Zoute Rally takes a start in Knokke and drives along pitoresque roads in the Belgian and Netherlands. At lunch-time, participants are spoiled with the most exquisite foods. Saturday that was even at the docks of the yacht building company Amels in the Netherlands, with a view on a luxurious private yacht. The winners of the Zoute Rally were Ruben Maes and Bjorn Vanoverschelde in a 1965 Porsche 356c.

We’ve told you about the Bonhams Zoute auction before, so we won’t come back on that. Even though the greatest part of the Zoute GP is free to the public, there is a part you’ll have to pay for. The Zoute Concours d’Elegance brings together more than 50 unique sports cars. The concours is exclusively open to a limited number of cars, split into a pre-war and a post-war category. The competition is led by Philip Kantor of UK auctioneers Bonhams. Among the jury members you could find former Porsche factory driver Thierry Boutsen.

One-off Porsche 911 … prototype of the Porsche 911 RS ?

The eye-catcher for Porsche fans was the one-off Porsche 911, built for a personal race-friend of Ferry Porsche, Hans Dieter Blatzheim. This car features several rare Porsche race parts plus the unique 2,65 litre engine and prototype 911 RS parts. This is the very first Porsche 911 with a wide RS body before the 2.7 RS “Ducktail” was officially launched. The car was always stored in a private collection. The present owner bought the car from its second owner who drove it from 1978 to 2015, only covering 85.000 km. Full history of the car is known since it left the Porsche factory. The car is repainted but never restored. The existence of the car was only known by a couple of Porsche insiders until recently.

Presentation of the Porsche 911 Carrera 4S “Belgian Legend Edition”.

Jacky Ickx, a true Belgian racing legend celebrates its 75th anniversary next January 1st. As a former Porsche pilot, Jacky Ickx won dozens of races.  Porsche Belgium wanted to honour him by presenting a Porsche 911 Carrera 4S ‘Belgan Legend Edition’ to the public. The presentation of this limited edition car took place on Saturday October 5th at the Zoute Golf in presence of Mr. Le Mans Jacky Ickx himself. The full specifications of the Porsche 911 Carrera 4S “Belgian Legend Edition” are described in a previous article. 

The Porsches in the Zoute GP 2019

Pictures by Vintage Race Photography.