Stuttgart Extravaganza: Italians

Story and photos by Jonathan Sharp

It was whilst walking back to our hotel during the Paris Retromobile show that I mentioned to my pal that I would like to visit a German Classic car show and suggested we attend the forthcoming Retro classic show in Stuttgart.

“Stuttgart,” says my pal, “will be just be loads of 911’s and SL’s.” In other words, not worth the bother. But that did not deter me. So, far too early on the Saturday morning of March 9th… found me sitting, without my pal, on a budget airline flight to Stuttgart.

The show is held at the purpose-built exhibition center (Messe) which is slap-bang next to the airport, so within about half an hour of arrival I was visiting the 9 halls of the show. Many of halls are themed, so if it’s all those Porsche 911s you want, then head to Hall 1. BMW? Go to Hall 4; Mercedes Benz…that will be Hall 10. Hall 7 was the Italian offerings with Hall 5 the home to Neo Classics, the new boys on the classic car scene. So, were there loads of 911’s and SL’s? Of course, it is Stuttgart, but if you dug a bit deeper, there was variety a plenty. Cars, bikes, tractors, farm equipment, lorries and even coaches.

Unlike Retromobile in Paris, Retroclassics is very much a buying show. Yes, there was a good selection of up-market dealers, but it was the large number of individual cars for sale that impressed.

One problem with having loads of sale cars to look at and photograph is a lack of info placards, and if the car did have a placard then it was more often than not written just in German, of which we know very little. Therefore, we have not detailed captions, as we usually provide. In regards to the German cars and odd brands, we just hope we have correctly identified the subject. We are sure readers will let us know if not.

One luxury of the show for me was space. Being spread over nine halls, the crowds were well spread out and the visitors seemed to be much more observant of other people trying to take photographs than in many of the other events I have attended. The delete button on my camera was not being pressed as often as in say Paris or Milan. I hope the following deluge of photos will give you an idea of the variety that was on display.

Stuttgart also gave us an opportunity to display for you other types of vehicles, in addition to the mandatory Italian and French offerings. Hence, a full article of just German cars, which were fantastic in their quality and number, and certainly different from our norm. In addition, the feature below, concentrating on just Italians, and lastly, French and Miscellaneous.

Visit RetroClassic Site