Report & photos by Hubertus Hansman:
"Well, in a certain way it is "Yes", but only if you look at the number (thousands!) of cars at. Although the majority of the cars at Classic-Days is post-war, you really find lots and lots of pre-war material at the castle's lawns. And t for sure not the "usual" Model A and Model T "T". The stunning Bentleys of the Benjafield´s Club, the bunch of Blower Mercedes, you can see nearly every year at Dyck. Especially at the "Jewels of the Park" area, many highly exotic and impressive veterans can be found. My personal highlights were the fabulous Isotta-Fiat, whcih I already saw twice, the Renault Eclipse and of course the Renault record cars. But next to the little castle-bridge, I found my real highlight, the Opel 4/8PS, the "Doktorwagen". It really looked like the Schuco-model, my brother and I played with in the 70s (and 80s, and 90s and...). I think it was the first time, I saw a Doktorwagen "alive", not only shaking in its "Rüttelgang", like the little Schuco-version.
The best thing to do at Dyck, after walking around many kilometers around the big areal, is to have a break and sit down on one of the bales of straw along the Kastanienallee. You have a sandwich and coffee from your bag and then just sit, eat, drink, look, listen and enjoy. Cars pass roaring and often they are quite unusual and many of them, I never saw on the road before. A whole bunch of Bristols passed, a very nice Brasier, a Stanley Steamer, with its unbelievebale steam-train sound or quicker, than you might believe, the replique of the 1885 Benz Patent Motorwagen crosses on its way back to the orangerie, where it was displayed next to a stunning 500K Roadster.
Even on my way back to the parking lot in the evening, more and more cars arrived at the castle. Sadly, I only was able to visit the Classic-Days on Friday, but if next years date doesn´t collide with the Prescott Hill Climb, I´ll be at Dyck for the whole three days again!"
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