The 2021 calendar: a first update with many cancellations but we at Wheels & Things looked for and found alternatives!
It was already clear in January that this year’s calendar would be subject to major changes. Indoor events were postponed to a later date or disappeared from the list.
Rétromobile Paris, for example, was postponed to the beginning of June. Meanwhile, it has been confirmed that the fair will not even take place in 2021. It will be held in February 2022 on its usual date.
Technoclassica Essen suffers the same fate and will not take place for the second year in a row. Closer to home, the Antwerp Classic Salon is cancelled.
But also the outdoor activities share the blows: the Goodwood Members Meeting is postponed from May to October and the same fate awaits the Concorso at the villa d’Este.
Organiser Peter Auto also had to change his calendar considerably. The planned Tour Auto moves from April to September and the Dix Milles Tours at Paul Ricard from March to early May. Spa Classic was even cancelled. Whether or not Le Mans Classic will continue on its fixed date will be decided one of these days. The “regular” Le Mans 24 Hours in June have also been moved to the end of August, as there were not enough spectators allowed on the original date. We suspect that the same will happen for Le Mans Classic.
It will certainly not be the last changes and we are already moving towards the summer of 2021.
Will the summer events continue? Will we be allowed to travel? What about possible quarantines? A lot will depend on the vaccination strategy and the supply of the products needed for this. Let us hope that everything will go well in this respect.
At Wheels & Things, we have been looking for possible alternatives to spend this free time in a corona safe way. Some of these are road trips or top locations that are definitely worth a visit with your classic car. Colleague Patrick knows more about it and will be happy to present you different options in a next report.
Report: Joris de Cock
Photos: Patrick Verheeken