That the Francorchamps racetrack can celebrate its 100th birthday this year you have undoubtedly already read in our previous coverage. If not, you can find our article here.

In this exhibition, the organisers mainly want to put the three main races ( F1 Grand Prix – 1000 km and the 24 hours ) in the spotlight and they did a pretty good job with some very beautiful and exclusive cars. Also the motorbikes ( Grand Prix of Belgium and 24 Hours of Liège ) were part of the exhibition, in a small number.

Autoworld had brought together 40 cars for the occasion. They were able to count on the cooperation of various classic car racing teams and a number of private collectors who were willing to lend a hand. And fortunately, there are a number of them in Belgium.

24 Hours of Francorchamps.

The 24-hour exhibition was by far the most beautiful of the exhibited themes, and cars from all the different periods in which this race has taken place were present. For example, with the Aston Martin Ulster 2 Liter, we found the original winner of the first post-war race in 1948. This Aston changed hands a few years ago at the Bonhams auction of the Pebble Beach Concours and can certainly be considered a unique piece.

The touring car years from 1964 to 2000 provided the largest number of attendees. Among the cars exhibited, we even found three original winning cars such as the BMW 30 CSL Emilio ( 1976 ), the Ford Capri RS 2600 ( 1971 ) and the Peugeot 306 GTI ( 2000 ).

Of course, they can’t all win. The BMW 528i Waterloo Motors , fitted with a beautiful dark blue Gitanes “gypsy” cigarette advertisement, came second in 1982.

The 1983 Ford Mustang Belga driven by brothers Martin and Gordon Spice did not make it to the end of the race, but with its 5 litre V8 engine it remains an impressive sight.

The Peugeot 806 SUV from Kronos, which took the start in 1995 but had to abandon the race after ten hours due to a blown engine, is certainly an oddity.

The organisers had provided a new location in the museum for this 24-hour section and had set up the cars as they would at the start of a race. Really beautiful to see! In pole position was the Ford Escort Mk1 of one of our most talented female pilots in Belgium: Yvette Fontaine. The fact that this beautiful Escort is a replica can certainly not spoil the fun.

The collection of D’ Ieteren had lent a Belga Audi V8 but this car never participated in the 24 hours. A small mistake, because they do have an A4 that did. The V8 only participated in the sprint races in the Belgian Procar Championship. Of course it is always nice to admire such a perfectly maintained and original car.

From 2001, the touring cars made way for GT cars. The touring car formula was a bit worn out and a last change in the regulations resulted in winners such as the Peugeot 306 GTI. Not really cars that would appeal to a large public. A change of course was necessary and was found through a cooperation with the FIA GT championship of SRO. After a few difficult years, the 24 hours would be revived and bring about beautiful editions with packed starting fields. At the start exotic cars from: Ferrari, Aston Martin, Porsche, Maserati, Corvette, BMW, Audi and Mclaren. Unfortunately, we only found two of these exotic cars in the exhibition: a Porsche 911 GT3 and a very special and Belgian Gillet Vertigo.

The 2019 “Herbie tribute” Porsche was also nicely positioned next to a VW Fun Cup colleague. By the way, you can find more info about this Herbie in a previous report.

During the opening weeks, this year’s winning Ferrari 488 GT3 was also present, which, after a phenomenal overtaking manoeuvre by Allesandro Pier Guidi, in the pouring rain and in the last race quarter, passed the WRT Audi R8 GT3 of Dries Vanthoor on the outside in Blanchimont.  By far the best overtaking manoeuvre of 2021!

1000 km Francorchamps

Although the 1000 km of Francorchamps ( later the Wec Spa 6 hours ) have a rich history, we could only find one car that belonged to this theme. It was the Rondeau M 379 Belga with which the brothers Martin and Gordon Spice obtained the third place in the 24 hours of Le Mans. A great result for this small team and with the support of a Belgian sponsor. Chassis number 02 has an extensive CV. After his years of service in the Rondeau’s own team, he was later entrusted to a number of private teams and raced several times in the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the 1000 km of Francorchamps. After its active career, the Rondeau has been restored to its original Le Mans Belga version and was also displayed in this outfit at the expo. More info about Rondeau and this 379/02 can be found via this link.

A second car was the 1967 Alpine A 211, but this belongs to the permanent collection of the museum.

Belgian Formula 1 Grand Prix

The present Formula 1 cars were nicely displayed in the “Racing Zone” of the museum with the big picture of the Raidillon in the background. A perfect setting! All cars were equipped with a BMW engine and all belonged to the same private collection. Except for the Brabham-BMW and a Sauber, all variants were present: an ATS D6 ( 1984 ) of Manfred Winkelhock, the magnificent Benetton B186 ( 1986 ) of Gerhard Berger, two examples of the Arrows A8 ( 1985 ) of Thierry Boutsen and back Gehard Berger and a Ligier JS 29 ( 1987 ) of René Arnoux. All these cars are equipped with the BMW 1.5 litre 4 cylinder turbo engine.

But also the more recent BMW models were present with the Williams FW22 V10 ( Ralf Schumacher ) of 2000 and the FW 26 with the famous “walrus nose” ( Juan Pablo Montoya ) of 2004.

We could not find a Maserati 250F or a Vanwall from the early years of F1 but we certainly understand that it is not always easy to collect such pieces. The only Formula 1 that still raced on the old 14 km circuit was the De Tomaso 505/38. This is another real “old school” F1 designed by Gian Paolo Dallara for De Tomaso.  The team was run by a Frank Williams with Piers Courage as pilot. The De Tomaso was not really a success. Only used in the year 1970, it did not finish in any race. Absolute low point of the year was the fatal accident of Courage on the circuit of Zandvoort. After that, neither Brian Redman nor Tim Schenken could turn the tide and the project was discontinued. In 2019 we could still enjoy this De Tomaso during the Masters race at the circuit of Francorchamps.

In the next winter months, we will discuss some of the exhibited cars in a more detailed article.

As a motor sports enthusiast, you simply must visit this expo! It is certainly the most diverse in recent years and you still have the chance to do so until 28 November. After that, the racing cars disappear to make way for supercars from the period between 1950 and 2015. The organiser promises us top pieces from international museums and private collections. You can admire them between 17 December and 23 January. Definitely worth considering!

Report: Joris de Cock
Photos: Patrick Verheeken