Spa Italia 2009

The event for enthusiasts of all Italian car brands attracted this year a lot of spectators as well as Ferrari's to the Belgian region Wallonie.
On Saturday already around 40 Ferrari set up on the reserved parking area in the paddock of Spa Francorchamps. A lot of the mainly modern Ferrari's went on the track soon, where they presented themselves together with the group "Grand Parade" in a more moderate speed or they joined the other passionate drivers in the group "Scuderia" to demonstrate how to drive fast laps.

On Saturday morning, last work needed to be done to prepare the cars for the special car show and the Concours d'Elegance. This years theme for the special car show were the creations of the famous car designers of Castagna, situated in Milan, Italy. The most precious car on display was for sure the fantastic Isotta Fraschini built in 1931.

Facing the special car show, the cars that took part in the Concours d'Elegance were placed in front of the old F1-pit gates. A Belgian collector entered not less than 8 cars in the Concours, including 4 classic Ferrari: Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona with its successor 365 GTC/4, a 365 GT 2+2 and a 330 GT 2+2.

The shiny light blue Ferrari 330 GT 2+2 has been a late series 2 model, the attractive colour and the tan leather interior belonged to the specifications of the car when it was delivered new to it's first owner trough Bill Harrah`s Modern Classic Motors in Reno, Nevada. Since that time, the car only had 2 owners, the last one restored the bodywork to very high standard and had the engine completely rebuilt. The interior has not been restored, and so it is today: a nice worn leather with a lot of patina. The present owner bought the car in California and brought it to Belgium, where it is now part of a considerably collection of Italian GT-Cars of the 1960-1970's.

The burgundy Ferrari 365 GT 2+2 was detected by the Belgian connoisseur in nearby Brussels. The car spent most of it's life in France before it came to the car dealer in Belgium. The black leather interior already has been in a very good restored condition and a body restoration has been done some years earlier. A good gimmick: beside the electric windows , even the triangle windows on both, drivers and passengers side were electrically adjustable.

Beside the two representatives of the classic Ferrari 2+2 class, the car collector had exposed two closely related thoroughbred GT-cars. The red 365 GTB/4 Daytona spent about 10 years in New Zealand, before the car came back to Europe, more precisely to England. A few years ago the Ferrari has been completely restored and is now in a very good shape.

Next-door, the successor of the daytona was on display: a dark blue Ferrari 365 GTC/4 with black interior. After being sold new to the USA, the car came to Germany in 1979, where it stayed with only one owner until it has been offered at Coys.

All cars in the collection of the Belgian collector are driven regularly. With buying the oldest running Lamborghini Espada, he started off the supercars. After several Ferrari 308 models and a 400 GT, the above mentioned Ferrari models joined the collection. The huge experience in handling so many sports cars bestowed him not only a great amout of know-how in driving the cars, but also a lot of technical know-how in maintenance and care. As far as possible, he is doing all the work on the cars himself.

Winner of the Concours d'Elegance and "best of show" became the Isotta Fraschini Castagna. The award for the best coupe after 1965 however did not went to one of the Ferrari's, but found it's way anyway to our Belgian collector and that for his beautiful Iso Grifo.
All interested parties, who would like to enter their cars in the Concours d'Elegance of Spa Italia, are able to download the entry form at www.spaitalia.be. Basically every Italian car is allowed. The jury will make a pre-selection and than decide which one to accept.

On Saturday the paddock got crowded - despite the bad weather forecast - with nearly triple the amout of cars and spectators than the day before. The Ferrari restricted parking area got so crowded, that the arriving cars needed to switch to another parking area.

With about 1300 exposed cars, thereof around 120 Ferrari's and 6000 spectators, the organisers of Spa Italia were happy about a new record. The excellent conditions for the usually wet Spa Francorchamps let us look forward to the following event.
The date is already fixed: the ninth edition of Spa Italia will be at the weekend of the 19th - 20th of June 2010.