Ennstal Classic - Ferrari Owners' Club

This year’s Ennstal Classic ran from the 23 - 26 July, again mainly sponsored by T-Mobile. The organisers Michael Glöckner and Helmut Zwickl continued in setting new standards for the European veteran car scene using their philosophic statement "Motoring in the Last Paradise". Start and finish are located in Gröbming, a small picturesque town with a population of 2500 in the middle of Austria.

The starting field is limited to 150 cars although there were 158 cars starting in this year’s event representing an enormous automobile history. I saw AC, Alfa Romeo, Alvis, Aston Martin, Auburn, Audi, Austin Healey, Austin Mini, Bentley, BMW, Bristol, Chrysler, Citroen, Delage, Denzel, DKW, Ferrari, Fiat, Ford, Healey, HWM Jaguar, Invicta, Jaguar, Lagonda, Lancia, Lea Francis, Lotus, Marendaz, Maserati, Mercedes-Benz, MG, Morgan, Morris, NSU, OM, OSCA, Parson Maserati, Peugeot, Porsche, Railton, Rally, Renault, Riley, Saab, Singer, Steyr-Puch, Sunbeam, Swallow, Talbot, Toyota, Triumph, Turner, Volvo, VW and I can easily forget others. The Ennstal Classic is open to automobiles built before December 31st, 1972.

The oldest car this year was a Rolls Royce Silver Ghost (7,2 ltr and “enough” hp), build in 1914 and driven by Joe and Andrae Willenpart (USA). Last year the oldest car was the Rally Cycle Car (1,1 liter and 38 hp) driven by Peter Finkemeier and Kerstin Enkemann (D) now the second car. Third car in line was the Bentley Le Mans (1926) driven by Richard and Sarah Frankel (GB). Next to it there was a beautiful Bugatti 37 A - Christian Hübner (A), a Lea Francis Hyper - Erik and Alexander Skreiner (A), a Bugatti T 57 C - Günther Schwarz & Wolfgang Krämer (D), the Healey Prototype – Max Theiler & Sigi Pust and many many more. Dieter & Jutta Roschmann brought their Ferrari Mondial (s/n 0528MD) and Ferrari 250 GT (s/n 0415 GT). Nico & Marlise Koel in the Ferrari 275 GTB/C (s/n 7641) were the only Dutch participants.

The program of the Ennstal-Classic is every year nearly the same. Scruineering is on Wednesday and partly on Thursday, but… at eleven everything has to be done. At that time the Stoderzinken is closed for all regular traffic. Only wanderers and mountain-bikers have the possibility by alternative route to enter this beautiful mountain with a peak of 2047 meters.

At one the start of the hill climb is planned and the participants all go to a height of approx. 1800 meters. By now I have followed the Tour Auto several times and the Mille Miglia last May, but at this hill climb you won’t see many other cars than the participants. It’s fantastic to take shots almost anywhere you want and there are no dangerous overtaking actions and that sort of idiotic caper. All you have to think about is: don’t fell down, because that’s a very long way…

The classic cars first go up around 1.00pm and at the end of the afternoon, after all cars have been timed, all cars go down and that’s a thrill every year again. As in a gentlemen’s agreement everybody else wait until the last participant has gone. After that the photographers, assistance and marshals can drive down. The organisers apparently did know what they were doing. The prologue -starting in Gröbming and finishing in Schladming after 111 km- is (in my opinion) only nice at the start and finish, because it is to dark everywhere else. After 15 minutes the cars were passing Aich a very lovely village where the first time check was. But the second part of the starting field ran into very heavy thunderstorm in the Ramsau’er region and so it happened that after 5 special stages the rally ended and the participants were diverted back to Schladming.

Next day the first car was expected to start at 07:00am in Gröbming for the Tauernrunde. The Tauernrunde covers a distance of 554 km, starts at 07:00am and will end at approx. 21:15pm. As opposed to last year the direction of this day was counter clockwise, so the cars drove from the start to the airport of Niederöblarm for the first time check and first test. From there on they would visit Murau, St. Michael, Nockalm, Seckau, Leoben and Spytal am Pyhrn all with time checks. It’s obvious that it really is impossible to follow the cars. The roads are very narrow, speed limits in every town and in between. And it would be a waste to tear through such a beautiful environment. Last year I was at the Nockalm, where the cars now would be at around 11:00am, but in view of the time the first car would arrive it wasn’t possible for me. So I took my first spot at Seckau where the cars would arrive at approx. 02:15pm, had lunch there and waited until every car had left the village. After that I took the highway and cut the route to catch up and went to my second location: one of the passes where I went to meet the beginning of the starting field again…

Arriving there I saw start number 8 or so passing through. When I found a good place to take some photos the sun was nearly gone and I also had to wait some time before the next cars were coming through. After a few cars it was too dark to take photos, but watching the participants drive was fun too especially when they competed with one another on the straight road after the corners where I was standing...

On Saturday it was almost a madhouse. There were hundreds of people walking, driving and biking into the village. Everywhere were “polizei”, gendarmerie and boy scouts to assist. They all had to deal with the traffic and people who had to stay behind the fences when the Classic Stars arrived. Unfortunately Sir Stirling Moss - who is every year at the Ennstal Classic - had an accident in London, driving 30 km/h on his Moped. He broke his shoulder and had to cancel his beloved trip to Austria, a disappointment for many of the spectators and photographers.

So Jochen Mass was present, instead of Stirling Moss driving the Mercedes Benz W196 Formula 1, a very special piece of machinery. At its debut at the GP of France in 1954, Mercedes-Benz claimed a double victory with the streamliners: Juan Fangio and Karl Kling. It had a 2,5 litre motor with 257 hp at 8,500 rpm.

Gerhard Berger drove the 250 Testarossa (s/n 0758TR based on 250 GTE s/n 2205GT), which was skilfully restored by Egon Zweimuller. Some other classic stars were Ove Andersson (team-chef Toyota F1), Mario Andretti, worldchampion and 500-Indy winner, Mike Thackwell, youngest F1 racer (drove a Chrysler 300), Derek Bell -won 5 times Le Mans and now team manager of the 24hour Bentley team- drove a Porsche. Also as participants were several celebrities giving their utmost to win and all this makes the Ennstal Classic what it is: competitive where it must be and social if there are no cars near: a social meeting during lunches, diners and in between… but when the Masters get hold of a steering wheels… grrrr.

The big final started at 01:30pm, after the demonstration of Andretti (Porsche 906), Berger (Ferrari 250 TR), Bell (Porsche RSR), Egon Hofer (Maserati 250F), Wittmann (Audi Quattro S1), Kristensen (Auto Union - Audi) and Mass in the Mercedes W196… This final would finally decide who became the winner of the 2003 Ennstal Classic, again a marvellous organized event in the grand manner.