by Rosemarijn Atalante Veenenbos
You may never have heard of this event before. The Hertzberger Trophy is a very discreet Dutch event for a specially selected group of owners of amazing prewar cars. This is a 2-day rally with tour and sports class. The participants are battling for the Hertzberger trophy, which is a brons sculpture. Another prize was a nice limited edition watch made by jewelers Schaap – Citroen from Amsterdam and designed by Van der Klaauw from Friesland. The rally goes from one historic estate to the other, while making sure the drivers and especially their navigators are put to the test to follow the rules, which is of course not made easy!
This year’s Hertzberger Trophy was the third edition and since this is a young event, the zest is increasing each year. A prestige event with 45 dream cars and many interesting participants. It all started with Eddie Hertzberger himself. Eddie was a Dutch race driver and the first and only GP winner until Carel Godin de Beaufort took over when he won the Spa GP in 1959. As a tribute to Hertzberger we now do our own kind of ‘street race’ with prewar cars, which can also go quite fast…
This third edition was held in Friesland, which is a kind of a separate province in the Netherlands, with its own language. We all arrived at the magnificent Bilderberg estate Lauswolt. As the 45 lovely prewar cars arrived, it was a great time to catch up with friends and admire all the goodies on the field, which soon became a pleasant battlefield. I was supposed to bring my Amilcar CGS of course, but this time I didn’t make it. So, next year new chances and hopefully a more reliable little monster. Luckily there were plenty of marvels to forget my sorrow soon. My crush was even there, the Hispano H6B 1929 Cabriolet de Ville with coachwork by Hibbard et Darrin! As you know me a bit by now, this was for me a true highlight and I kept staring at this smashing Hisso for quite some time. One very special couple had come all the way from Seattle, Washington, in the the US, to join this event with the owners of this H6B.
I tried to take some good pix for you, which say much more than words can. Several great marques were present, such as Bugatti, Alfa Romeo, Lagonda, Hispano-Suiza, Alvis and so on. Beyond the Hispano I mention the famous Bugatti t43 Ecurie Azzurro, Alfa 8C Monza, Alfa 8C Testa Fissa, Bugatti T57 Stelvio and Bugatti T46 with Freestone and Webb body were for me some of the highlights. I followed the rally in a modern Lancia and there was a good reason for that! The driver of the Lancia was Wim Oude Weernink, who is the famous author of many interesting books about the designs of Italian coachwork and a well known Lancia enthusiast. He told me about one of his cars, which is a Lancia Appia, or should I say Lancia truck? I enjoyed the event so much and, as usual, heard so many interesting stories which continued on during the bbq.
Compliments to the organisers Arno and Elly Blokland from svcc.nu. It was a superb event, even the weather was fine, and I can’t wait to join with my Amillion next year! If you look well, you can see an Amilcar in the slide show… It is the type of Amilcar you won’t easily recognize because it is an 8 cylinder model! A lovely rally car, which had once been found in a chicken-shed!
(There are 128 more great photo’s, but somehow I can’t upload them. I hope I can post those photo’s later on.)
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