Five best cars from Motorclassica ‘16
Motorclassica is the finest collection of classic cars you’ll see in Australasia. Here are our picks for best in show. By Damien O’carroll.
Held in the main hall of the historic and beautiful Royal Exhibition Building in Melbourne, the Australian International Concours d’elegance and Classic Motor Show - or Motorclassica - has quickly established itself as one of the must-sees of the downunder motoring scene.
With more than 100 utterly stunning classic cars on display, Motorclassica has also become a place that Mercedes-benz likes to unveil some rather stunning new cars at, and this year was no exception as the German manufacturer chose Motorclassica to unveil the stunning (and rather large) Mercedes-amg S 65 cabriolet.
Packing a 6.0-litre bi-turbo V12 that pumps out 463kw of power and a rather staggering 1000Nm of torque, the S 65 tops a range of S-class cabrios with its prodigious $461,200 asking price.
But while the S 65 was deeply impressive, the classic metal on show was the main focus of Motorclassica, so here are our five favourites of the show. 65 and celebrate its 130th birthday at that there would be some rather tasty classic Benzes there, and they don’t come much more "classic" than that car that started it all.
While this particular Motorwagen isn’t an original (only 25 were ever built and just a few remain today) it is an exact replica that was built by apprentices at the Mercedes factory. Needless to say, it is still worth a vast sum of money…
Abarth did some brilliantly mental things to tiny Fiats in the 1960s, but probably the best (and arguably most mental) was the Fiat 600-based Abarth 750.
The gorgeous little example at Motorclassica was one of the rarer 1000 versions, complete with the roaring 56kw engine that was cooled both via an oil cooler in the comically large front bumper, as well as the permanently opened state of the rear engine cover!
It wasn’t all European classics at Motorclassica, as this gorgeous 240Z proves that Japanese classics were also represented. Intended to prove to America that Nissan could build exciting cars, the 240Z was eventually sold there as a Datsun because it sounded "less Japanese".
This particular car was originally exported from the UK to Zimbabwe where it lived for 30 years before it was taken to South Africa and underwent a full restoration. The current owner brought it into Australia earlier this year. 119kw. It also packs 1940 hydraulic brakes, repacking the original mechanical brakes.