Madeira Classic Car Revival

Funchal, Madeira 26-27 May

IT’S CLOSER TO Africa than it is to Europe, but the island of Madeira, way off the coast of Portugal, seems to have a peculiar attraction for us Brits. To quote Wikipedia: ‘The British first amicably occupied the island in 1801… British troops withdrew in 1802, only to reoccupy Madeira in 1807 until the end of the Peninsula War in 1814.’

A vestige of amicable occupation seems to persist to the present day. Look at old photos of Madeira and the majority of the cars pictured are Austins, Singers, Hillmans and the like; most of the indigenous population today speaks English besides their native Portuguese. We’ve never been able to resist returning to this smallish (a coastline of 90 miles, all-round), refined island and its beautifully temperate climate.

All of which makes the Madeira Classic Car Revival a great excuse to combine holiday downtime with a little petrolhead interest. Held over a weekend in the island’s main town, Funchal, it features a seaside car show on the Saturday, while on Sunday the seafront and adjoining roads are closed for a timed hillclimb. It’s all completely free, too.

Cars tend to last a long time on Madeira – partly because they’re expensive to buy here, and partly because of the climate – so many remain within the same families for generations. There’s not a huge amount of exotica but there’s plenty of novelty value in the ‘when did you last see one of those?’ rustfree examples of, say, 1960s Toyotas.

Land Rovers are very popular, and Octane was privileged to drive Tito Noronha’s 88in Series I, part of a huge ‘70 years of Land Rover’ display, which was bought new by his grandfather. Tito also provided two of the weekend’s more unusual cars: a Stanguellini Formula Junior and a Moretti 750 Sport.

Best of Show was awarded to a gorgeous MG J2, while the hillclimb was won by a Mini-Cooper S Mk2 – both these winners encapsulating the down-to-Earth nature of most of the entries. And, not surprisingly, both of them British marques.