Retro Rides is a multifaceted event. While most automotive shows celebrate a specific side of car culture or a certain marque, Retro Rides is a little more straightforward. The only rule here is that if your car was made before the year 2000, you can park near the front. That’s it.
Everything made after that goes into a different general car park around the back, but you could probably tell this from the name of the event alone. After all, a Nissan Juke doesn’t really fit the ‘retro’ bill. The good news is though, that plenty of people come along to the event bringing their pride and joys that very much meet Retro Rides’ core criteria.
Including me. That’s right, my plucky brown BMW E38 was out in full force again, this time conquering the northern greenery at Mallory Park Racing Circuit, the venue for Retro Rides 2023.
Fortunately for me, our very own Mark Riccioni has already set the tone of the event in his preview gallery. Giving us a glance into the show ground, he cheekily pointed out that Retro Rides is no Concours d’Elegance at Pebble Beach. No, things are a little more sophisticated around here than that, thank you very much.
What Retro Rides is, is a community deeply rooted in car forum culture. Yes, the now often forgotten goldmines of automotive knowledge and conversation which brought us so much joy before the age of the Instagram is still the platform of choice for those who live and breathe the Retro Rides lifestyle.
This means that lazy individuals such as myself who shifted from forum use to Instagram during the mid-2010s are simply no longer following the activities of these good people who use forums as their main stomping ground.
What I’m getting at here is, that I rocked up to Retro Rides excited knowing that 50% of the cars I’d see, I probably never would’ve seen on Instagram before. And I was right.
Being a fan of obscure (but good) motoring, there were many cars for me to have a gander around. Straight off the bat I gravitated towards an early Seat Toledo sat on top of the hill. An uncluttered aesthetic mixed with tri-spoke wheels and period-correct touches such as the dealer plates and unpainted bumpers go a long way to support the whole ‘less is more’ approach to car building.
My friends and I spent a lot of our youth tinkering with the Toledo’s miniature cousin, the Arosa, so there’s a family tie here that draws me towards these little cars.
Sticking with the theme of red cars, let’s jump to… err, the opposite end of the spectrum. If Mark’s photography wasn’t the coolest thing about him, then perhaps his Ferrari 360 Modena Challenge does the trick. It’s a car that’s no stranger to the pages of Speedhunters, but one I couldn’t stay away from for my own show report.
The Ferrari does allow me to transition to my favourite area of the event, though. The Late Brake Show, hosted by Jonny Smith, is an online car programme and was also one of Retro Rides’ main sponsors this year. Jonny’s videos are some of the best on YouTube, and he invited along some of the friends and characters he’s met along the way to display their cars in a special area.
The cars were exciting and varied. A Dodge Charger parked next to a Mk2 Ford Fiesta and a Porsche 993, alongside a Honda City Turbo and… a rather revealing Mk1 Ford Cortina.
Further down the hill, more crazy car combinations awaited me. Check out this Citroën Saxo. While I couldn’t catch the details of the engine bay (of which I’m sure there’s plenty,) I did get sucked into the Advan Racing RG2 wheels wearing Toyo Proxes R888 semi-slicks.
Parked alongside the Saxo was a rear-engined engineering marvel of a K20-swapped Mini, draped in a sleek wide body and fitted with some very wide back wheels.
The beauty of Retro Rides, is that a lot of these cars were taken on track too, firming up the notion that many weren’t built to just be parked up – they exist to be driven as well.
At Retro Rides, you can really find all sorts of fun car combos parked next to each other that you simply don’t get anywhere else. I’ll leave you with this amazing Suzuki Cappuccino parked up next to something totally unexpected.
In fact, I’ll save the details for my next Retro Rides post, where we’ll dive deeper – much, much deeper – into the world of simply bizarre motoring. We’ve not even scratched the surface here yet.
Michał Fidowicz
Instagram: candyshowroom
