Autoworld, the car museum in Brussels’ Cinquantenaire Park, marks its 40th anniversary on Saturday and celebrates it with a day of activities for fans and family on Sunday 4 October.
When the museum first opened to the public on 26 September 1986, more than 350 vehicles were displayed in the halls of the Cinquantenaire. Most came from the Mahy collection, built by motoring enthusiast Ghislain Mahy, who devoted much of his time to restoring cars.
Those vehicles were mainly pre-World War II models. Today, however, the institution says it does not aim to be exhaustive but, instead, is thinking of reducing its collection on display to a maximum of 200 vehicles.
Autoworld stages two exhibitions each year, temporarily bringing other cars into the Cinquantenaire halls. These shows may focus on a particular brand or model, or on a national theme such as Italian Car Passion, So British or Big in Japan.
Over four decades, the museum has organised around 100 exhibitions and displayed more than 2,000 cars. Visitor numbers have also grown sharply, quadrupling over the past 10 years to reach 245,000 last year.
Until 13 December, the anniversary exhibition 'Looking Back to the Future' gives visitors a chance to see 15 cars, two motorcycles and a Vespa.
The display spans the pre-war era to modern supercars, including the Bugatti Type 35, Lamborghini Miura, James Bond’s one-of-a-kind Toyota 2000GT Targa, the ‘flying’ Citroën DS and the Porsche 918 Spyder.
Events planned for Sunday 4 October include a special edition of Cars & Coffee, which will bring together 300 privately owned classic cars on the Cinquantenaire esplanade.
Four or five gatherings of this kind are held each year, often linked to the theme of a temporary exhibition.
