Autoworld’s 6th biennial exhibition was officially inaugurated this weekend with over 1,200 visitors, including Belgium’s Minister of State Herman De Croo and Britain’s Ambassador to Belgium, Martin Shearman, and numerous veteran car collectors.
Autoworld’s first major exhibition saw the light of day exactly 10 years ago, on the occasion of the Bugatti Centenary, a major turning point for the museum. Visitor numbers soared from 55,000 to 180,000. “The strategy to focus on temporary exhibitions saved Autoworld,” a spokes-person explains. Today it significantly differentiates itself from other museums.
'So British!', as with all other biennial exhibitions, took two years of preparation to realise. “With 'So British!' we will take you to the heart of London, where you will discover the most beautiful vehicles – motorcars and motorbikes – the United Kingdom has produced and we hope that this immersion in the heart of automotive England will not only thrill but dazzle you.”
In London as if you were there
Few countries boast such a rich car history as England and the Brits do not shy away from enjoying the pleasures their cars offer them.
In Great Britain it is customary – and quite normal – to see luxury limousines rubbing shoulders with popular models, to come across "super-cars" in the city centre and old timers in the most improbable narrow streets.
“It is this diversity and soft mix of styles that the exhibition’s set designer has tried to bring about through recreating a typical London atmosphere – not only with its mythical Piccadilly Circus, its streets with Georgian houses, its ‘Mews', but also its more popular neighbourhoods – in order to display those glittering pre-war jewels,” the organisers ad.
With the exception of a few awesome supercars, benefitting from a Black Box, a timeless space and away from the London scene. Visitors will see the most exclusive vehicles such as the McLaren Senna, the Bentley GT3-R, the Jaguar XJ220 and the legendary McLaren F1 dating from 1992.
The priority was to select the 60 most mythical post-war cars, including several rare and exceptional vehicles. “In the recreated ‘London’ visitors will not only come across all existing makes of which the gorgeous E-Type, which, upon its launch Enzo Ferrari stated it to be the most beautiful car ever made, but also those that are but a faded memory for the English car enthusiasts. Long gone vehicles that only a few people had the opportunity of seeing ‘in the flesh’.”
Some other cars exhibited in the exhibition include the Austin Healey, AC, Bristol, Ariel, Jensen, Lotus, TVR, Rolls, MG, Triumph. And British cars still going strong to this day such as the Bentley, Rolls Royce, McLaren Jaguar, Land Rover, Mini, Aston Martin.
Running until 26 January, a 'very British' menu will also be available at the museum’s brasserie.
For more information:
Autoworld
Visit the 'So British!' exhibition site
Parc du Cinquantenaire 11
1000 Brussels
