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2019 Sinaia Concours d'Elegance – Coming of Age

It's always complicated to tell stories about the lesser-known, car-related shindigs around the world, especially when said events are like a diamond in the rough.
De Tomaso Pantera Group IV 213 photos
Photo: Ciprian Mihai
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This description is perfectly appropriate for something like the Sinaia Concours d'Elegance, which recently had its 84th birthday on the same Peles Castle grounds as its predecessors.

For those not in the know, which probably encapsulates most of you, the Sinaia Concours d'Elegance is one of the coolest classic car  shows you have never heard of, and for rather unexpected reasons.

Ask any classic cars aficionado about the word “Sinaia” at Pebble Beach or Amelia Island over the Atlantic or at Villa d'Este in the Old World and all you'll get as a response is a couple of raised shoulders at most.

Well, as it happens, the Sinaia Concours d'Elegance is the second oldest from the aforementioned three shows, with just five years separating it from a much more famous event held on the shores of Lake Como.

2019 Sinaia Concours d'Elegance
Photo: Ciprian Mihai and Dragos Savu
That said, only two editions took place - in 1934 and 1935 - before politics, World War II, about 50 years of communism and over 20 years of transition to capitalism deprived Romania of a regional concours d'elegance.

In 2011, the Sinaia Concours d'Elegance returned on the grounds of the Peles Castle, a piece of fairy tale land that sits between the Carpathian Mountains, and slowly but steadily became what it once was again, the best classic car event in this part of Europe.

OK, it may not be the best yet, since there are shows that draw a lot more cars, but it's certainly the best-marketed one and it definitely is set in the most awesome scenery possible.

Something that is in equal parts interesting and irrelevant to the story about this year's edition is the fact that the passions involved have probably reached their highest peaks yet in 2019, and you'll soon find out why.

2019 Sinaia Concours d'Elegance
Photo: Ciprian Mihai and Dragos Savu
As I mentioned in previous stories about the Sinaia Concours d'Elegance, the Romanian classic car show is not necessarily about mysterious one-offs from the Brass Era that are kept in air-conditioned vaults and command 7- or 8-digit prices at Sotheby's from time to time.

No, Sinaia is mostly about cars, people, and the special relationship between inanimate objects that can turn dinosaur juice into mechanical music feasts. The music is obviously only fit for those few remaining ears that can still appreciate the rumbling of a big-block V8, the melodic thumps of a carbureted four-cylinder or the slow murmur of an inline-eight.

In other words, Sinaia hosts everything from V12 Packards to lowly single-cylinder BMW Isettas, like the light blue one that won this year's edition in the small cars category. Speaking of which, for some reason, nobody managed to notice how the perfectly restored Isetta 300 was a very rare, three-wheeled version, which only adds to its quirkiness (most BMW Isettas had two wheels at the rear).

Overall, 35 participants from four different countries participated at the 2019 Sinaia Concours d'Elegance, but there were plenty more cool classic cars for people to drool over, even if they didn't get an award for merely dropping by. A special part of the event was an army of old Citroens, which gathered to celebrate the brand's centennial.

2019 Sinaia Concours d'Elegance
Photo: Ciprian Mihai and Dragos Savu
For me, the biggest surprise was BMW Group's special guest, which was a run-down BMW 327 Roadster that had belonged to a man who bought it new in 1930s Romania and then literally used to run from the communists into Germany back in the 1970s. The car now belongs to the BMW Museum and has been left unrestored, still carrying the battle scars of a crash it sustained during that '70s freedom run.

The Best of Show trophy was won by an Aero 30 Roadster from 1936, a car mostly special for its history since it's somewhat related to the Peles Castle, where the Concours has been staged since its inception.

As it happens, the two-cylinder, FWD roadster was first gifted by then Czechoslovakian president to King Michael of Romania, who used to call the Peles Castle his home. It was rather fitting for the car to be acclaimed on the grounds of its first garage 83 years later.

By far the coolest presence at the show was a decrepit Peugeot 203 from 1958, mostly with its original paint apart from a couple of touch-ups. Unlike most of the cars present at the competition, this one was a daily driver for a beautiful Russian lunatic, who decided to simply drive it from Moscow, Russia, to Sinaia, Romania, over a distance of approximately 6,000 km (3,728 miles).

2019 Sinaia Concours d'Elegance
Photo: Ciprian Mihai and Dragos Savu
The 61-year old Peugeot couldn't climb some of the mountain passes toward its destination and spent part of the journey in the back of a flatbed, but its owner vouches that most of the distance was covered under its own power, a feat that likely nobody does at events held at Lake Como or in Monterey County, California.

For no other reason than “I'm immature and easily amused,” my personal Best of Show is a tie between the pitch black paint job on a '67 Buick Riviera and the cacophonous symphony made by a Cleveland V8 exhaust from a Group IV De Tomaso Pantera racing car. A perfectly restored 1959 Mercedes-Benz 190 SL is definitely a close second and pretty much every other car present at the 2019 edition of Sinaia's Concours d'Elegance ties for third.

In the end, I urge you to scroll to the marvelous photo gallery for a small taste of oppressed passions tasting freedom. It should give you one more reason to visit the country that gave Clarkson a road to talk about.
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About the author: Alex Oagana
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Alex handled his first real steering wheel at the age of five (on a field) and started practicing "Scandinavian Flicks" at 14 (on non-public gravel roads). Following his time at the University of Journalism, he landed his first real job at the local franchise of Top Gear magazine a few years before Mircea (Panait). Not long after, Alex entered the New Media realm with the autoevolution.com project.
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