Outstanding is just one word to describe Auto e Moto d’Epoca

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Car Show: The Auto e Moto d’Epoca 24th 27th October 2024

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Across Europe, there’s a number of top classic cars shows. There is Retromobile in Paris. In Germany, there’s Essen. In the UK, we have our classic show in the NEC each winter.

Over in Italy, Auto e Moto d’Epoca is in a league of its own, without question. Staged every October, the show is a long-running institution in Italy. It’s the biggest, most expansive classic car show of them all, with literally thousands of cars and bikes on show, many also temptingly up for sale, coupled with a vast collectors’ market for car parts, models, automobilia, posters, you name it.

As an experience, it’s almost overwhelming. So much to see, so much you’ve never seen before. Naturally, Italian classics form the centerpiece, so if Alfas, Lancias, Fiats, Ferraris, Maseratis, Lamborghinis, Ducatis, Lambrettas and the like are your thing, this is absolutely the place.

Are you looking for that rare, hard-to-source Italian car or bike component? Again, this is where to find it, without question. Bologna is like a gold mine.

Porsches, BMWs, Mercedes, Citroens, and more are also featured extensively in this giant show, now claimed to be the biggest in Europe.

Auto e Moto d’Epoca began back in the early ’80s and, for many years, was staged in Padua. I went to one of those Padua shows in 2018 and was blown away by the scale of the event, the sheer number of cars on display, the heady festival-like atmosphere and the wonderful obscurities that I never knew existed.

Last year, however, Auto e Moto d’Epoca shifted gears and moved to Bologna. It’s since doubled in size. At this 41st edition of the show, there were 12 huge pavilions with an almost mind-bending array of over 7000 cars and bikes for sale in what’s said to be Europe’s biggest market.

This year’s manufacturers included Volkswagen, which had a big stand hallmarking 50 years of the Golf. There was Mercedes, Alpine and Toyota, but very surprisingly, no official stands for Alfa Romeo and Lancia as in the past.

Fiat, however, had a big display highlighting its 125th birthday and two particular stand outs were the huge, mystical 21.7-litre Mefistole record breaker from 1923 and Fiat’s ingenious 1954 Turbina gas turbine concept car.

Lamborghini from Italy’s famed Motor Valley area was at the show. So were Maserati, Ducati and Pagani. The bike section was a total wonder all in itself.

The Automobile Club d’Italia stand put on a unique display of cars evoking the golden La Dolce Vita era of the ’50s and ’60s. As a Brit (and former Triumph owner), it was cheering to see the original TR3A from La Dolce Vita, as driven by Marcello Mastroianni in the 1960 black-and-white arthouse classic. Back then, the TR sports car was seen as a mini exotic in Italy, hence its star role in the film.

We had the first road-going Maserati, a 1947 A6 Pininfarina (and the second car ever built), as well as a special display of Maserati’s charismatic yet troubled Biturbo range. Or how about a Fiat Ritmo Abarth, originally owned by Enzo Ferrari?

Another rarity was the unique and cute OSCA Spider 1050, hailing from 1964, close to an Italian version of the Elva Courier (Google it!) or Lotus Elan, perhaps.

For our group of travelling Brits, however, car of the show had to be the fantastic Suzuki Go, a one-off concept car designed by the genius of Marcello Gandini while working at Bertone.

Hailing from 1972, the Suzuki Go is a small, sleek, two-seat amphibian powered by a 67 bhp 750 cc three-cylinder motorbike engine. The Go was supremely lightweight, pure and minimalist without windscreen, roof or doors.

Finished in green, it was conceived for both water and road. You could hitch an outboard to the back, for instance. What a simply fantastic idea and design, and yet it was just one of many surprises and delights at this epic classic extravaganza.

Once again, the scale of Auto Moto d’Epoca is something else. You could walk the same hall twice and see something new and different each time.

Then, there were all the cars parked outside, open to the elements, and some were astronomically priced, such as the fully restored Lancia Fulvia HF1600 (asking 125,000 Euros) that I happened to see.

A whole mega hall designated for spare parts and another purely for model collectors also drew the crowds at the Bologna Fiere showground, where the show organisers have already announced dates for next year (October 23-26, 2025).

No doubt about it. On the European A-list classic car circuit, Auto e Moto d’Epoca is definitely up there with Retromobile and Essen. And then some….