2025 Celebration of the Motorcar

Celebration of the Motorcar is an invitation only display of prestige and classic vehicles in Perth. The first Celebration was held in 1993; the show fell into abeyance for several years before returning in 2012. Since its restart it was held in the stately grounds of the Cottesloe Civic Centre, except last year when the show wasn't held. This year the show moved to a new location, JH Abrahams Reserve, on the Crawley foreshore near the University of Western Australia.

My Tatraplan was invited to attend. As we had commitments on the Saturday night, I dropped the car off on Saturday afternoon. About half the exhibition vehicles were already in place by 4pm.

The Tatra was parked with a small group of unusual vehicles, most notably the rare Australian-built Giacattolo, one of only 15 ever made.

The new location offered a lot more shade than Cottelsoe Civic Centre - and it damned well needed it. Unfortunately we had an unseasonably hot day of 40 celcius with the threat of thunderstorms and hail in the afternoon. This kept many people away.

English cars lined up along the riverfront. Despite the intense heat, a breeze blowing up the river had a cooling effect.

1934 Singer Le Mans roadster

All class - the Bentley Le Mans



Quite rare everywhere, the Bristol 405

A pair of Bentleys.

1970 Marcos. A British-built sportscar with a wood framed fibreglass body.

1934 MG Sports

Mercedes row

Some "supercar"

New Aston Martins

No, not French - Dodge Viper

1970s Italians - Lancia Stratos and De Tomaso Pantera

Ferrari F40.

Lamborghini 400 GT

1967 Nardi 750S (Fiat based sportscar)

Porsche 356

Rolls Royce 

Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost

Cadillac row

The stunning 1934 Cadillac Aerodynamic, which has just completed a comprehensive restoration

The Cadillac crew lined up for a photo

The show was cut short by half an hour as the boiling tropical heat led to thunderstorms in the afternoon. Fortunately we all managed to get away before the heavens came belting down about 4pm.

Car shows take a lot of time and cost to organize and given the heat and thunderstorms, visitor numbers were down this year. If you'd like to support the team and the charity, Wheels for Home, you can do so directly here: https://www.wheelsforhope.org.au/

B-Sport Ferdinand Porsche documentary series

Ferdinand Porsche's life story has come to be totally dominated by the Volkswagen, the rear-engined German people's car. The Volkswagen is rightly a legendary vehicle, but the controversies that attach to that project and the car itself, do Porsche a great disservice. The Volkswagen was simply one of a series of vehicles he designed. It's not even the most interesting! Porsche's pre-Volkswagen career is extremely interesting. He started as a metalworker in his father's workshop, then became an itinerate tradesman, became an electrical apprentice, then electrical engineer, designed an electric vehicle motor, designed and patented the electric wheel-hub motor for the Lohner carriage company, designed military trucks and diesel-electric road trains for the Austro-Hungarian army, designed Austro-Daimler's first aero engine (that went on to become the model for Daimler-Benz and BMW aero engines in the First and Second World War), became Austro-Daimler's technical director of vehicle development, designed, built and drove racecars for Daimler, promoted the development of a budget 'people's' motorcar (at Austro-Daimler, Steyr and Daimler-Benz), designed the four and six cylinder engines used by Wanderer, worked on mid-engined racecars for Benz and Auto-Union, designed a three-wheeled delivery van for Zundapp, designed the Volkswagen and its predecessors, developed a 'people's tractor' and designed heavy tanks for the Wehrmacht. Most people don't know any of this. When you understand the full scope of his career, the fairy tales that accuse him of plagarism (of Ledwinka's or Ganz' designs) are easy to dismiss as the nonsense they are.

B-Sport channel on YouTube have done a magnificently detailed review of Ferdinand Porsche's career, from his early years in his father's metalwork shop. B-Sport have many other histories and biographies on their channel that are well worth watching. I highly recomment their content.

Porsche's early life

Revolutionary Designs at Lohner

Porsche at Austro-Daimler

Difficult times at Mercedes


More videos to follow. Subscribe to B-Sport for more content https://www.youtube.com/@bsport320

The origin of the Volkswagen: http://heinkelscooter.blogspot.com.au/2012/03/volkswagen-world-beating-peoples-car.html
Volkswagen at War: https://heinkelscooter.blogspot.com/2014/07/volkswagen-at-war.html
The Death and Resurrection of Volkswagen: https://heinkelscooter.blogspot.com/2015/04/the-death-and-resurrection-of-volkswagen.html
The Tatra-Volkswagen lawsuit: https://tatrat600.blogspot.com/2020/09/the-tatra-versus-volkswagen-lawsuit.html