This calendar year I prescribe ten years Auto Motor Klassiek. During this period I met many people and made reports with them and their classics. In the near future I will share a number of memories from the past ten years with you, and I will randomly highlight a number of cars with which we went out. Today another reminder: back to the roots of Toyota Team Europe
During the summer of 2020, I was in regular contact with Toyota adept Ron Moës. I got to know him better after a few online responses to articles of mine, and we had a nice connection. While we were on holiday with the family in the Dordogne, we made an appointment to travel to Belgium in September 2020, to Dendermonde. Because there we would lay the foundation for a wonderful story about the Belgian years of Toyota's rally history.
It was the prelude to one of the most fascinating reports I made. I traveled to Dendermonde in Belgium with photographer Spijker and Ron Moës. It was early day, but we had a fascinating prospect. Because we visited Benny Heuvinck (huge Toyota fan and rally archivist), Claude Holvoet and Tony de Wolf. We not only wanted to uncover Toyota's impressive rally history. We also combined the history with the Etwee Toyota Corolla KE25, which was converted into rally cars. copies of Benny and Tony.
Welcome to the world of Ove Andersson. Welcome to the world of the de facto cradle of Toyota's current rally successes. And welcome to the world of rally romance and camaraderie, to the atmosphere of what it once was. The day was fascinating, and in Dendermonde we kicked off with a great insight into the private collection of the Toyota concession Holvoet. We saw beautiful and rare Toyotas there, and there was also a small piece Alfa Romeo and DKW past visible.
The photogenic Toyotas were captured later in the afternoon, but not that we had written down the stories of what it once was like and how it all started during a Flemish lunch. Benny Heuvinck told us a lot about the Belgian early days in Lot, about how Ove Andersson came into contact with Toyota. How old Holvoet once thanked the Japanese Toyota delegation for the honor of building a rally team. How people used to work together. About Andersson's preference for a Corolla over a Celica. And much more. Of course, Benny also talked about his own Toyota love.
The day passed, it was sunny and at a very nice location Bart Spijker captured how Benny and Tony's Toyotas literally kicked up dust. The basis of the story was ready. And it would have a long sequel. During the period after the shooting day in Belgium, Benny and I were on the phone a lot. It only became clear to me that Benny was an archivist when he told much more, we had a lot of contact via Messenger and email. And in the background Ron also contributed to the rally.
Benny sent through beautiful background stories in stages, and the breadth of images I received was impressive and completely unique. I am even grateful to him for that. All impressions, conversations and background stories resulted in a diptych for Auto Motor Klassiek. The two stories totaled more than a hundred hours, everything was researched and measured. And Toyota's rally history fascinated me so much that I ventured into a number of online articles. I did that under the heading Toyota rally history. The forgotten WRC victories.
Everything was fascinating. And this diptych, supplemented with the online articles, is still one of the most beautiful productions I have had the pleasure of making. Because I have hardly felt so strongly before how tangible distant times can be.
You will find the link to the article about the reporting day in Dendermonde -with photos here.
Dedication, history and passion described with a Gouden Griffel from which friendships were created. It really couldn't summarize the core of what Toyota is any better.
紳士諸君、ありがとう
A more than pleasant meeting, Erik writes after being fully informed and delved into the matter with complete dedication. Always wonderful to read and reread the texts that flowed from his pen. TOP!