The 100 Miles Of Amsterdam 2015


Pre-war adventures in the night

The air is so thick with petrol-fumes that my eyes are starting to sting. With my hands on the large steering wheel I’m peering into the pitch black night that hides the Dutch landscape. All I can see is three sets of dancing lights from the other cars in front of me, and the outlines of Amsterdam in the Distance. This is Pre-war motoring at it’s finest: The 100 Miles of Amsterdam.

portretsitetest

Door Dennis Boxem
editor@classicproof.com

We have to admit, things haven’t started particularly well for us. Hardly 15 miles from our homebase in Hellevoetsluis the editorial Studebaker Erskine decides to kick the proverbial bucket. The smooth running six cilinder engine has stalled on us and there’s just no breathing back the life in her. A quick look under the bonnet reveals the condition is terminal. The 87 year old cast-metal bracket that holds the distributor to the back of the dynamo is sporting a very large, and distinctly new hole in the side. As we are posing a threat to other traffic (phah, modern day weaklings!) we’re swiftly hauled off the side of the A15 interstate and moved to a carpark near Vlaardingen, nowhere near where we want to be. Some discussion with the AA-head office later we are on our way home back to Hellevoetsluis. It’s just early enough and we have an MG-TD waiting in the garage. It hasn’t run for over a year, and it’s missing a battery, but with a new one installed we manage to coax the engine to life. Onwards to Haarlem. We might be out of the competition (the ’52 MG is just way to modern for a real classic rally) but we’re competing anyway.

 

Haarlem
One minor detour later (shouldn’t we have gone left here? Yes, we should have) we manage to arrive at the Grote Markt in Haarlem. Just in time for dinner. Where most cars are ready for the start, we’re still messing about with an array of stickers, rally signs and a last minute throttle-adjustment. Darkness has set in, but even so two things are painfully obvious. In the so called ‘good old days’ there really was a lot more diversity in car design. And yes, during the first 50 years of it’s existence, the car really did evolve in a most remarkable way. The earliest cars competing are hardly more than motorized carriages, whereas some of the pre-wars even make our MG look slightly antiquated.

 

Swiftly Underway
The start flag is raised at exactly 19.00 hours and with short intervals all 50 competing cars are swiftly underway. The road book takes us more or less in a straight line out of town, into the darkness of rural Noord Holland, onwards to Amsterdam. The organizers have set out an interesting path through the center of Amsterdam. Of course with some well-planned stops at several sponsors. Driving on the small canal-streets is not always easy and as an added bonus there are plenty of death defying cyclists and wandering tourists to circumnavigate. This first stage in Amsterdam is finished off by a true hill climb in the old Citroën parking garage at the Stadionplein. The Parking garage is pitch dark, and the polished floors make for an interesting road surface. Up two floors, and then back down again towards the Rai-station. We slowly leave the city behind and trade the wel lit roads for darkness and curvy single lane dykeroads with plenty of water close by.

 

The weather is the only mayor disappointment in the 2015 edition of the 100 Miles. Where the first edition was cancelled due to the worst snow that The Netherlands has seen in nearly twenty years, this one was hardly cold enough for a winter coat. Where previous editions always guaranteed some slipping and sliding on either icy or muddy dykeroads, there was none of that this year. A couple of specks of rain, and that was it.

 

Interpretation
Navigation was all about following the shortest route between arrows on antiquated ordinance survey maps, and this was of course open to ample interpretation. The maps of the area differ greatly from the current situation. No big surprise considering the build-happy nature in this part of the Netherlands. This became very obvious on an industrial estate just outside of Amsterdam. There where Pre-war Cars speeding around in every possible direction, but not one of them seemed particularly sure where they where going. It took some time, some profuse swearing and some figuring out, but in the end we managed to point the MG in the right direction.
With all 50 cars fanning out in the vicinity navigation becomes more difficult. You can’t just blindly rely on the car in front of you, and a dark and small side road is easily overlooked. Time to keep our head in the game.

 

Pea Soup
More so than in previous editions there are ample checkpoints with some time to stop and have a coffee or a hot cocoa. And of course, to have some pictures taken, as there is no shortage of spectators with this lovely weather. Some fine stops where made at the car-collection of Paul Kok, that had a number of special cars on display, including two Facel Vega’s. The midnight stop was at the wonderful Healey Museum in Vreeland, where the competitors could rejoice in some Dutch Pea Soup and rye-bread.
As the finish line is closing in we meet up four other competitors on the road. As fourth in a row of five cars navigator Rob pulls out a surpise. The three in front take a left, but he is adamant about going right. And right he is, as a couple of minutes later the other cars rejoin us and we are now the leader-car of our little group. On to the finish, near Amsterdam’s Haarlemmermeer station, where we arrived around half past one.

 

Bad Luck
This year there was no real competition between cars, but the best cars in each era where awarded prizes. Best Edwardian car was the 1913 Chalmers of Robert and Matthey Aberey. Peter Little and Louise Catledge took home the award for best Vintage car for their 41/2 litre Bentley and Luc Brands and Karel Bastiaansen took the award for best Post Vintage, with the 1933 Riley MPH. Bad luck prize went to- yes, you guessed it – Team Classic Proof. The Irony isn’t lost on us, but we’re somewhat comforted by the fact that we’ve managed to finish the 100 Miles three times in our Studebaker and this is the first time she really let us down.

The 2015 edition of the 100 Miles was a wonderfull event, and it’s easily one of the most enjoyable Pre-war car events around. As said, the only complaint was the weather. It just made things a little too easy.

Check out the short video we managed to shoot at the Grote Markt in Haarlem, just before we had to line our own car up for the start.

Game over: this sprocket sees daylight for the first time in 87 years
Start at the Grote Markt in Haarlem
into the pitch black Dutch landscape
Old bridges, narrow roads, even with large pre-wars
Midnight stop at the Healey Museum

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