More than 400 unknown and misunderstood cars together
The camels on the Louwman site in Raamsdonksveer must have been amazed. Where they usually mainly see Toyotas, they were surprised on Saturday 13 May with the most colorful car collection possible. An event organized by the Elk Merk Worthy association attracted more than 400 very different cars on this day. We take a look.
The event has the wonderful name EMWalhalla. “Yes, sorry, a culture has emerged within Elk Merk Worthy to incorporate the abbreviation EMW everywhere” excuses a text on the event website. But what is EM Valhalla now? We ask Aart van der Haagen, the striking PR man of Elk Merk Worthy. “This is a one-day shelter for unknown and misunderstood cars. Not tied to any brand, because even popular brands sometimes go wrong. We do not apply an age limit, so on site you will find, for example, a Peugeot P4, a French G-Class, but also the new Honda-e. A nice thing of which you could already say in advance that it would not work.”
Old and new
Nevertheless, this electric Honda significantly reduces the average age of the fleet. Most of the cars fall into the ‘youngtimer’ category and are roughly between 15 and 30 years old. The word ‘old’ does not apply to a snow-white Fiat Ritmo 60 with ink-black bumpers. Where most Fiats of this model have long ago been consumed by the rust devil, the mileage of this copy states ‘01267’. Indeed, at this event visitors could marvel at a new Fiat Ritmo.
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Speaking of ages: “The audience is also very diverse,” says Van der Haagen, “and we have a striking number of young people, real car enthusiasts who feel at home with us. We are very happy with that.” One of those young enthusiasts approaches us enthusiastically when we look at his Chrysler Sebring. A Chrysler is not a standard choice for most people, but this boy is different. “I had a Neon before and I wanted something bigger,” he says. “This is really fun to drive!”
Something classic is the Opel Senator 3.0 from 1990, a stately German with an owner who we also estimate younger than his youngtimer. “When I was little, the neighbors had such a car, from that moment on I wanted a big Opel myself.” We are already curious about classic Teslas, Xpengs, Lucids and BYDs.
Roadster weather
The sun was shining brightly during EMWalhalla, extra celebration for open car enthusiasts. Those interested in Japanese roadsters in particular got their money’s worth thanks to countless small Daihatsu’s from the Copen Club. Even more special than this Copen is the Honda Beat, a real kei-car with a 656 cc small three-cylinder that runs no less than 9,000 rpm. You really never come across such a car on the road, at EMWalhalla there are just four next to each other.
Another car that you never encounter is at the Smart club. It is the skylight and doorless Smart Crossblade. “Many people put it away in a collection,” says its owner, “but as far as I know it just has four wheels and a steering wheel. That makes it a car and it has to drive.” In the garage of this enthusiast there are also two Smarts, a Roadster and a ForTwo, models that are also well represented at the event. Next to the Smarts is a somewhat defiantly parked Toyota iQ, the only real – and failed – challenger. A quarter falls on several people this day. ‘Is that iQ really called that because of?…’
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Unusual suspects
EMWalhalla isn’t just walking around and kicking tires. For example, under the name ‘Flop Gear’ dozens of special cars pass a stage next to the red and white Dudok gas station, where hosts Aart van der Haagen and Gijs Bosman provide the cars with commentary and background information. Because even these connoisseurs do not know everything, owners also like to contribute.
This presentation makes it clear that EMWalhalla is not even a party for the unusual suspects. Well, there is a Fiat Multipla on site, but you don’t easily tick off the popular internet list with ‘the ten ugliest cars’. Even that turns out to be too mainstream for EMW audiences.
The biggest disadvantage of this EMWalhalla is the time you lack to give each car the attention it deserves. That could be a bit worse, because the festival has not yet reached its limit this year. Van der Haagen: “There is still room for expansion. We will then have to rearrange the site, but it can be much bigger!” Whose deed.
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– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl