At the beginning of a new year I really enjoy a trip to the U.S., to the NCRS in Florida, particularly to the event which used to be held at Cypress Gardens, or later to Pennsylvania's Dutch Country for Spring Carlisle. But as your European correspondent, this year I took a long weekend in Belgium to visit the American Excess show, which is held on the old dockside in Antwerp. The United Kingdom is an island, so a sea crossing is required to reach the rest of Europe. The Channel tunnel has been open for ten years now; cars are loaded onto special double-decked railroad cars that make the 27-mile undersea crossing in 35 minutes. Customs and immigration formalities are completed before the crossing, so that on arrival you start your motor, drive up the ramp, and straight out onto the French autoroute system.
Heading up the A16 towards the Belgian border, I notice new speed and ANPR spy cameras integrated into the top of the lighting posts in the median, but the speed limit here is a reasonable 130 kilometers per hour, about 81 mph. Once into Belgium, we are quickly on the Jabekke highway, the legendary length of unrestricted early freeway where Jaguar proved to journalists in 1961 that their new XKE coupe would exceed 150 mph, and where later the '66 Corvette 427 would be tested by United Kingdom magazines. Jaguar claimed the XKE was the world's fastest mass-produced car, but one must wonder whether a '60 Chrysler 300F with the 400hp solid lifter 413 and Ram Induction might not have been the real holder of this record if the two had gone head to head down this road.
Gas in Belgium is even more expensive than the UK at $6.45 per U.S. gallon, so the majority of cars here are diesel powered. Even driven hard, most modern diesel cars will do better than 45 miles per U.S. gallon and the less taxed heavy fuel costs about $5.75. In Belgium, the limit drops to 110 kmh, about 68 mph, but with no obvious speed cameras, the faster cars are running at 85 to 90 mph, and after just two hours I arrive in Antwerp.
Although 40 miles from the ocean, thanks to the deep and wide Scheldt river that connects it to the North Sea, Antwerp is the world's fourth largest harbor and the eighth largest container port by volume. The American Excess show is located around an old warehouse right on the old dockside, with the new port now north of the town towards the Netherlands border. Although bitterly cold, Sunday morning was clear and bright as cars started to arrive from four countries to this dramatic location with immense barges passing in the river. A small catering truck offered perfectly cooked french fries, with a choice of different sausages, and there was a warm room with seating serving real coffee.
In England, the car trend is for originality and restraint, so it is surprising how many of the cars here are heavily customized. That suits me fine because, in the end, custom cars are much more interesting to look at. Talking to most of the owners is tough because while the language in southern Belgium is French, which I can manage, in the north it is Flemish, closely related to Dutch, but still incomprehensible to me.