Belgium 
THE 13TH EDITION OF THE ZOUTE GRAND PRIX WEEK, UNDER THE SUN AND ENTIRELY SOLD OUT, CLOSED WITH ONE OF THE MOST SUCCESSFUL HISTORIC CAR AUCTION SALES IN EUROPE.
A RALLY BRINGING TOGETHER 225 HISTORIC CARS, 21 LUXURY CAR BRANDS PRESENTING THEIR LATEST MODELS, THE WORLD'S FASTEST ELECTRIC CAR, A WORLD-RENOWNED ELEGANCE COMPETITION AND AN AUCTION WORTH OVER 22 MILLION EUROS.
KNOKKE-HEIST, 9 OCTOBER 2022 | The 13th edition of the ZOUTE GRAND PRIX WEEK took place in Knokke-Heist. The uniqueness of the event, with more than 600 exclusive historic and modern cars and the good weather, attracted many people to the seaside town. On Saturday and Sunday, the event welcomed more than 10,000 paying visitors.
The 2022 edition marks the return of the event to the streets of Knokke-Heist, with the 225 participating historic cars of the ZOUTE Rally by Stow on Saturday afternoon and the modern dream cars on Sunday afternoon during the GT Tour. For four days, the PRADO Zoute by Kindy Capital was the meeting place for all those who wanted to discover the future of the automobile. 21 premium car brands showed off their latest models and what the future holds with premieres and unique concept cars.
The event ended on Sunday with the announcement of the winners of the ZOUTE Concours d'Élégance, which took place at the Royal Zoute Golf Club, and of the "ZOUTE Sale", the auction of historic cars by the international auction house Bonhams. The latter also managed to immediately rise to the largest historic car auction in Europe for the prestigious house this year. The 80 cars offered for sale reached a total of 22,000,000 euros. The highest amount ever reached in ZOUTE's 10-year history! Among the two centerpieces of the sale, the 1985 Ferrari 288 GTO and the 1957 BMW 507 Roadster, the latter honored its favorites with a sale price of 2,093,000 euros. The bid of €3,400,000 for the Ferrari has not been accepted by its owner (for now). The Rolls Royce Silver Spectre 2015, a car whose renovation work was carried out by the Belgian Carat Duchatelet, and of which not a single copy exists, went under the hammer for 368,000 euros.
"As organizers, we are extremely happy that after two years governed by the strict rules of covid, we have once again been able to set up an edition that is visible and felt throughout the municipality. The fact that the public has registered en masse and that we were sold out on Saturday and Sunday confirms our belief that the new formula, which we launched last year and developed this year, suits us. This success confirms our belief that we will still be more demanding next year in our ambition to bring together the past and the future of the automobile in a single place like Knokke-Heist. We are therefore very grateful to the municipality for all the possibilities and the cooperation they offer us ", said Filip and David Bourgoo, organizers of the Grand Prix du Zoute week.
The ZOUTE GRAND PRIX CAR WEEK 2023 will take place from October 5 to 8, 2023.
To find out more about this edition and the various rallies that will take place in the coming months, visit the website www.zoutegrandprix.be.
Text: Zoute Grand Prix/ photos: Dirk Ivens.
