Earlier this month I visited the Outdoor Car Retro Festival at Zhejiang International Circuit in Shaoxing, China. To be honest, I had really low expectations, thinking it was just going to be another commercial event using car culture as a cover. I’m happy to say though, I was blown away by what I saw.
China may not have the rich motoring heritage of the United States or Europe, but believe me when I say there’s no shortage of automotive passion here, and it spans all the way from classic cars to the newest models on the market.
Older cars are the main focus of the OCR Festival, but there was a little bit of everything on show and plenty of fun to be had.
One of the main attractions of the day were the cars parading down the circuit’s front straight. I saw everything from a Jaguar E-Type to an RWB Porsche 993, DeLorean DMC-12 and a Ferrari 348TS.
There was even a race-spec Porsche tractor sporting the iconic ‘Pink Pig’ livery made famous by the 917/20 Le Mans racer.
Other surprises included a Porsche 986 Dakar, a crazy mini trike, and a very creative Mr. Bean Mini replica.
This Porsche 911 Speedster was over from the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart, complete with a Umweltplakette environmental sticker on the front windshield and a factory-fitted rally meter inside. This rare model from 1989 featured the widened rear bodywork from the 930 Turbo, plus a fiberglass rear deck and unique shortened glasswork.
Everyone loves the BNR32 Nissan Skyline GT-R, and this example has to be one of the best in China. It’s just had an extensive engine build with many of its aftermarket parts sourced from Japan.
But of all the JDM cars in attendance at the OCR Festival, this Subaru Impreza STi 22B was my favorite. If you’re wondering why it has two sets of license plates, the car was first registered in Hong Kong (yellow plates) and then brought to mainland China (black plates). With the passage of time, I think we’ll see more JDM cars traveling between Hong Kong and mainland China.
The ‘Elegant Racing’ sub-event was a highlight of the overall day. Similar to a time-speed-distance (TSD) rally, two drivers began with an early Le Mans-style running start before driving 500 meters down the front straight. It’s not about who crosses the finish line first, but who crosses the line as close to 50 seconds as possible. Some entrants were obsessed with calculating the exact time, while others were just in it for a bit of fun.
You didn’t need motive power to take part in the OCR Festival, and the soapbox race provided plenty of action.
Something I definitely did not expect to see, but was so happy to, is this Porsche 934 sculpture by Benedict Radcliffe. The art piece was in the country courtesy of Porsche China.
Along with plenty of other cars and motorcycles on display around the circuit, there were various mobile coffee and burger shops, plus vendors selling everything from vintage shift knobs to custom overalls from Japan.
China’s car culture is rapidly growing, and the Outdoor Car Retro Festival 2023 gave us a little sample of that. It’s a positive phenomenon; watch this space.
Stannum (SN431) Zhang
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Were there china-made retros in the meet?
yes,there should be a DTM E30 M3
Sure, some China-made models were here, such as a HongQi (Red Flag) CA770 from the 1970s which is used for national events, diplomatic missions. Also a 东方红 (Red in the East) tractor from the 1960s. It is interesting that during that period, Chinese car were all named in this style.
Are RHD cars legal in China now?
It is legal for "special" vehicles with black license plates, either cars bought in Hong Kong/Macau and registered there in Mainland as well (that 22B mentioned), or used cars previously owned by ambassadors who brought their own cars from abroad.
The "Hong Kong - Mainland" started from 2023 and the car from Hong Kong must have HK&Mainlan Plate together to drive on the road, not too good looking but it does pushed the car culture growing between HK and mainland imo.
Most of the "black Plate" were brought into mainland by ambassadors and so call "foreigner business traders". Over the years some of them sold their cars to public and that gaves local ppl a chance to own a car which not belongs to CN market.. And also some of them'a price are flying up because the low number in the market..
I don't know if it's just my problem or not (at least on my wyfe's cell phone the same thing happens) but the SH is completely disorganized and in a very weird format on the cell phone, on the computer it remains the same, but on the cell phone it is practically impossible to read. Anyone with the same probleme?
If you use Chrome, then after the update it swears at HTTP and automatically opens the site in HTTPS. My phone and both computers open the site terribly. Enter the http address manually and everything will be as before.
Thank you for your recommendation! I've already tried it on my cell phone and continues to work terribly even when I enter "http://" manually. In fact on my computer I always use Mozila so it always works well, and I've already tried it on my cell phone with Mozila and it works well too.
Love to see how vibrant the car scene is in China
Actually refreshing. This is what car shows were like pre internet. No trends to speak of. An honest variety. No one trying to aim for a particular style thats cool for the year. Good to see a Honqi in the mix!
I've just left Hangzhou (very close to Shaoxing) after 7 years.. and I've seen an excessive amount of modern, expensive, super, sometimes a bit tasteless, cars. But coming from Europe, I've missed the older classic cars, that are currently not allowed on the streets in China. To discover that this event took place so close to where I lived, and that so much good stuff is hidden and reserved for these occasions!
Thanks for the article, I wish I could have been there.