I experienced the Eifel fog myself last year after this event. British journalist Peter Cahill invited me to have dinner with him at his residence in Germany, Guesthouse Weber in a small town called Wiesemscheid. Leaving the guesthouse late that evening there was a thick fog. My B&B address was 10 miles away and I can remember it wasn’t the most pleasant drive.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 It was also the last time I spoke to Peter as he passed away in October last year, at the age of 75. Since the nineties Peter lived in a little German village called Rodder and wrote for several club magazines and British classic car magazines. The first time I met him was in 2001 in the Press Centre of the Nürburgring. From that weekend on we met each other every year at the Oldtimer Grand-Prix and corresponded by e-mail.                                                                                                              As a motoring correspondent he was quit a character wearing his large glasses and having a wonderful sense of humour. I will always remember one Sunday-morning in 2006 when I walked down from the car park to the circuit and noticed his Saab 90 had been severely damaged, the complete front end was held together by duct tape. That afternoon I asked him in what kind of accident he had been involved in as I had seen the car parked without any damage on Friday.               “Guus you won’t believe me, but Friday-night when I drove back home to Rodder the biggest boar in the whole of Germany had the courage to come out of the forest and the bloody animal decided to cross my path”, Peter told me with a grieved expression on his face.                                                    He was very attached to this car as he got it for a bargain after his former car, an MG Metro was stolen in the UK containing almost everything he owned.                                                                             In this  report I´ve placed a picture I took in 2004 of Peter together with Hans Hermann, the well-known, former Mercedes Grand-Prix driver. When I mailed him the picture he quickly responded by e-mail: Well, it’s quit a privilege for an older German driver to be on a picture with such an important British motoring journalist.                                                                                                                Yes, that was Peter always sharp and funny. This year I missed Peter at the Nürburgring and I realised it was a privilege to have known him.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     Like every year the Marathon race is held on Friday afternoon at the Nordschleife, the old legendary circuit (with a length of 22.5 kilometres) and the Grand-Prix circuit. This combination gives a total distance of 25.4 kilometres for one circuit. This year three different races were held together, the Historic Marathon 500 for Touring Cars and GTs built up until 1965, this is a 20 lap race (=approx. 500 km.). Second race is the Nürburgring Trophy 100 for Touring Cars and GTs built up untill 1971, an 11 lap race over a maximum distance of 100 kilometres, and the third and final race is the FHR Roschmann Cup, a 17 lap race with a maximum racing time of 180 minutes.                                              Training was on Friday-morning for all three classes.     Fastest were Martin Stretton and Jon Minshaw with their Jaguar Low-Drag E-Type, second was another E-Type of Germans Oeynhausen and Stippler. Third on the grid was a 1964 Ford Fairlane which was placed in the so-called prototype-class. This 495 bhp saloon is a recreation of the original American Holman-Moody Fairlane and the first one of four recreations Holman-Moody are planning to build. This car already showed it’s high potentials at Spa and the Nordschleife but the FIA won’t provide the homologation papers for it to be legal for Touring Car races. They state that the Fairlane never participated in any European races in the sixties. They also claim that the front suspension is too much modified using tubular control arms with the coil springs relocated to the lower arm and four shock absorbers.  For five laps the Fairlane of Germans Barney and Salewsky was in second place close behind the green E-type but then a mechanical fault caused their withdrawal. The race was also very dramatic for the equippe Stretton/Minshaw, already in the second lap they had to  drop out due to a minor electric fault. After two-and a half hours the race had to be stopped due to large oil spills at several points around the track. Overall winner of the Marathon 500 was Graf Marcus von Oeynhausen and Frank Stippler with their immaculate E-Type. 3 minutes behind in 2nd place were Chris Chiles and Paul Ingram (AC Shelby Cobra). The less powerful but very light Marcos 1800 GT of Allen Tice and Chris Conoley finished in third place.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    At around 12.30 h.on Saturday. the organisers gave the green light to start the first race. Because of the fog no practice had taken place so the order on the starting grid for the touring car-race was decided by engine-capacity. So on the front of the grid were the Ford Mustangs followed by Alfa GTAs and Lotus Cortinas. It was a very exciting race and just two Mustangs stayed in front followed by the always quick Austrian Dieter Karl Anton in his white Alfa GTA. Next day the second race of this series was held under much better conditions. Again a very exciting battle between the Swede Lars Esselius (Ford Falcon) and Dieter Karls GTA took place.  The overall winner of both races was Tomas Gustavsson (Ford Mustang), with second Dieter Karl Anton and Enrico Spaggiaria (Ford Mustang) third.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Like every year the Auction House Coys had it’s tent placed in the paddock centre and they weren’t affected by the fog. Quite the opposite as more people then ever visited the auction on Saturday at around four o’clock. Some highlights of this auction were a Ferrari 275 GTB Longnose, a Lamborghini Miura and the Mercedes 300 SL. €226,775 was paid for the 1968 Miura P 400 S-Specification which was offered at no reserve. The immaculate 300 SL was sold for 349,865 Euros.  The beautiful 275 GTB and four other Ferraris weren´t sold. A definitely unrepeatable chance to buy a genuine 1 owner from new Jaguar E-Type was also one of the highlights. This barn find with just 9830 miles on the clock, was bought new in 1963 by an American air force pilot during his service in Germany. The pilot used his new pride and joy during his last 2 years of service in Germany and took the car back to the US in 1965, after having had his 10.000 miles service.  Back in the US, the car was not driven anymore but stored in a garage for the next 44 years !  The untouched and unrestored car came with all books, service booklet, purchase contract, warranty card etc. etc. The car went to Monaco for 58,925 Euros. A highly competitive BMW 1800 Tisa (ex works) supplied with FIA papers made an impressive 44,783 Euros. A beautifully restored Peugeot 404 Pininfarina Coupe finished in blue with matching blue leather interior got a new owner for 22,096 Euros.                                                                                                                                                                                                                The Pre-War cars drove a regularity run on Sunday. During the training session every driver tried to lap the circuit in a respectable time which would be repeatable in the race. Every deviation of this time would result in penalty-points. Volkmar Neumann (MG PA) was the driver with the least penalty-points so he won the rac e. Some very special cars entered this run like the beautiful bodied Riley TT Sprite and a 1906 Stanley Vanderbuildt Cup Racer with a steam engine.                                                                                                                                                                                                                          For the spectators the fastest attraction this weekend was the Group C cars which had their highlights in the mid-eighties. Some stunning cars could be seen driven in anger around the track. Star of the weekend was the 1988 Sauber-Mercedes C9 in which Australian Rob Sherrard was in top form and recorded the fastest lap. For twenty years this “Silver Arrow” was driven around the Nürburgring by Jean Louis Schlesser und Jochen Mass. The racing enthusiastic 'Man from down under' made his discovery in Switzerland. Racing driver, Cox Kocher, privately owned the Sauber-Mercedes - chassis number 5 and sold it to him ! Now Sherrard starts with this 720 bhp racer at selected historical Group-C races. “Overtaking the back of the field was sometimes a bid tricky”, said the 57-year old Australian Sherrard.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   It was a very successful weekend for German Timo Scheibner as he finished first in both heats of the Orwell SuperSports Cup in his 8.3 Litre 1971 Lola T222. On Friday during qualifying the Italian Tullio (March 707) was faster (0.15 seconds) but in the fog on Saturday afternoon the German was braver took the lead and finished 14.3 seconds in front of the March. The second race on Sunday-afternoon it was sunny again and every lap the March was almost glued to the back of the Lola. Tullio didn’t succeed in overtaking and finished 2.8 seconds behind Scheibner.                                                                                                                                                                                                                               Several Maseratis and Ferraris entered the race for 2-seaters and GTs build until 1961. The Maserati Type 61 (nicknamed the Birdcage because or this body-framework) was fastest in both heats. Second in heat 1 was Adrian Kraft with a Maserati 150S. In race two Jos Koster finished second in a Ferrari Tipo 246/196 .                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   An impressive number of cars took part in the race for GT-cars build up until1965. Some of these cars had already raced in the Marathon 500 like the Aston Martin DP 214 and the winner of the Marathon Graf von Oeyhausen in his green E-Type. But there was fierce opposition from three Ford GT40s and several Lotus Elans. Georg Stummeyer  (Ford GT40) won this race followed by von Oeyhausen and in third place another GT40. The Lotus Elan 26R of Swede Thomas Henrysson finished fourth.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          The race of the Grand-Prix cars until 1960 was clinched by the "Flying Dutchman", Jos Koster. His blue Maserati 250F "Piccolo" (1958) has a moving history. An American named Temple Buell was financing his own private Scuderia and Maserati built him two brand new cars in 1958. These were on chassis frames with shorter wheelbases, lighter and smaller, with the drive-shafts angled slightly forwards. They became known as the Super-Lightweights or "Piccolo" models, and chassis number 2534 was the last 250F to be built in the Maserati factory in Modena. During it’s lifetime it had been sold to a car-breaker for £650 but it survived and was kept in the Monza museum for many years.                                                                                                                                                                                            A large number of cars entered the Revival-race of the German Rennsport Championship. In the division Touring and GT cars from 1972 to 1981 eighteen Porsches 911 Carreras, two Tomaso Panteras and two very fast Ford Capris RS3100 competed. Eight BMW M1s from the Procar series of 1979 and 1980, plus the original Group 5 cars of 1977–1981 (Porsche 935, BMW 320) also took part in this race. Qualifying for this race wasn’t possible because of the fog. Positions on the grid were based on power output. After two safety-car laps forty five cars took off for an exciting race. Mark Bullit (Porsche 935) took the lead, closely followed by Daniel Schrey (Porsche 935 K3). Some laps before the end of the race Bullit misbraked itself and Schrey took the opportunity to pass him and won the race.                                                                                                                                                          The 37th AvD-Oldtimer-Grand-Prix can be summarised as ‘three days of enthralling historical motor sport with fascinating cars from eight decades of automobile history”. This statement can only be confirmed as this event attracted 62.000 spectators despite the bad weather conditions on Saturday.                                                                             Pictures by Guus Docen