The new year started very well for your servant. Not only we had a very interesting Brussels Salon, but we were also able to witness the very first edition of the “Croisière Blanche Historic” in the French Hautes Alpes from 25 to 28 of January. Not only was this a very unique event of which I will report soon in the next edition of “Oldtimer Dreamcar Magazine” and also later on these pages, but the “camaraderie” and the friendship between the participants in this rally is something one will never forget. It was a unique both automotive and human experience, and I will write you soon more about the men and women I met there and with whom I had the pleasure to be a passenger and co-driver in their cars. I just let you enjoy here a photograph of the president of the club GRM (Grandes Randonnées Motorisés) who organized this event, Jean Louis Millelli, behind the wheel of his 1935 Hotchkiss 617, driving up in the snow on the famous climb towards Notre-Dame de La Salette, a site at 1800 meters above sea level, and the second most important place of pilgrimage in France after Lourdes… Winter driving in a pre-war French car with a noble pedigree… who could wish for more?

The Nissan Townpod showed the electronic future at the Brussels Salon...

Of course the Brussels Salon was also a major event, and soon you will read more here. We had many visitors and buyers on “our” Brussels Salon, and full order books make many smiling faces… Of course, electric cars were all the rage, with the Nissan Leaf being the Car of the Year, but the public is still very much focused on “normal” cars, and that is what they are buying…

But the public is more attracted to the "normal" cars, which capture the eye, like the new Audi A6...

The visitors looked also admiringly at the new Peugeot 508... or was it Miss Belgium 2011?
 

… This month, the “smog alert” speed limits were all the rage again on our Belgian motorways. We were pleased to read a press article from Toyota Belgium Public Relations Manager Koen Dekoning where he pointed out that owners of petrol and hybrid cars are equally “punished” by this measure as the drivers of Diesel-powered cars.

Winter driving in the French Hautes Alpes with a vintage Hotchkiss, remembering the days when emissions were no problem...
 

Admittedly, the emissions of fine dust particles have been brought down markedly, and according to the article, a Golf 2.0 Tdi emits only 0.06 mg/km nowadays, the Toyota Auris 2.0 D-4D only 0,02 milligrams. But the NOx emissions are still a problem. The Auris 2.0 D-4D emits still 145 milligrams per kilometre, the Auris 1,6 petrol version only 11 milligrams…

It is of course practically impossible to distinguish Diesel from petrol-engined cars when imposing speed limits, but certainly cars could be taxed differently, taking into account the total harmful and noxious emissions of a car, and also eliminating further the price differences between petrol and Diesel fuel…

Hans Knol ten Bensel