Automobilia Ibérica 2016 – The Parking Lots

This year’s edition of the Automobilia Ibérica went down last weekend and, as usual, it brought some interesting classics to the very small town of Moita, Portugal. The Automobilia Ibérica is, at its core, an event aimed at the parts market, with people buying, selling and trading all kinds of rusty bits and pieces needed to keep classic rides on the road. However, the parking lots are far, far more interesting than the event itself.

Despite this year having been a bit of a weak one for sightings, some cool and interesting stuff worth writing home about did show up. Now, this is usually more a European “cars of the people” kind of deal, with plenty of beetles, 2CV’s and Fiats, but some very neat arrivals went against the trend. Let’s take a look at a few.

Looking gorgeous in red, the DS 5 certainly brightened up the black and grey dominated lot

Without a doubt, the star of the parking lots this year and undisputed belle of the ball, a drop dead gorgeous Aston Martin DB2 Drophead Coupé graced the Automobilia Ibérica event in glorious fashion. A garage queen until recently, the DB2 was escorted to Moita by her very young, very nice owner

A nice 356B brought some more color to the Automobilia lot. Great shape, a very welcome addition to this year’s edition

Hands down our favorite ride of the weekend. A stunning, charismatic and size-wise downright intimidating 1938 Buick 8 Special. Spotless, achingly beautiful and a rolling display of an endless amount of carefully crafted and amazing Art Deco details. Some really amazing stuff

Now this is Portugal, so American classics are always scarce, even in this kind of event. That makes them real crowd-pleasers, even if a lot of people wouldn’t give them a second look in the states. That’s the case with the V6 Stangs, especially Coupes

Minis are always popular, but of every example which showed up this year (and there were a lot to choose from), this particular one takes the cake. Cooper inspired and very tastefully modified, we just weren’t convinced by the clear taillights. Otherwise an all round home run

Let’s take a look at a few BMWs because quite a few showed up and surprisingly, more modern models than classics. Starting with an interesting duo of E46 M3 and E38 7 Series

A more common sight but not less impressive. In our humble opinion, the best BMW ever made, the legendary E39 M5

Of course we’ve gotta give props to anyone rocking an 8 series, especially a V12. This 850i not being at the top of the E31 food chain (that spot is reserved for the savage 850 CSi) its still a pretty respectable – and oh so damn pretty – ride

A cornerstone of BMW history, a 2000 (“Bavaria”) also made an appearance. Underwhelming color, fantastic car

The granddaddy of the 3 series: the E21. Base model, base horsepower, top of the range character

An interesting little gang: Sunbeam, MG and a very nice 220 with an almost comedically large front grill

A regular of the Automobilia Ibérica, this little red +2 Elan keeps looking good throughout the years

Shouldn’t be controversial to say that the 308 is a well loved Ferrari, especially with the whole Magnum P.I. connection putting it on a lot of people’s wish list. Here we’re more partial to the 328, but the 308 is a respectable ride as well. The 208 however…that’s another story. Once the proud owner of the “slowest Ferrari ever made” title, equipped with the tiniest of tiny V8s, the 208 still turned a lot of heads and thrilled the non connoisseurs

From Italian exotic to German workhorse. The T3 VWs are increasing in popularity and it’s not every day you come across a 4 door cab Transporter, especially not in this great condition

Our personal favorites, the mighty Mercedes. Since we were spoiled for choice, we picked the most interesting examples in both model and condition, starting with a stunning W108 280. It had a special flag mount so it must have been in service either with the government or an embassy at some point in its life

A landmark in Mercedes history, the 180 Ponton is a timeless beauty and this particular example was as clean as they come (bonus pink Beetle!)

Nothing too crazy, but a cool pair nonetheless: a W116 280 and a R107 350. Both for sale, both fetching and both needing a fair amount of TLC

A big surprise this year and a great way to rat rod in style. This derelict ratty W115 packed with mismatched parts stole the show

W123s always deserve the utmost respect. Beautiful and utterly indestructible, two particular examples (300s) caught our eye: a Coupe which suffers with the ugly US spec bumpers (bonus early UMM 4×4 across the street!) and a perfect limousine. Usually the expression “you could eat off it” is an exaggeration but this W123 was so clean we wouldn’t mind setting our lunch down on the hood

From Germany to Italy, we couldn’t help but notice a steroid pumped version of the 500: the 595 Tributo Ferrari. Is it the best you (could) get? No, but doesn’t look bad at all and 180hp in such a small package is nothing to be ashamed of

Rivets on a Alfa 2000, what do we think? Cool racing inspired mod or heart attack inducing heresy? You decide! Ok, we know full well this is a GTAm (style, at least). Is it real, is it a replica? The latter is more certain, but without some concrete info we gotta leave the question open