Asia Klasika Motor Festival 2015

Kuala Lumpur: Southeast Asia’s premier automobile festival, Asia Klasika, celebrated its 6th anniversary recently by showcasing yet again a selection of classic and contemporary exotic cars and motorcycles. This year, the event was held in Putrajaya and the Sultan of Johor, Sultan Ibrahim ibni Almarhum Sultan Iskandar showcased his fine automobiles from the Royal Johor Automobile Collection at the event, as a highlight.

Organized by Historic Motoring Ventures, the ASIA KLASIKA Motor Festival, which presents the annual Malaysia International Vintage & Classic Concours is a 3-day festival that can be regarded as the Southeast Asian version of the highly-acclaimed concours meets such as the Californian Pebble Beach Concours and Salon Prive in the United Kingdom.

Also part of the festival was highly coveted ‘Sultan Ibrahim Cup’, which is South East Asia’s most prestigious trophy for the cream of the crop of the region’s historic cars. It was awarded by Tunku Idris to Al Dakshi fromSingapore, who is the proud owner of a pristine 1958 Jaguar XK150 Drophead Coupe.

The theme for the festival is usually based on the automotive anniversary celebrations of the particular year. For 2015, the theme is announced as ‘Ultimate Cats‘. The particular theme of the festival was inspired by Jaguar and Proton models, which respectively represent the jaguar and tiger.

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A number of cars that delighted the fans include “Proton 1” – the first production Proton Saga for Malaysia as well as other brands from Jaguar (XK, E-Type, MK 2), Citroen (DS range), Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Alfa Romeo to name a few. The Jaguar’s fastest road-going car, the F-Type Project 7, made its debut at this year’s show after it was unveiled at last year’s Pebble Beach Concours D’Elegance and the Goodwood Festival of Speed. The limited edition model carried the design language of the past Jaguar D-Types of 1956 and 1957, and pays tribute to the brand’s seven-time Le Mans win from 1951 to 1990.

The marques and models celebrated at the event were led by Jaguar (80 years), Citroen DS (60 years), Mercedes-Benz 190SL (60 years), BMW 3-Series (40 years), Proton (30 years) and a special tribute to the 105 Series of Alfa Romeo in conjunction with the 105th anniversary of the iconic Italian marque.

“Malaysia is one of the most conducive locations in Asia for an internationally-styled car show as the country is rich in its motoring culture, transportation infrastructure and people friendly tropical climate. It is our desire to place Malaysia on the world map of exotic motor events,” said Andrew Suresh, the curator of ASIA KLASIKA Motor Festival.

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Also on display was Hi Majesty’s newly acquired bespoke Super-Liner Mack Truck, which was recently unveiled in Brisbane Australia and included his tiger-themed Kembara Mahkota Harley Davidson motorcycles.

Making the scene for the first time was Singapore-based Munich Automobiles – a BMW Alpina dealer, which displayed a 2014 Alpina D3 Biturbo to commemorate 50 years of the tuning house, along side an original 1984 BMW E30 M3 and a 2013 DTM M3 Coupe Bruno Spengler limited edition model.

“The quality of Concours cars this year was top notch and our judges were amazed with the standards of restoration and competitive spirit of the participants”, said Australian chief judge Brian Ruwoldt.

Investment-grade collector cars were available during the Pullman Sale that included a right-hand drive 1958 Porsche 356 Speedster (RM2.98mil), a 1971 Mercedes-Benz 300SEL 6.3 and a 1967 Austin-Healey BJ8 3000 Phase II – all of which were among 13 other cars. The total value of the sale exceeded RM30 million this year.

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