Braving Irish boreens to revisit the motoring past

First they gave us Vorsprung Durch Technik - "ahead through engineering". Now Germans are rediscovering the charm of the same cars they shamed us into replacing.

On Monday, 41 Germans arrived in Rosslare with their classic cars. The group, drawn from all over Germany, is in the middle of a 1000-mile jaunt around the south-west of the country. The trip should prove an interesting experiment: send vintage cars that ooze character down some Irish boreens with a little character of their own and see what happens.

Mr Rainer Klink is the man who convinced the group to brave Irish roads and Irish weather. He owns a car museum in the town of Tubingen in south-west Germany. His collection of 50 classic motorcycles and cars is his passion.

"Collecting classic cars is a typical German characteristic," he says. "Germans have the time, they have the money and they can see how much character the classic cars have."

The 19 cars making the trip are of mixed vintage and include a 1938 BMW 328, a 1951 Jaguar XK120 and the baby of the group, Mr Klink's 1977 Volvo.

"I brought the Volvo because it has four seats in case someone else breaks down," he says.

But these devout believers in yesterday's engineering don't expect that to happen. And even if it does, they have a lorry full of spare parts on hand.

So far this week their vintage cars have taken them to Cahir, Blarney Castle and Kenmare. Still ahead of them is the Ring of Kerry and the trip to Dublin, before they end their trip next Sunday.

Vintage car collecting has become a massive industry in the last decade in Germany. "It's about the German love of technics and a love of the individuality, back when cars still had both," says Mr Erwin Blohmer who brought a 1966 Mercedes Cabriolet.

The two cars Mr Blohmer left at home in Baden-Baden served a useful purpose for this trip, he says. They are both right-hand drive, so while still in Germany he could approximate the experience of driving on the "wrong" side of the road without breaking the law.

The long-awaited new Volkswagen Beetle was supposed to have been the motoring craze of the decade in Germany, but the people's car had its thunder stolen by a young upstart.

The Smart car may look like it escaped from a scrapyard crusher with seconds to spare and sound like a hairdryer in distress, but the German public have taken it into their hearts and into their garages.

But Germany's latest motoring fads hold no interest for this group, particularly Mr Klink. For him, this 1000-mile road trip is about enjoying classic cars and seeing a bit of Ireland, not to mention experiencing Irish roads. "I'd like to see where my tax money has been going," he jokes.