In the last few years, the term ‘youngtimer’ has evolved in Germany to describe cars that are not yet real oldtimers or classics but can rather be defined as modern classics. The term roughly describes cars from the early 70ies as well as from the eary 90ies. The Youngtimer Vestival, organised by the Youngtimer Freunde Vest, is an annual event catering to such cars. I went for the first time this year and it’s amazing what cars the people brought out, even if it was raining with no end in sight!

The event is located in the town Herten, smack in the center of the Ruhrgebiet, which used to be Germanys biggest coal mining and industrial area and today still is the area with the densest population in the whole nation. As is usual with the Ruhrgebiet, Herten is littered with old coal mining and industrial buildings, which offer a perfect spot for a car meet. The Youngtimer Vestival was held on the grounds of the former coal mining complex Zeche Ewald.

The event was dominated by old Opels from the long-gone era when Opel still built rear wheel drive cars, but of course other makes were represented also as you can see with this Ford Escort Mk4 which had been converted into a pickup truck.

The conversion looked exceptionally well done!

Speaking of Fords… I loved how this Ford Capri looked.

It’s a shame the owner wasn’t around to pop the hood. I have reliable information that this car is not powered by a Ford engine, but rather by a BMW S50B32 out of a E36 M3 3.2!

This Opel Kadett City has to be the cleanest example on the planet!

I loved how the BBS wheels fit the car… take a peek behind the wheel, notice the yellow? I bet that’s a bitch to keep clean!

I wish there were more Mercedes W124 like this one… they look so good when they’re sitting like this!

Another Opel Kadett… this time a Coupe with bolt-on flares! Mean!

A different Opel… this one’s called Ascona.

The Opel Manta used to be hugely popular for modifying back in the early 90ies… it’s nearly died out in common traffic by now, sadly.

E30 + mesh wheels = YES!

The BMW E36 is currently on the treshold between being a standart used car and being a youngtimer. This one was pretty clean on OEM Style 5s.

German Look VW Bug… what’s not to love?

Old Benz with a modern twist. Pimp!

Golf GTI sitting on AC Schnitzer wheels originally meant for an E30… Unique and classy!

Speaking of Schnitzer wheels… this Opel Rekord Caravan was rocking a set in 8.5×17… seems pretty logical, considering the bigger ones of the old Opels had a 5×120 bolt pattern too!

Opel Kadett Caravan on OZ Turbos… I think I’m in love.

I absolutely loved how this bug sat. Looks really sporty this way! Wonder why there’s not many more done in this style…?

A slightly newer Opel Kadett… you can just about spot the red shine of the big brakes peeking out from behind the wheel. This thing had really huge brakes! I wonder if the power matches the brakes…?

Ford Escort RS2000 with the X-Pack wide body… what I wouldn’t do for a car like this…

You don’t see this very often, a VW Transporter sitting pretty on nice wheels and with a great paintjob to boot! Most often these things sport their scars from a life of being a work horse… this one looked pristine, I loved it!

Let’s come to a close with this Opel Corsa A. These cars have flared fenders already in stock form…

… but this one received some heavy fenderwork to fit the wide BBS RS wheels. The work looked very well done, as I had to look twice to even notice something was off!

This year’s car count reached a whopping 1600 cars. Sadly, we cut our visit short due to the heavy rain, so we didn’t see everything but we will definitely be back next year!

As usual, you can find the whole set of pics in the Flickr gallery!