Vintage and classic rallies are popular events throughout Europe. The larger ones in France tend to take a different form to what we may be used to here in Ireland, which are normally charitable events.
Over at Blodelsheim, in the Alsace region of France, a biannual vintage festival is held in a field just to the west of village.
The festival not only attracts a large selection of vintage tractors and combine harvesters, but also involves many of the villagers themselves dressing up in period costume for the weekend as part of the festival.
This year saw the event take place in late July and it was blessed with hot sunny weather on both days, after a wetter than normal spring/summer, yet despite all the rainfall local maize crops were still being irrigated from the high water table provided by the nearby Rhine.
The familiar and the unknown
This being right in the heartland of western Europe, there were many manufacturers represented that are more or less unknown here in Ireland, although Porsche and Lanz are two names commonly encountered at Irish events.
Yet what we don’t see quite so much of, are makes such Bautz, Steyr, Hanomag and Kaelble – the latter moving into construction and military vehicles as time passed on, as many others also moved into new sectors of engineering.
Yet, Anglo American companies were sold into the area after the war, and this is reflected by the number of John Deeres and International harvester models present, especially the latter if McCormick and Case are included in their number.
Looking at the relative numbers of the various makes on the day a clear pattern emerges of the smaller, indigenous makes fading from the scene in the 50s and 60s as the corporations moved in.
This was inevitable as tractor power increased and new models became too expensive too develop and put into production.
The big corporations with a vast home market could spread these costs over a greater number of units sold, and so sell bigger tractors cheaper.
Not all the marques faded from history though. Two names that are still with us today are Eicher and Kramar.
Although originally a German make, Eicher was busy in India from 1959 and that division eventually ended up in the hands of TAFE, which still produces tractors under the name for sale in the far east.
Kramer, on the other hand, is no longer associated with tractors, which it gave up producing in 1973.
Instead, it took the loader/handler route and is now part of the Wacker Nueson group and entered into a strategic distribution alliance with John Deere in 2017 for agricultural loaders.
Classic muscle at Blodelsheim
Blodelsheim is not all about the gradual demise of the small independent manufacturer, as sales numbers declined, there were plenty of bigger machines from later on that had been brought in to tackle the vast prairie type fields that abound in France.
One of the larger machines presented was a John Deere 4955. This was the top of the range model in 1989 when it was introduced and was the first Deere to offer 0ver 200hp at the PTO.
On oversized tyres, it is every inch the tractor for hot, hard days cultivating.
From 10 years earlier, there was Renault 1181 with that distinctive low waist styling that afforded great visibility over the bonnet. Even though it was only giving 118hp, it would have been a monster on most of the farms of the day.
There was also the opportunity for local contractors to show off some of their equipment and to illustrate how much of the local farming is now large tillage operations.
A Fendt 728 Vario was matched up to a Pottinger eight furrow reversible, ready and waiting for the upcoming autumn campaign.
Driving big tractors would have been considered very much a man’s job when these classics were built, however, it was the ladies who were keen to be driving the machines on the parades held over the two-day event.
Throughout the weekend, it was refreshing to see a healthy spread of gender and ages getting involved in the show.
Farm life and curios
Although tractors and combines were the major feature of the event, farm life from the past was still remembered and celebrated with most who took part in the parades wearing appropriate costume.
Some of the less salubrious tasks were also fondly portrayed, such as muck spreading by fork,which would have been the easier half of the operation, bearing in mind that the trailer would also need to have been filled by hand.
The next Blodelsheim festival is scheduled for July 2026. The village is situated a half hours drive to the north of Basel airport, alongside the Rhine and with the hills of the Black Forest providing a distant backdrop.
