Celebrating 20 years of PreWarCar.com: How it all began

Today we celebrate the 20th anniversary of PreWarCar.com. Yes, you read it right! The website went live 20 years ago and since then millions of classic car enthusiasts have found their way to the online platform dedicated to cars built before World War II. Hundreds of thousands of ads have been placed by individuals, dealers and auction houses, and the engine (website) is still running smoothly and we (and hopefully you) are ready for the next 20 years!

Since 2001 a lot has happened in the (car) world and also on the internet in general. When founder Joris Bergsma was looking for an Amilcar CGSS, he got lost on the internet and decided it was time to start an international platform for prewar car enthusiasts. It took some time to find the right name, but sometimes the obvious is the hardest. On 5 May 2000, the name and the website PreWarCar.com were officially registered. It was over a year later, after much testing and trial, that the website went live on 3 July 2001. That is 7,305 days ago, and since then we have published 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year. A snippet, a story, a mysterious car, an unseen motorbike, a Friday Lady, a quiz and more. With one exception, and that was 11 September 2001 (9/11). On that day, we published a black page because it was not a day for car talk...

Curious to see how the website looked back then? The internet archive 'WayBackMachine' has saved a snapshot of the website from 21 July 2001, when we still had the tagline:  PreWarCar, The Greasy Road to Pre-War Joys. The first published article, which is still online, is from 14 July 2001: A Bugatti Diesel.

The new magazine/marketplace did not go unnoticed, and when David Bowie(!) mentioned the website in his weblog the number of visitors rose for the first time to 10,000 in one day! Time for champagne!

On 19 May 2003, PreWarParts.com was registered after many requests from users and it was an immediate success. Now the parts section has been integrated into the website.

Being enthusiasts ourselves, we wanted to make physical contact with other PreWarCar enthusiasts and some presence in the real world would not hurt the website. The first event with our own stand was the Interclassics Maastricht show in January 2002. This was followed by annual trips to Paris for the Retromobile show, Beaulieu, Hershey and hundreds of other shows and events. The last pre-Covid show where we had a stand was Salon Retromobile in Paris in 2020.

In October 2003, we received the E.P. Ingersoll Award in Hershey for the best presentation of automotive history by the International Society of Automotive Historians.

Also in 2003, the collaboration with the famous British magazine 'The Automobile' began. A year later was the start of the cooperation with the VSCC. Both partnerships still exist today.

Among the first dealer-advertisers were AutoMusa from Bergeijk (later split into Retrolegends, Kenniscars and AK Automobiles), Blackhawk Collection of Don Williams, Hyman Ltd from St. Louis, Coupe from Spain and tyre specialist Longstone Tyres.

PostWarClassic.com was launched on 16 January 2008, as many dealers and auction houses wanted to apply the power of PreWarCar to their postwar offerings.

In 2009, the very first of The 100 Miles of Amsterdam, a night rally around Amsterdam for prewar cars only, was organized by PreWarCar.com and Via Flaminia.

After the death of Jacques Pothérat, the famous French collector of vintage cars, the Linas-Montlhéry Autodrome was in danger. The energetic organizer Vincent Chamon asked PreWarCar.com to motivate the international classic car community to help out. Only two years later, Vincent organized the Vintage Revival Montlhéry with the blessing of Jacques Pothérat from above. PreWarCar.com was VRM's first international partner. We plan to return as a partner to the historic Montlhéry circuit in May 2022.

Traditionally we have an April Fool's joke, which is often a success: such as the Bugatti book with all the 'fake' Bugattis (we received many e-mails from worried Bugatti owners who wanted to order a copy). And the last one about the subsidy on the transition from a saloon to a special (we had been offered the first few cars before the first coffee).

In 2017, the business was handed over to a younger generation and Laurens Klein, together with his wife Morris, took over the wheel.

Spring 2018 saw the release of the new website, PreWarCar '2.0', a completely restyled and redesigned website. After some hiccups and getting used to it, we can hardly remember the earlier versions.

The international aspect of the hobby has been essential from the beginning. We ourselves are from the Netherlands but visitors come from England, the United States, France, Germany, Pakistan, Australia, China and many other countries. In October 2017 we sent one of our promotional vehicles (the 'PreWarCar V8') to China to promote the website.

We love challenges, so when the offer came to buy a Lancia Augusta with an MG-A engine, which had been standing with a seized engine for at least 40 years, we got excited and set ourselves the goal of getting it running again during the 2018 Beaulieu weekend. And yes, we succeeded! Another challenge we took on and succeeded in was to drive an 1899 Amédée Bollée from Paris to Amsterdam in May 2018. This was the same make that had won the original event. After driving 730 kilometres in 3 days, we reached the finish line on time! As mentioned, we are enthusiasts ourselves.

Now we like to cheer about the history and also about the future. Our aim is to keep the website up to date and to keep you informed with daily articles about the most interesting early cars and (motor) bikes. Besides that, we keep updating the techniques of the website for optimal performance. This will continue with a new search and selection system that will be implemented in the coming months.

We would like to thank you, our readers and advertizers for your continued support and enthusiasm. And a special thanks to Joris Bergsma for his input in this article.

Hopefully, the lockdowns will end soon and the world will open up again so we can all meet at one of the many events and celebrate in person.

Laurens and Morris Klein