Celebrating vintage cars: 10 timeless designs

Germany is so in love with classic cars that each year it holds the biggest convention in the world celebrating these timeless designs. The Techno-Classica fair, held from April 6-10, features more than 1,250 exhibitors and expects almost 200,000 visitors to come from over 40 countries. In the world of vintage cars, the annual trade fair held in the western German city of Essen certainly sets some global standards.

This year's event features a promising motto: "Share the Passion" - an open invitation for more people to join the ranks of discerned and extinguished car lovers looking at the past rather than the future. If you would like to join the ranks of those who collect vintage models, now may be the best time to do so while some of these gems are still roadworthy and sometimes passed on as a fixer-upper at an affordable price.

Germany's love affair with 'Oldtimers'

Germans have always had an interest in old cars, so much so that they started the growing tourism trend in Cuba two decades before US President Barack Obama entered the current climate of rapprochement between the two countries; Charter flights have been taking German car enthusiasts to Havana for years, where they admire old models kept in pristine condition ever since the country's economic isolation began.

Germans have even adopted their own "false friend" term to describe iconic cars from the past: they call them "Oldtimers," and blankly assume that this is the applicable term throughout the world. In any case, it will be one word that is bound to be echoed on countless occasions at the Techno-Classica event throughout this week.