Event
For 36 years, Techno Classica Essen was the largest classic car fair in Europe – a sprawling marketplace where nearly 190,000 visitors moved through twenty halls filled with everything from concours-ready pre-war machinery to affordable youngtimers. When SIHA launched the first edition in March 1989, they expected 15,000 visitors. Over 30,000 came. The concept grew into a global meeting point for collectors, dealers, restorers, and over 200 marque clubs who built their stands into focused displays of marque history.
That chapter closed in 2025. In September 2026, the Techno Classica Salon opens at Messe Dortmund – a new city, a new autumn date, and a format that has shed some of the scale of the Essen years in favour of tighter curation. The 50,000-square-metre space will host international dealers with cars for sale, specialist restorers, parts suppliers, automobilia traders, and the club programme that always gave the event its particular character. SIHA brings four decades of experience to the new format.
The September timing is a deliberate choice. The spring classic car calendar in Europe is crowded; autumn is not, which gives the Salon room to establish itself without competing directly with Rétromobile, Techno Classica's old rival, or the Geneva and Essen motor shows. For exhibitors and visitors alike, the move to Dortmund also changes the geography: the Ruhr region sits at the centre of the most densely connected part of the European motorway network.
Dortmund's main station is one of the busiest rail junctions in Germany, with fast connections from Cologne, Düsseldorf, Amsterdam and beyond. The Messe is directly adjacent to the Westfalenhallen S-Bahn stop, a few minutes from the Hauptbahnhof. Driving from most of western Europe keeps the journey under four hours.
