Algarve Classic Festival 2026 — Portimão

[Wapping]

A first for me on two levels.

1. I have never been to the Portimão Classic Car Festival before.

2. have never been too far outside of Lisbon, so the Algarve is unknown territory.

It’s all a bit trains, planes and automobiles to get there. First a walk to London Bridge, then a train to Gatwick airport, to catch up with ChasMill and David ‘Shouts’ Gray.



Flight tomorrow at 06:05. What does the ‘O’ stand for? Oh my God, it’s early.

Algarve Classic Festival - Racing Calendar - AIA

Algarve Classic Festival takes place at the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve, from 30th October to 01st November, featuring historic racing, classic car parades and exhibitions.

autodromodoalgarve.com

 

[ThreeDawg]

Bring your sunblock, it's pretty warm here - at least along the coast a bit from Portimao.

 

[Wapping]

Better get the party started:

 

[Wapping]

Bring your sunblock, it's pretty warm here

Excellent! Thank you.

 

[Rick 1600]

Looking forward to this...

 

[Orinoco]

Taking the Brompton with you on the planes and trains?

 

[ATT]

Bring your sunblock, it's pretty warm here - at least along the coast a bit from Portimao.

It has been 29c today where I live....Nothing under 28c the last few months...Since the last part of April I think.
Be nice to have some rain though. Had some cool nights though this last couple of weeks, we had a 7c one night....Not normal for October.

 

[Wapping]

Taking the Brompton with you on the planes and trains?

I am being chauffeured.

 

[Davey B]

Taking the Brompton with you on the planes and trains?

I am being chauffeured.

Ah, a tandem...excellent mode of transport...enjoy the trip, gentlemen.

 

[Wapping]

All good so far, with excellent weather. Some of the locals are in jackets and even coats. We are in T-shirts and shorts.

Pictures and some words to follow.

 

[ATT]

All good so far, with excellent weather. Some of the locals are in jackets and even coats. We are in T-shirts and shorts.

Pictures and some words to follow.

I am looking forward to the report.
It is normal when you have acclimatised and coming out of summer to put on a jacket when it goes down to 23- 22c....Some even wear a jacket when it is 24- 25! I only wear shorts when it is in the 30`s.

 

[ChasMill]

The first of (very) many!

 

[Wapping]

I am looking forward to the report.

First the background.

A good friend of mine and ChasMill, a regular at Le Mans is having a tough time at home, where his wife / partner has a form of early onset dementia. Not to put too fine a point on it, he needed a break and, if nothing else, a trial run at moving in some care for a long weekend away. Going to Portugal’s Algarve (an area he knows very well) to watch the Portuguese Classic Car event was a great opportunity to kill several birds with one stone.

More to follow…

 

[Wapping]

The jaunt started with the three of us meeting at the Gatwick North Terminal’s Accor hotel, ahead of an 06:10 flight the next morning with Easy Jet to Faro. It was only later revealed that ChasMill, instead of flogging Gatwick, could have flown from Stansted and been a lot closer to home.

The hotel is surprisingly good, for an airport hotel and just a short walk into the terminal.

Next morning, we were up bright eyed and bushy tailed, Charlie buying the coffees in the world’s most inefficient Starbucks:



Coffee sort of done it was onto the plane. I must say the flight crew were all very pleasant:



If I got my geography right, ATT is down there somewhere:



Our destination comes into view;

 

[Wapping]

Onto the ground, through a very tedious immigration check and out into truly glorious weather to pick up our BYD hire car to drive from Faro to Portimão.

Charlie had prebooked the car hire, which (unlike immigration) was very efficient:

 

[Wapping]

As it was only about 09:45 when we arrived in Portimão, there was no point in going to our AirB&B in the town, so we went straight to the circuit to watch Friday’s practice cessions and, more importantly, get a feel for the circuit.



To be continued….

 

[Wapping]

I have never been to the Algarve, let alone the Portimão circuit. In a word, the circuit is excellent.

In essence the is carved into a hillside, laid out in what is almost a kind of switchback, with lots of pretty significant elevation changes. This makes for excellent viewing as so much of the track open to see. This is the note that the Rowles race team (more of them later) has up in their pit. You can see the very basic handwritten notes:



It was stuck up alongside the schedule:

 

[Wapping]

Classic car racing is pretty much on a par with classic motorcycle racing, both being pretty relaxed. The pits are open for spectators to wander through. The snaps taken speak for themselves.

More to follow….

 

[Gavla04GS]

More to follow….

Thanks Wapping, one interested long distance spectator here…

 

[ChasMill]

Here are the rest of my photos - apologies if any are repeated: