Piston & Patina

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Piston & Patina Celebrating the craftsmanship, design and stories behind classic automobiles. Fine art, events, owner stories and annual print editions.

Every photograph is a piece of automotive history preserved for future generations.

Three Es**rts. Two countries. One unmistakable silhouette.In Belgium, a green Ford Es**rt Mexico stood beside a pale-blu...
09/09/2026

Three Es**rts. Two countries. One unmistakable silhouette.

In Belgium, a green Ford Es**rt Mexico stood beside a pale-blue GT wearing Mexico-style graphics—two interpretations of the same compact, purposeful shape.

Earlier, in Roermond, an RS2000 started the story through blue stripes, mechanical details and a glimpse beneath the bonnet.

Photographed separately, they came together naturally: Mexico, GT and RS2000. Different identities, colours and details, connected by the character that made the classic Es**rt unforgettable.

Which one would you choose: Mexico, GT or RS2000?

Photography: Piston and Patina

**rt **rtMexico **rtGT **rtRS2000 **rt

02/09/2026

On 22–23 August, the grounds of Kasteel van Veulen became the setting for the Hesbaye Historic Festival—a meeting of rally action, pre-war machinery, timeless classics and the people who keep their stories alive.

This short film is my first impression of the event: engines in motion, cars arriving beneath the castle walls and a small selection of the photographs I brought home.

More photographs and individual stories are coming soon through Piston and Patina.

One hour into Belgium, the rain was still following me.For part of the drive, I wondered whether the day would be ruined...
24/08/2026

One hour into Belgium, the rain was still following me.

For part of the drive, I wondered whether the day would be ruined before it had even begun. But I continued towards Kasteel van Veulen—and somewhere along the way, the clouds finally began to break.

Waiting around the castle were cars from very different chapters of motoring history: elegant pre-war roadsters, familiar sports-car silhouettes, unusual working machines and small details that revealed something about their owners. A pair of worn driving gloves resting behind a windscreen sometimes tells more than a perfectly polished badge.

The day closed with the Rally Revival. These were not simply classics moving carefully for the public: competition-prepared cars, cages, crews, dust and unmistakable rally engines brought another kind of life to the castle grounds. The field included both historically inspired builds and cars with deeper competition connections.

This is only the first selection from the Hesbaye Historic Festival.

Piston and Patina will soon have its own permanent home—a place for complete photographic stories, rare cars and the people keeping their history alive, beyond the brief life of a social-media post.

Photographed at Kasteel van Veulen, Heers, Belgium.

16/08/2026

The Pontiac Firebird Trans Am wore its identity proudly—from the split grille and arrowhead emblem to the unmistakable bird stretched across the hood.

Photographed at Roermond Oldtimer City 2026 and brought together in a cinematic study of shape, detail and attitude.

American heritage, still alive on European streets.

13/08/2026

Few cars are as instantly recognisable as the Volkswagen Beetle — and perhaps even fewer have been given so many different personalities.

Restored. Lowered. Polished. Weathered. Turned into a taxi, a cruiser, a tribute, or simply kept alive and driven.

Walking through Roermond Oldtimer City, I found Beetles everywhere — but somehow, no two felt the same.

Sometimes the story is in the whole car.
Sometimes it’s hiding in a headlight, a wheel, a reflection or a little piece of chrome.

📍 Roermond, Netherlands
📷 Piston & Patina

12/08/2026

1929. And still meant to be driven.

This Ford Model A has been with its owner for six or seven years — one of five classics in his collection. But these cars aren’t there just to be looked at. He drives them.

A simple bench seat, which he actually prefers for its comfort. Old gauges. Mechanical controls. Cloth-covered wiring. Chrome, steel and nearly a century of small traces left behind by use.

Not a museum piece.

A 1929 Ford still doing what it was built to do.

Piston & Patina

1929 Ford Model A — built to be drivenSometimes the most interesting part of photographing an old car begins when you st...
12/08/2026

1929 Ford Model A — built to be driven

Sometimes the most interesting part of photographing an old car begins when you stop photographing and start talking to the person who owns it.

The owner of this 1929 Ford Model A has had the car for around six or seven years. And it isn’t his only classic — there are four others.

What I liked most, though, was the way he spoke about them. They aren’t objects sitting quietly in a collection. He likes to drive them.

That changes the way you look at a car like this.

Up close, you begin noticing things that would disappear in a simple photograph of the whole automobile: the cloth-covered electrical wiring, old screws and fasteners, worn metal around the controls, the beautifully simple instrument panel, the Ford step plate, the steering-wheel controls and mechanical components that belong to another philosophy of building cars.

Much of the Ford remains original, with only small pieces replaced where time and necessity demanded it.

Then there was one detail I probably wouldn’t have thought much about without speaking to its owner: the bench seat.

Today we associate separate, shaped seats with comfort. He prefers this old bench. For him, it’s actually more comfortable.

And perhaps that’s part of the reason these cars become so interesting when they’re still being used. Specifications tell you how a 1929 Ford Model A was built. The person behind the wheel tells you what it’s like to live with one almost a century later.

That’s what I want to preserve in these photographs — not only the car, but the marks, details and stories that survive with it.

Piston & Patina — machines, people, and the stories between them.

There was a time when Jaguar made cars like this.Long bonnets. Curves drawn without apology. Wood, leather, chrome and a...
10/08/2026

There was a time when Jaguar made cars like this.

Long bonnets. Curves drawn without apology. Wood, leather, chrome and an XK straight-six under the bonnet.

The XK140 belonged to an extraordinary chapter in Jaguar history — an era when the name from Coventry was becoming inseparable from speed, elegance and competition. Its badge carried more than a name: Jaguar had won Le Mans in 1951 and would go on to dominate there through the decade.

Today, Jaguar is between eras. Production of its previous generation has ended, and the company is preparing an all-electric future, beginning with the Type 01.

Whether that future will create the same memories is a story still waiting to be written.

For now, this is a reminder of what the name Jaguar once looked, sounded and felt like.

XK140.
Coventry, England.

Piston & Patina

10/08/2026

Long bonnets. Curves drawn without apology. Wood, leather, chrome and an XK straight-six under the bonnet.

The XK140 belonged to an extraordinary chapter in Jaguar history — an era when the name from Coventry was becoming inseparable from speed, elegance and competition. Its badge carried more than a name: Jaguar had won Le Mans in 1951 and would go on to dominate there through the decade.

Today, Jaguar is between eras. Production of its previous generation has ended, and the company is preparing an all-electric future, beginning with the Type 01.

Whether that future will create the same memories is a story still waiting to be written.

For now, this is a reminder of what the name Jaguar once looked, sounded and felt like.

XK140.
Coventry, England.

Piston & Patina

09/08/2026

Chrome, curves, old engines and a city centre filled with pieces of motoring history.

From elegant classics to tiny oddities and American muscle — there was something waiting around almost every corner.

Just 24 seconds from today’s Oldtimer meeting.
I came home with much more than this. 📷

More from Roermond is coming.

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