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Driving to Landgoed Heerlijkheid Mariënwaerdt in Beesd, a bit south of the middle of the Netherlands, is a great way to start your visit to Wheels Mariënwaerdt.
You are first greeted by some beautiful internal roads surrounded by trees that lead you to the parking space of the historic estate.
When arriving, vested volunteers and employees alike guide you to your parking place, and you can think there’s still parking and ticket showing left to do for you to start enjoying the visit. You could not be more wrong.
Already in the parking area there are some notable sections you can start feasting your eyes with. A combination of regular parking, with some special supercar lanes as well as some classics parking area, can all be seen after you leave your car and make your way walking into the main entrance.
You arrive at the main gate. Get your ticket scanned and enter.
Grey day, drizzling, umbrella’s up. In the distance you see red. Lots of red.
And then you notice there’s not only red.
There’s yellow. There’s blue. There’s exposed carbon fiber. There’s even a car that would be even more beautiful if it was all dirty and full of glory as intended.
There’s no preamble. Walk into the venue and you are already greeted by the main course: one of the biggest gatherings of Ferrari cars ever seen in the Netherlands.
And if you like Ferrari, you are in for a treat, because the “official” Ferrari Collection is not the only set of Ferraris you will see in your visit, thanks to the presence of Ferrari Munsterhuis, an official Ferrari dealer, that brought another stunning set of prancing horses for your visual delight.
In total there have probably been over 20 Ferraris to enjoy, which is a healthy increase from 2025 having only a handful. But more on them, later.
Table of Contents
Car presentations
Genesis GV60 Magma
Volkswagen ID.Polo GTI
Lotus Emira 420 Sport
Smart #2 Concept
Special exhibitions
Pre-war sprint
GTI 50
Off-roading fun
The Parade
Up next
Car presentations
There’s a timetable with presentations, and not everything out there is of your interest, so you organise yourself to be able to be there where you want to.
In my case, these were the very orange Genesis GV60 Magma, the Volkswagen ID.Polo GTI, the Lotus Emira 420 Sport and the Smart #2 Concept.
Genesis GV60 Magma
The only unit, for now, in the Netherlands, of the Magma trim of the Genesis GV60. Upon arrival, you are greeted with some coffee and brownies, while you go around the car and start appreciating the design lines and details.
This catches the eye of Peter Lammers, head of Genesis in The Netherlands, who kindly approaches you and gives you a detailed tour and explanation (in English) of the car. This includes inviting you to sit in the driver’s seat, as well as “starting it” so you can goof around a bit with the “simulated engine sound” that the car includes.
It definitely does not “sound as fun” as the ones found in their sister brand’s Hyundai Ioniq 5N, but it is definitely an addition that some might find interesting, albeit a bit “PlayStation-ey”. I think it’s fun!
The car itself looks and feels very nice, as a flagship showing definitely should. A bit later, a proper “presentation” in Dutch, with a short Q&A for the present is done, and the rest of the time is people enjoying all the offerings around the Genesis stand.
Volkswagen ID.Polo GTI
Going out of the Genesis stand only to find out it’s raining and it would be good to find cover once again, I see the Volkswagen stand celebrating the 50th anniversary of GTI.
The main attraction there is a very special Volkswagen Golf that’s nothing like anyone else (literally, it’s a 1 of 1), but more on that later. The rain takes you inside, where the ID.Polo GTI is shown in all its glory.
Even if you didn’t care about the car itself, if you found yourself entering here there was a high chance you would not leave empty handed, as they were giving out a GTI 50th branded bag of goodies (while stocks lasted, at least!), so I got one.
But apart from that, I checked the car out, of course. It looks and feels nice, especially on the outside. Interior-wise, you are greeted by a center and behind the wheel pair of floating screens that I would have liked much more if they were integrated into the dashboard instead. I always find floating screens kind of lazy.
It is yet to be seen if it will be a success or not. It definitely has a lot in its favour, and I asked about the plans for launch and price. They mentioned there is nothing defined yet, but are hoping for a local sub €40k price, to be confirmed.
Lotus Emira 420 Sport
The day moved on, and so did we, as the rain stopped in favour of a brief on and off period of drizzle. This meant moving on to the next slots in our presentations list with one of the prettiest and most exciting, at least to me, cars presented.
