Friedrichshafen, 3 - 6 June, 2010
The weekend of the 3.-6.June saw the third edition of this classic
exhibition in Friedrichshafen. Being the home town of Maybach
and ZF, Friedrichshafen is not just linked to the automotive
industries but also to the famous Zeppelin airships. This and the
nearby Bodensee makes no surprise that this show is not just
dedicated to classic cars as many others but to all things mobile
on the road, the air and at sea. On 80.000 sq. m. cars, bikes,
lorries, tractors, ships and planes were displayed during the 4
days. With such diverse exhibits they were sorted by themes in
the 12 halls making it easier to find what one was looking for.
The two main halls at the main entrance where called Automobile
Salon and therefore dedicated to the classic cars. This included
the works booth of Mercedes-Benz and Audi. Although already
known from other exhibitions the set-up of Mercedes-Benz is still
very impressive and features the work of the classic car
department. This year’s display featured a 300 SL Roadster on
the classic side, a 350 SL (R107) as a young classic and the
W124 Cabriolet as a coming classic. In the perimeter of the
works booth several restorers showed their skills on classic
Mercedes, “Mechatronik” on the 300 S in different stages of
restoration and the “Alte Sterne Manufactur” on the 300 SL
Gullwing and Roadster.
The booth of Audi was quite small with just 2 cars but pointed to
the themes in other halls with a Quattro for the 30. anniversary of
the Audi Quattro and the e-tron to the special exhibition of electric
cars.
Of special interest was the Lamborghini display at the “Klima-
Lounge” stand. With three Miuras in different colours and
executions, a set of Countach, a 350 GT and a Diablo a good part
of the company’s history was present.
Several dealers showed their offers in all price categories
including high prices as a Ferrari 365 GTS/4 Daytona Spider (s/n
14365) and a few Aston Martin to name a few. But one could see
that the sale of cars is not the main theme at this fair as the
dealers are not as numerous as on other shows although the
Klassikwelt also attracts customers from nearby Switzerland.
A special display was called “The belle epoche” featuring several
cars of this era, but especially a very beautiful early Jaguar SS1
drew attention. This two-tone open tourer has some very
interesting features and was restored over many years with much
attention to small details. This important car was shown on
several concours and serves the factory (although privately
owned) on many presentations of the new models.
Another hall featured the American classics. On the entrance a
nice garage display welcomed the visitors, furthermore a display
of the very popular quarter mile races, several hot rods and
muscle cars could be seen here. This included a Ford Torino
(known from the same-titled film with Clint Eastwood) in Gulf-
livery. When wandering though this hall one could see that the
fans of these cars are dedicated to the whole era of the 50s and
60s in America making the cars just a part of their lifestyle. It
could also be seen that this theme attracts even younger people
and other fairs and even general car clubs should think about
opening themselves to this trend to get “fresh blood”.
This leads to another highlight of every fair, the hall with the club
displays. Many clubs are very inventive to present their cars in a
charming setting and individual initiative often substitutes the lack
of money. To be mentioned is once more the display of the Auto
Union Club with a street scene including some pavement
princesses standing under their lantern. The Italia Classic Club
featured a trio of Vespas in Italian colours and the typical
Topolino.
As already mentioned above the Audi Quattro Club got some help
from the factory to show up an impressive collection of quattros
including a S1, Sport quattro and Group 4 racers.
Another hall was dedicated to lorries, tractors and fire trucks.
Unfortunately one had the impression that this hall and the hall for
the motor bikes was less frequented than the car halls but they
are still a good addition. So if someone is purely interested in
classic cars, other trade fairs might have more to offer but these
halls make the visit more family friendly as there is something to
anyone. Today not everyone knows that Porsche once build
diesel tractors or how a fire truck looked 50 years ago so this give
an aha experience to some visitors.
Very popular indeed was the avionics part of the show. This could
be seen as during the outdoor demonstrations the halls were
almost empty. Lifting off from the close-by airport the planes
could not just being admired in static display but also in the air.
The static display of the boats seemed to be smaller then in
previous years but a few very elegant Riva yachts showed their
immaculate finish.
New this year was a special exhibition dedicated to 111 years of
electric transport. Beside the legendary Detroit Electric some
developments from the last 100 years could be seen. This
included an electric moon vehicle, some early experiments of the
car industries to put an electric engine in ordinary cars as Golf or
even an Opel GT, but also the latest developments as the already
mentioned Audi e-tron or the very sportive Tesla Roadster.
After the 4 days more than 42.000 visitors proved that the concept
of the show is the right one using the advantages of this area to
make the show different from other classic car shows. With the
static displays and the outdoor action including small races on a
course inside the fairground and the air shows there is much to
be seen making this worth a visit for the whole family.
Text & images ... Peter Singhof
www.ClassicCarPhotography.de
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