Essen, 8.-11.04.2010
In its 22nd edition the Techno Classica in Essen proved again its
reputation as Europeans leading fair for classic cars. Although the
fair opens to the public on a working day it became clear already
on Thursday morning that the interest of the public is undaunted.
More than 170.000 visitors were counted during the following 4
days leaving a very positive conclusion to the organiser SIHA.
Due to its geographic location the fair has a traditional focus on
Germany and the Benelux countries concerning both visitors and
exhibitors, but with more than 1100 exhibitors of 30 different
nations the fair is getting more and more international every year.
The cars on show are as diverse as the visitors, ranging from the
small local car clubs to the major manufacturers. The car clubs
have to compensate their small financial means with good ideas
and personal engagement. Usually their cars are presented in
lovely self-made dioramas. The Passat Club for example set up a
radar speed check with Passats on both sides of the camera, the
Wartburg was presented in a small farmstead. Although not a
new idea some cars where displayed as slot cars including lap
counter and oversize distant control. The Tatra Club showed a car
that burnt out years ago on one of their club outings when even a
number of fire extinguisher could not prevent the disaster.
Although interesting presented the sight of the totally destroyed
car was not easy for all the fans of old cars as it reminds us what
can happen to all of us.
On the other side there are most major manufacturers present
with more or less splendid booths. The largest of them was once
more Mercedes-Benz that covered almost the entire hall 1, one of
the larger halls at the south entrance. The factory itself had the
theme of the supercars of the different eras to present their new
SLS. The much admired car was surrounded by 9 cars from a
Simplex 60 HP that was one of the fastest car in 1903, the iconic
300 SL Gullwing, the much advanced C111 and the less known
C112 to a CLK GTR, the Vision SLR and a CLK DTM. But
Highlight of the display was the very original 720 SSK that was
sold in 2004 after 64 years of ownership at the Bonham's auction
in Goodwood and is part of the Dutch National Motor Museum
since then. The car is still in superb unrestored condition leaving
no questions about its authenticity and is a great contrast to
some of the restored cars with more questionable history. It is
already possible to build such a car entire from new parts as
proven by Kocher&Beck in the next hall.
Beside the factory some associated clubs and many restorers
specialised on the 300 SL or 300 S show their skills and due to
the amount of cars one could forget that these are very expensive
cars but the demand does not seem to decrease.
Another hall was occupied by Volkswagen and its subsidiary
companies Audi and Skoda. The display of the Autostadt
Wofsburg was called “The Most Beautiful Volkswagen Exclusives
of the 50s/60s” and featured some rare examples of small series
cars based on VW with special coachwork. Whereas the name
Karmann and Hebmüller are more common others like Stoll or
Rometsch might be just known by insiders. Other features were
the young history of the rallye success at the Dakar Rallye or the
iconic Bulli.
Audi celebrated 30 years of the quattro that will also be the next
special exhibition in the museum.
Just hidden in the corner of the hall was a separate booth of the
premium makes Bugatti and Bentley. The most exclusive cars
like the No.2 Birkin team blower and a beautiful Bugatti T57 S
Atalante contrasted with a very poor illumination compared to the
rest of the hall. Although it is great to see these cars beside their
modern successors the lightning leaves room for a further
improvement in the next years.
Highlight amongst the factory displays was without doubt the
small but superb Alfa Romeo stand. Celebrating their 100th
anniversary this year the Milanese Company brought some of
their most iconic racing cars to Essen. Starting with the only P2
in running condition and a Tipo B on the pre-war side the crowd
pullers were the 2 Alfettas. Designed as a 1.5 litre engined
Formula 1 car based on the pre-war 158 Alfetta, delivering no less
than 420 PS in their latest development these cars were
extremely successful in the hands of Farina and Fangio and gave
the company the first championships of the new formula in
1950/51. One of the displayed cars was stripped from its
bodywork to allow an inside view on the advanced and filigreed
technology including riveted and machine polished fuel tanks. The
display was rounded off by a 6C 3000 CM from 1953 that was
also piloted by Fangio, an Alfa 33 TT 12 that won the Sportscar
Championship in 1975 and an 155 2.6 V6 that won the German
Touring Car Championship in its debut year. Two more icons were
on loan to other exhibitors, the T33 Stradale was displayed at the
booth of the German magazine Motor Klassik beside the Ferrari
250 GT SWB “Breadvan”, the Disco Volante Coupé was displayed
for the Raid Suisse-Paris Rallye.
Hall 12 was dedicated to BMW as usual. The Museum celebrated
the 70th anniversary of the 1940 Mille Miglia success. The last
Mille Miglia before the war was held on a triangle course rather
than the usual Brescia-Rom-Brescia stage and was won by the
328 MM Touring Coupé in the hands of Huschke von Hannstein
and Walter Bäumer. Beside the winning coupé BMW brought an
“ordinary” 328 roadster and a pair of MM roadsters. Whereas one
of them is an original car the other is a replica of the so called
“Bügelfalte”, this car was build several years ago when the original
car was on loan at the BMW archive. During this time there was
also a replica build of the winning coupé as this car belonged to
an American collector. Several years later BMW acquired the
original coupé but the Bügelfalte went to a private German
collection. Ironically the original car was just a few halls away as
this car will be auctioned in May in Monaco by RM Auctions and
therefore was the main attraction on their preview. This is the
second time that BMW displayed a replica at the same show as
the original car as the same thing happened a few years ago with
the coupé. Maybe it would have been wiser to display the 328
Berlin-Rom Touring Spider instead as this was lent to AutoBild
Klassik.
As the Techno Classica is a trade fair surely most of the 100.000
square meter were used by classic car dealers. The offer spread
over the full spectrum of the market, from youngtimers in the
private offers at the outside area to the most expensive cars
currently available on the market.
It is easy to see what clientele the particular dealers have in mind
just by the way they present their cars. Some of them base their
strategy on a large number of cars and they try to get their profit
by a high sales rate. To ensure this they try to present as many
cars as possible on the smallest exhibition space to keep the
costs low. Although this does not mean that they have not cars of
special interest these are mainly cars in the midrange and they
are sold on commission. The cars are standing so close together
that it sometimes is difficult to walk through, not to mention
taking a picture. Many of these dealers are located in hall 11 as
this is the only hall with daylight so one can save expenses for
the lightning.
Other dealers present their company rather than their stock, they
are not primarily looking for the walk-in customer for one of the
cars but for long-time clients. They often present cars that are
already sold to show prospective customers their references and
these dealers usually are more splendid with their space to create
an impressive display. One of these is Lukas Hüni that usually
displays at the entrance of hall 1. With stylish black background
and floor this stand is always one of the highlights of the show
and again it did not disappoint. Some of the displayed cars were
already known from the Retromobile earlier this year like the
Ferrari 512 M sn.1002 and the Siata 208 CS Berlinetta, new was
a rare Ferrari 250 GT LWB Berlinetta “TdF” (sn.1113gt) and a pair
of Lagondas. One was an original LG45 Rapide, the other a V12
Rapide in very beautiful two-tone livery.
As in Paris the main rival for the title “best booth of the show” was
the stand of UK based dealer Hall&Hall. The display featured
some gems of the Donington Collection that are rarely seen on
the continent. Being specialised in race cars they featured the
only Auto Union 2 Litre car in existence. This car was build in
1952 in Chemnitz using pre-war technology on behalf of Stalins
son Vasily who wanted a Soviet racing team after the end of the
war. The car build is named Type 650 and nicknamed Sokol and
was intended for the formula 2. Although one can dispute whether
this is a proper Auto Union or not it really is a special car.
Another interesting car was the 1967 BRM H16 P115-01. As the
formula changed that year from 1.5 litre to 3.0 litre this car has an
engine that is basically 2 1.5 litre engines attached to a 3 litre in
H-shape but the car was not successful as the engine was to
heavy. Just 2 examples were build, this one was raced by Jackie
Stewart. As at the Retromobile 2009 Hall&Hall displayed again a
prototype SL (W194) with airbrake.
When things come to Ferrari the 250 California Spider was the
dominant car of the show. With 3 SWBs (1795gt, 1951gt and
3077gt) and 1 LWB (1253gt) one does not often see more of them
at one place. The last mentioned was part of the preview for the
upcoming Monaco Auction of RM Auctions, this might be the
most interesting auction in Europe this year. As it replaces the
Leggenda et Passione Auction in Maranello it has a large number
of Ferraris including 250 GT SWB, 250 TdF, the mentioned
California Spyder and a 275 GTB/6C that where all presented in
Essen. The Rolls Royce collection of Hans Zach was represented
by the “Star of India”, there was a Maserati Birdcage, an Aston
Martin DB5 Vantage and a beautiful Delahaye on display. Star of
the auction will be the already mentioned original BMW 328 MM
Roadster, the “Bügelfalte”.
... more informations about this auction >>>
A detailed review of this auction will follow in May.
Text & Images: Peter Singhof
www.ClassicCarPhotography.de
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