Essen, 3 December, 2012
On the first weekend of December the Essen Motor Show opened
its doors for the 45th time to enthusiasts of sports and racing
cars, tuning and classic cars. With an expected rush of more
than 340.000 visitors during the 9 days this is the biggest fair of
its kind in Europe and the 112.000 visitors on the first weekend
show that this estimate is not to optimistic.
... MediaCenter gallery with 288 images >>>
More than 500 exhibitors are filling the entire 110.000 qm in the
18 halls of the Essen exhibition centre to show their products or
services making the EMS another important main pillar of the
organizing SIHA who are also responsible for the Techno Classica
at the same place in March.
We had the opportunity to visit the show on the more quiet
preview and press day to take some pictures and get an
impression what to expect in the following crowded days.
One main focus of the EMS is the modern motor sport and in an
own hall several race series introduced themselves including the
different marque cups of the big manufacturers or smaller formula
series. A main focus is without doubt the DTM (German Touring
Masters) that just ended one of its most entertaining seasons and
several of the latest Touring Cars were spread over the booths of
tire and part suppliers as well as an own display showing the
three participating models aside their road legal cousins. After
several year of absence BMW rejoined Audi and Mercedes-Benz
in 2012 and surprisingly won both the drivers and the constructors
title in the last race in late October on the Hockenheimring. But
not just the race series have to look for visitors but also the three
German race tracks Nürburgring, Hockenheimring and Lausitzring
have to be present to promote their events including touristic laps,
ring taxi laps, driving seminars or private track days. Especially
the ongoing financial trouble of the Nürburgring shows that new
business partners and ideas are more than welcome and needed.
Several known drivers and representatives of the teams and series
will be present the following days at autograph session, one of the
first was Alexander Wurz on Friday. The former Formula 1 driver
became part of the new Toyota Sports Car Team this year that
entered the new World Endurance Championship to challenge
Audi. Although the Hybrid TS030 had to give way to its rival in Le
Mans three wins and a second in the following races made this a
more than successful year for the Cologne based Toyota
Motorsport GmbH and maybe next year Toyota can finally
achieve the first Le Mans win that never came with the legendary
GT-One.
In the neighbouring motor sport arena hall several demonstration
runs throughout the week entertain the spectators and with the
final of the European Drift Challenge a lot of burnt rubber will be in
the air.
This also leads to the second focus of the EMS: tuning. In several
halls tuning fans will find almost everything the heart desires. The
range is very wide from small accessories to complete cars in the
upper price level. When entering the exhibition from the
Grugapark in the East the first hall is dedicated to these very
expensive small series productions. Companies like TechArt or
SpeedArt with their boosted turbo versions of the Porsche 911,
Manhart with their BMW or known Mercedes tuner Brabus
dominate the scene, especially the later always with a big
display. With an output of more than 6500 car a year Brabus
established itself as the best known tuner behind Mercedes own
AMG brand and their exhibited fleet ranged from the personalized
Smart to V12s with about 800 hp. But the fastest car was without
doubt the 9ff GT9 Vmax based on the Porsche 911 Turbo with
about 1400 hp and a maximum speed of 437 km/h just around the
corner.
Certainly most of these cars are out of the prices range of the
normal visitor and although show stopper most of the tuning fans
are more in tuning parts for their own car. When walking through
the tuning halls it becomes obvious that especially the market of
rim manufacturers is a very tough one and in this sensory
overload lightly clad girls try to draw the mainly male visitors to
their booth. A little bit less glamorous are the long shelves full of
head and tail lamps, tailpipes or sport seats for every type of car.
It is noticeable that there are not many radical tuned private cars
on show, most of them seem to be rather standard except the
display of the light manufacturer Hella. Here a couple of
elaborately converted Golf, Focus and Scirocco with gullwing
doors, built-in monitors and sound equipment as well as unique
airbrush paintwork are judged for the Hella Show & Shine Award.
For all those focused on this sort of cars the Tuning World
Bodensee in May might be the more interesting show as this is a
more specialized show on this subject.
But as already mentioned the Essen Motor Show is far more than
just a tuning show and this can be seen by the classic cars on
display. A bridge between tuning and classic cars is the hot rod
scene. Far more than just about cars this lifestyle community
becomes more and more popular and several classic car shows
have included this in recent years as well. In Essen the hot rods
were prominently displayed in the Galeria connecting the
premium halls with the main hall and motor sport arena.
The classic hall itself shows a few dealers that can be seen at the
Techno Classica as well but the offering is limited due to the given
space of just one hall and the different audience. More important
are the special displays as they are superb year by year and this
time saw no less than three of them. The first one was dedicated
to the history of the Porsche 911 that was introduced in 1963 and
is going into its golden jubilee year in 2013. The display included
an early example in rally trim, a nice 3.0 RSR and a duo of
Kremer 935. Although Porsche is known for their countless
successes on the race track the 911 was also an interesting rally
car and in 1984 the 953 (an all-wheel-driven 911-variation) won the
famous Rally Paris-Dakar, a success that could be repeated just
two year later with the famous 959. Also on show was the final
evolution of the 911 GT1 that finally won Le Mans in its third and
last attempt in 1998, the last victory at La Sarthe for
Zuffenhausen.
Le Mans is also a key word for the main special display this year.
After features for Ferrari in 2009, Alfa Romeo in its Centenary in
2010 and the Rally Monte Carlo in 2011 this year was dedicated
to the World Sports Car Championship. This Championship was
originally run between 1953 and 1992 and was beside the
Formula 1 the most popular race series back then. What is today
the already mentioned WEC was founded in 1953 as a series of
some of the most iconic races like the Mille Miglia, the 12 hours
of Sebring, the 24 hours of Le Mans, Spa-Francorchamps, the
1000 km at the Nürburgring, the RAC Tourist trophy, the Carrera
Panamericana and later the Targa Florio and Daytona. Especially
in the 1950s and 1960s some of today´s most valuable sports
cars became famous by winning the series or major races. These
early years were mainly dominated by Ferrari who had many
different cars suitable for the different needs of the individual
races. The Ferrari 250 MM on display (0352MM) ran at the
Carrera Panamericana in 1953 where it finished 7th overall in the
same livery it is presented today. Until 1964 all championships
were won by Ferrari with the exception of two.
After the success of the Mercedes-Benz W196 in the Formula 1
1954 the W196S (Sport) was introduced in 1955, the famous 300
SLR. Within just one year this became one of the most
successful race cars as it virtually won every race it was entered
including the Mille Miglia, the Tourist Trophy and the Targa Florio
and it would have presumably won Le Mans as well without the
withdrawal after the horrible crash of Levegh. The car on display
was the last built lightweight version intended to race in 1956
together with the Uhlenhaut-Coupé but never did as Mercedes left
both the Formula 1 and the Sports Car Championship in 1956.
The second “non-Ferrari” winning constructor was Aston Martin in
1959. After several attempts in previous years David Brown finally
managed to fulfil his dream of winning Le Mans in a car carrying
his name with the DBR1 displayed in Essen. Just as in 1955 with
Mercedes it was again Stirling Moss to secure the Sports Car
Championship with a final win (this time in Goodwood). With this
success Brown lost interest in the sports car racing and entered
the Formula 1.
Another important car of this era is the Jaguar D-Type. Although
dominant at Le Mans with three victories between 1955 and 1957
Jaguar had to wait 30 year before they won the Sports Car trophy
in 1987 and 1988 with the also displayed XJR-9 LM (this particular
car won Le Mans 1988).
In the mid 1960s Ferrari had a new competitor with the Ford GT40
that was purely built to win against Enzo Ferrari after he had
refused to sell his company to Ford. Ford won Le Mans four times
in a row and the WSCC in 1966 and 1968. The GT40 on Display
is sharing the famous Gulf Livery with the next car, the Porsche
917. After many class wins in previous year with smaller capacity
racers and a first WSCC in 1969 with the Porsche 908 the small
manufacturer from Zuffenhausen finally went for the desired Le
Mans win with a car that finally took full advantage of the
regulations. Together with the small lightweight 908/3 (for twisty
course like the Nürburgring and the Targa Florio) the 917 scored
the maximum possible points in 1970 with 9 wins out of 10 races
(when just the best 7 results counted). The Gulf livered 917 was
seen at the Villa d´Este earlier this year in complete unrestored
condition in the hands of its third owner (after the John Wyer
racing team and Solar Productions for the Le Mans movie) but
seems to have changed hands since then as it was already
displayed at the Salon Privé as part of the ROFGO-Collection.
The Ferrari 512 S on display was the rival of the Porsche 917 but
his only win in 1970 was the 12h of Sebring.
After changing champions including Ferrari, Matra, Alfa Romeo
and Porsche the late 1970s and beginning of the 1980s were held
with GT cars including the Porsche 935 and RSR as seen at the
911 display.
Things changed in the 1982 season (the 30th anniversary of the
championship) when the Group C was introduced. This brought
some of the most beautiful racers and the final peak of the
championship with the Porsche 956 and 962, the already
mentioned Jaguar XJR-9 and the Sauber-Mercedes C9 and C11.
After 5 successive wins of the Porsche Group C racers both
Jaguar and Sauber won two times. After the Sauber-Mercedes
Team running in AEG livery in 1988 Mercedes finally took the
next step in repainting the cars in Silver for the 1989 season. 34
years after the success of the W196 and 300 SLR finally the
Silver Arrows were back in motorsports, both in 1989 and 1990
the all silver racers won the series. Unfortunately the success of
the Group C cars was also the end of the WSCC as the
popularity of the series and many major manufacturers led to a
fast development of the cars. In the late 1980s the cars were
running over 400 km/h down the Mulsanne straight and a
restriction was needed. Unfortunately this affected the many
privateers running the Porsche 962 f.e., a new regulation required
new engines in 1992 and these were too expensive. Porsche was
in financial trouble and left the series, the only serious competitor
was the Peugeot 905 in its final Evolution winning the last season
of Group C and the World Sports Car Championship. In 1993 the
series was cancelled due to a lack of entries not to reappear until
20 years later.
Although most of the cars on display were built long before most
of the spectators became interested in motorsports the display
showed the fascination of this era and the reason why this
championship was almost as popular as the Formula 1 back
then.
When recapitulating the impressions of this year Essen Motor
Show one can see that there was something for everyone. Maybe
there are more specific exhibitions both for tuning and classic
cars but it is the mixture that makes the show special. One rarely
see a booth all in pink with the slogan “tussi on tour” next to a
genuine Le Mans winning Aston Martin DBR1 worth more than 20
Million Euros. So this give both sides (tuning and classic car
fans) an insight in the “other world” as all share the same interest:
sport cars.
The show is running until next Sunday so if our galleries made
you curious you still have a few more days to swing by.
For more information including opening hours visit Essen Motor
Show
Text & images ... Peter Singhof
www.ClassicCarPhotography.de
|
