The 49th Essen Motor show welcomed 360.000 visitors, this makes it the second biggest car show in Germany. (Frankfurt International Motorshow is number one). This year the main focus was on motorsport & tuning.
Manufacturers also make an effort to draw some attention at the Essen Motor Show, Peugeot did so by putting a spotlight on it’s rally heritage. Thirty years ago Peugeot won the WRC twice with their 205 Turbo 16, nowadays they race with the 208 T16 R5. On the Ford stand the Mustang and Focus RS had to share the spotlight with the new Ford GT Racecar that won the 24 hours at Le Mans in the GTE class. BMW demonstrated some of their M products.
With the 70th birthday of Ferrari many stands made an effort to honor the italian supercar brand. Siha the organizer of Techno Classica did so fabulously with a Laferrari, F50, 288 GTO and the Track only 800 HP big boys toy: Ferrari FXX. In Hall 3 the Essen Motor Show managed to assemble twelve cars with a rich ferrari history, like the F40 and two F1 racecars from Clay Regazzoni (Ferrari 312 B3) and Michael Schumacher (Ferrari F399).
The German Tourcar Championship looked back on thirty years if GTC with some cars that did very well in their championship such as the BMW M3 E30, Mercedes 190 Evo2, Opel Calibra V6 and Ford Sierra RS Cosworth. GT Racing is very popular in Germany as seen in the succes of ADAC GT Masters and the VLN championship.
Besides all these racecasr a lot of famous tuners brought their best to the Essen Motor Show, some of the tuninghouses were: Rauh-Welt (RWB), some peppered Porshes, Ferraris and Lamborghinis by Liberty Walk, AC Schnitzer … Brabus is known for tuning mercedes benz cars but it is less known that they also tune, Bentley, Jaguar and Range Rover under the name of Startech. Many other tuned cars could be found in the “Tuning Experience Halls” 12 & 1A. Some hotrods could be found at the Galeria.
Overall a great event that will continue a lot of enthusiasts in the years to come with their unique mix of Racing and Tuning cars.
Text & Pictures: Steven Translation: Jonas
