TAGS: Essen, Techno Classica, Essen Techno Classica 2024, Techno Classica, Techno Classica 2024, 2024, Germany,
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This Thursday, the Essen Techno Classica opened its gates to the public and awaits visitors until Sunday the 7th of April 2024. The show takes place at the usual venue, making full use of Essen’s vast exposition surface area.
For many years, Techno Classica’s greatest strength was the unrivalled presence of factory exhibitors. Local heroes and import brands alike, the show offered breathtaking sights. These stages featured the best-kept treasures of the factory vaults and often followed the best of contemporary corporate requirements. They offered some of the best spectacles we have ever witnessed.
However, since COVID, they have had a hard time finding their former self, and this year, every single manufacturer came with a sick note. This already happened in 2022, but after the 2023 event and an excellent Retromobile 2024, we had high hopes for the 2024 edition.
As in 2022, there were hardly any signs of factory support, and the brand logos indicated on the exhibition map were only marking clubs with a stronger density of that brand.
Thus, a vital component was weakened, and we failed to spot unique concepts, important milestones, or decorations that we were used to at factory shows. As in 2022, you will only find some classic cars from club members in front of a poster or club deco at best.
We also missed the museums that used to be regular exhibitors (like PS Speicher and Sinsheim) but are now largely absent. A few car events rented space, and some did deliver spectacular surroundings.
The organisers highlighted quite a few anniversaries that were honoured by owners’ clubs. There are included in this rather impressive list:
125 years of Opel
115 years of Bugatti
115 years of Morgan
95 years of Scuderia Ferrari
90 years of Citroën Traction Avant
75 years of Citroën 2CV – the Duck
75 years of Unimog
70 years of Mercedes-Benz 300 SL
70 years of Mercedes-Benz 190 SL
65 years of Mini
50 years of Volkswagen Golf
Indeed, we could attribute several cars to each anniversary, but we missed the consequently built factory stages with important milestones. This is something only factory vaults can provide…
The most impressive stages were built by traders and offered plenty of sights with exciting, weird or historical cars. Yet they are no match to the finest of Retromobile. We left Paris with a clear impression of having found the best car show of the year, and Techno Classics could not convince us of the opposite.
Despite the above, we did spend a pleasant day in Essen, and if you would like to see a nice classic car show in the area, Techno Classica is the place to go.
