The Essen Motor Show opened its gates to the public on 2 December and expects visitors until 10 December. The organisers promised over 500 exhibitors from 18 countries a guarantee for a colourful offering encompassing performance & racing, tuning & lifestyle, motorsport and classic cars. We brought you over 300 photos to show you around…
When it comes to EMS, diversity is key: the show offers attractions in four very different pillars, ranging from classic cars through production cars and tuning to race cars (sometimes with an occasional blur between them). The vehicles around these four topics usually fill the vast halls of the Essen Expo area, and in this crisis-marred car universe, using all the exhibitor space in a show is quite something. This year, the Essen Motor Show comprises nine halls and thus occupies almost the entire Essen fairgrounds.
While the exhibitor space is certainly there, some pillars have lost their strength. The festival’s popularity for sporty vehicles seems unbroken, but we saw fewer signs of factory stages than ever before (notably some chinese cars and Toyota).
The organisers tried to compensate for this with several themes dedicated to anniversaries, such as the 75 years of NASCAR and 20 years of Tesla.
NASCAR is rooted back to 14 December 1947, when a selected group of US racing personalities met on the roof of the Streamline Hotel in Daytona Beach. It must have been quite a party as it led to founding of the “National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing” – NASCAR for short.
NASCAR ran its first race in February 1948 on the beach road course in Daytona. Under the watchful eyes of 13,000 spectators, a field of 33 took 197 laps, with Jim Roper seeing the checkered flag first in his 1949 Ford Lincoln.
We did not get to see that car in Essen, but the organisers secured quite a few vehicles from various decades. One of the highlights of the special is the Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet Monte Carlo of Jeff Gordon, who is considered one of the most successful NASCAR drivers in the USA and a true automotive legend. The Hendrick team’s car was nicknamed the “Rainbow Warrior” by fans due to its eye-catching livery.
Hall 4 hosts the booth of event organiser SIHA, showcasing cars following specific themes. This year, the selection turned out to be quite orange, with several vehicles bearing the Jägermeister livery.
In the ‘70s, German spirit brand Jägermeister developed a faible for motor racing, sponsoring various European racing teams, primarily equipped with German brands, particularly BMWs and Porsches.
These teams have competed in various major racing series up to Formula One, DRM (with Max Moritz, Kremer and Zakspeed), DTM and Group C (Brun Motorsport), taking the team title in the 1986 World Sportscar Championship. The selection well reflected this variety, from the basic VW Golf and Opels to a Group C Porsche.
Motorsport has been a key pillar of EMS, and this year’s edition is no exception. The “fastest industry” traditionally celebrates its season finale in Essen. Exhibitors in Hall 8 include the Automobile Club of Germany, the German Motor Sport Federation with the German Rallycross Championship, the Hockenheimring and the Special Touring Car Trophy.
In addition, the organisers promised a new Show Area in Hall 4 with Autograph sessions, vehicle presentations and live demonstrations.
Tuning and customisation are the central themes of the Essen Motor Show. There were many cars that pretended to be fast, but the focus was more on looks than speed. There is a massive industry on customisation, and they came to fill the halls in Essen.
And then there are custom cars that are there just for the fun of it…
Hall 5 is dedicated to the tuningXperience, where Europe’s scene proves its abilities and skills year after year. Around 150 vehicles from eleven countries were set on the scene to showcase the most diverse facets and styles.
They show cars include rare treasures such as the Datsun GX 1200, Honda Acty, Jaguar XJS, Lotus Esprit Turbo and Rolls Royce Silver Spur.
The Classic & Prestige Salon hosts the past and future flassics. This segment inaugurated its 41st edition this year, and still managed to impress us. Though the offering was clearly less than during springtime at the Techno Classica, the organisers managed to showcase the entire spectrum of the classic car world paired with modern high-end segments of automotive passion.
EMS has quite a reputation as an established classic car exhibition and sales show, though the show did not feature an official auction this year. On a generous 17,000 square meters of exhibition space in Halls 1 and 2, the Classic & Prestige Salon presented several hundred extraordinary exhibits. These also included numerous youngtimers, super sports cars and prestige automobiles.
At the same time, the show lacked the momentum of previous years, when the unsold classics from InterClassics Brussels usually landed in Essen. This might also be attributable to the fact that Belgium gathered its classic car culture to the other side of Flanders (more on that in a few days).
There are also a few exhibits that were really hard to categorise, among them the official stage of the German Bundeswehr, showcasing some of their finest machinery, like the Leopard 2 A6.
So here we are, after a lengthy and exhaustive walk, resulting in hundreds of photos, we are happy to have paid another visit to Essen.
