Techno Classica Essen

[Tom Nas]

Hi all,

Together with a couple of Audi nerds and fellow Dutch q-listers, I paid a
visit to the famous German classic car show in Essen today, the Techno
Classica. It's a show for complete cars as well as automobilia (scale
models, books, magazines, manuals, parts) and tools. The drive over there
was pleasant, excellent weather for a high-speed run over the Autobahns in
two Coupe GTs. Notable cars spotted on the way over there: RS4, yellow TT,
A8 4.2q, BMW Z8 and several classics.

It's clear that car makers are taking their heritage seriously. BMW and M-B
had both reserved a whole hall, and filled them with an exposition worthy
of an international car show, with beautiful presentation and unique cars.
BMW had an M1, a CSL 'Batmobile', a unique 2002 Coupe proto, a couple of
'02 Touring car racers and lots more. There was also a Mini display with
several beautiful Minis. M-B had the Carrera Panamericana 300SL, a mid-80s
S-Class station wagon (!) and a complete history of the SL. Compared to its
two competitors, Audi spent a lot less. They had less than 1/4rd the
surface of the other two, and the display was nice but a lot less glamorous
than their competitors'.
Among the high-quality cars on display were no less than two 100 Coupe Ses,
a beautiful type 43 100 CD5E, a 1975 80 and a 1977 80, a C1 100, an Audi 60
(complete with period trailer and boat!), a DKW Munga offroader, a superb
NSU Ro80, a DKW Junior, a unique DKW 3=6 'woody', two DKW Schnellaster
vans, an Auto Union 1000Sp...

I bought a NSU history book, an Audi history book (German language, dealing
with the 1965-75 period which was the turnaround in Audi's history, many
unique prototype pics) and two US brochures, '81 4000 series and '80 5000
series. Most models for sale were more expensive than those I buy at my
local swapmeet, so I didn't get any. I didn't find any unique pieces
anyway, most models were 'regular' items.

An excellent day, I'll have lots of digipics available soon as well as two
rolls of conventional film to be developed and printed. Fellow lister Ferry
Stolp took the digipics, he'll probably put them on his site.

Tom