We arrived just in time for Lamborghini’s press conference. Considering almost how pathetic Aston’s conference had been, I wasn’t expecting much but Winkelman’s charisma is quite impressive I have to say. It was much more interesting to hear that marketing speech than Dr. Bez’s one. Sadly we weren’t able to follow the entire conference as we had to move to Bugatti, who had the neighbor stand. I was highly expecting this conference, and I was not disappointed.
Lamborghini was presenting its Squadra Corse version of the Lamborghini Gallardo, which is just a Superleggera with the new front and rear spoilers, and the standard well-known 5.2 liter 570 horsepower V10, with the usual 4 wheel drive transmission. Bugatti started their conference as a hommage to one of their greatest cars, and one of the biggest history unsolved mysteries : la “Voiture Noire”, the Type 57 SC Atlantic which has disappeared since 1941. Their new Bugatti Vitesse Legende is a hommage to the man who created this car, Ettore’s son, Jean Bugatti. All the technical elements are from a standard Bugatti Veyron Vitesse, but it has a unique special exterior combination and interior. We walked to Porsche’s stand.
A big surprise was waiting for us : the beautiful 917 K Martini that Porsche had specially brought to prepare our minds to their big return to Le Mans in 2014, with a 991 Carrera RSR. Amongst the series car, we noticed the brand new 991 Turbo and Turbo S, with respectively 520 and 560 horsepower from the 3.8 liter flat six engine. Only available with the PDK dual-clutch gearbox as the new GT3, we can only ashame Porsche engineers for not proposing the classic 7-speed manual gearbox as an optional extra. I have never appreciated this third generation Cayenne or the new Panamera with the strange facelift so I decided not to bother with these and instead having a look to the production 918 Spyder. This is Porsche’s new flagship, and I have to say that the final version looks as good or even better than the prototype we had at Geneva back in march 2010. Three years of development later, this car looks absolutely stunning compared to both the P1 and the LaFerrari, more practical as well, but I doubt that it will be quicker than its rival.
Moving to Audi’s own building at the Frankfurt Messe, we were finally able to admire the Audi Sport Quattro, although still a concept-car but Audi claims that it is a work in progress. Going to Audi’s Nanuk Concept Car by the italian designer Giugiaro, we had a strange impression of “déjà-vu” from this year’s Geneva Motorshow when the same design studio presented an exactly same looking shape with the badge Lamborghini called the Parkour. As there were no enthusiast for it in Geneva, it does look like Audi has been trying to refurbish the concept to see if it had more success. Bad idea…
Getting outside Audi, we went quickly through Smart to admire the FourJoy Concept, then to Abarth to have a brief look at the original 595 EsseEsse on the stand and arrived at Ferrari’s stand just to in time to see Luca di Montezemolo as usual, signing autographs for an unknown admirator.
Continuing our walk we found ourselves studying the brand new Volvo Concept Car inspired from successful anf beautiful the P1800 Coupé the swedish brand used to make. Jaguar had just revealed their new concept car, called the C-X17, should be their entry into the world of the SUV, and I have to say I was totally convinced by the design of it, especially in the beautiful blue paint it was wearing. Finally we got to Fab Design’s stand who had simply ruined a Lamborghini Aventador.
