Essen Techno Classica 2012

The Techno Classica show in Essen, Germany is the largest classic car show in Europe, if not the world. This year I went along to see it for myself and to spend some time with the guys from the "Dino Register Deutschland" who have been operating since the early 80's and organise some great events in and around Germany every year (last year I attended an event in Austria).

The show is set in about 13 large halls with 3 or 4 outside areas as well. All crammed with cars on display, for sale, spare parts, people selling services, literature, etc, etc. There were a surprising number of English people exhibiting, not only selling things, but also some clubs. What was most surprising for me though was that the large manufacturers like Mercedes, BMW, Audi, Porsche all had very large spaces with many excellent old cars, very professionally set out to really get across their image and heritage as a way of making people want to sign up to this mentally and want to own new cars of the same make. This is a world away from Italy where they have even closed the Alfa Romeo museum to the public (ok, moan over).

Another interesting aspect of the show were the club stands (for which the clubs don't have to pay) which were decorated in very imaginative ways (see pictures)!

Thanks to Dirk, Matthias and the rest of the guys for a very enjoyable few days!