Essen Motor Show 2005

In winter 2005 the German car industry is in a deep crisis. For more than five years the annual car production is in stagnation or fall, the average age of a German car (over 40 millions running) is over unbelieveable eight years old. The people need their money for spending it on their health or their pensions, so there is no room to buy a new car every two or three years as they had done it in the times of the economic miracle. While BMW, Audi and Porsche also are growing in the signs of the crisis by being extremely strong especially on the export markets, all other German makes are under strong pressure. Only a few days before Christmas 2005 GM closed the Opel Performance Center after having already retired from the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters before. Many thousands of jobs had been axed at the plants of Volkswagen, Opel, Ford and finally of Mercedes-Benz. Shortly before New Year good news came fro the Volkswagen Car Group (VW, Skoda and Bentley): The losses of the first three quarters of 2005 are turned into a profit concerning the whole year of 2005. Inspiration is needed not only for the German car makers, but for the whole national economy. Since autumn 2005 Germany is governed by a Great Coaltion of Conservatives and Social Democrats under the leadership of East German physisist Dr Angela Merkel in the office of the Federal Chancellor. The motor industry is still a key sector for the German economy being fundamentally weak since the reunification of the country at the beginning of the nineties, every seventh job is depending on the automotive field, that is also the base for the mobility of a modern society.

While the IAA (for International Automobile Exhibition) is made more or less for being a worldwide shop window to make the car industry present theirselves on the global market, the Essen Motor Show as the greatest exhibition on tuning, motorsport and oldtimers is the most important institution to give impulses especially among the younger part of the public. In the sixties founded as a pure racing car exhibition by late 1970 Austrian Grand Prix World Champion Jochen Rindt in Vienna, Budapest and Essen and for this reason named Jochen Rindt Show until 1978, the Essen Motor Show 2005 presented the excellent mixture out of car industry, sport and entertainment, a quality standard, that is known for many decades. Rindt`s widow Nina is still an advisor to the manager of the show, Wolfgang Schoeller.

The 2005 edition of the Essen Motor Show brought extraordinary glamour to the exhibition halls of the Gruga Park. Exciting modified cars were seen everywhere, after the years of Green ideology driving pleasure is back. The love for cars and motorsport, the fascination of beautiful, fast and elegant cars is an important impulse for an older growing society staying in close contact with future developments. And economy consist of psychology by eighty per cent. As ever the Essen Motor Show was a meeting point for the greats in motorsport and a place of decision making (or simply announcing) for the season to come. Volkswagen Motorsport under the leadership of their charismatic director Kris Nissen presented their new car and their crew for the 2006 Dakar Rally, this time being started in Portuguese Lisboa. Desert lady Jutta Kleinschmidt winning the mother of all off road racing back in 2001 driving a Mitsubishi, undoubtedly was the star at the big Volkswagen news conference, but also her new team mate Carlos Sainz was on the stage. With five Race Touareg 2s entering Volkswagen Motorsport is going for victory in 2006 in their third year competing as a works team. At the beginning of the four-wheel-drive era in rally sport, Formula 2 & 3 driver Freddy Kottulinsky, a count from Sweden now living at the famous track of Schleiz, had won the 1980 Dakar Rally driving a Volkswagen Iltis, a small off road vehicle, that had been especially designed for the Bundeswehr, the German armed forces. Unbeliveable: The 4WD system of the Iltis, constructed at the Ingolstadt based Audi facilities, had been put into a Audi 80 to be the base of the Quattro cars theirselves being the foundation stone of the four-wheel-drive cars being used in the World Rally Championship of today. Audi presented their new R10 sportscar powered by a Diesel engine for the 24 Hours Race of Le Mans in the French capital of Paris shortly before Christmas 2005. They also renewed their involvement in DTM for further three years and signed up with their 2004 champion Mattias Ekstroem from Sweden until 2008.

In contrast to the early days of the Jochen Rindt Show, when nearly complete Formula One fields had been seen, only a few Grand Prix cars were on display and that were show cars. The vehicle standing at the Renault stand was not 100 % Renault as it was expressed by the headline above it, but an old Benetton in an updated Mild Seven Renault livery. The most macabre thing ever presented on a car show was a modified Mercedes-Benz hearse with light metal wheels, a lot of chrome decoration and a coffin in it.

Each Essen Motor Show has got it`s own motto carrying a special exhibition in the Show Center dedicated to that. In in 2005 it was Green Hell of the Nuerburgring, the world`s most demanding circuit of the Nordschleife, being the host of the German Grand Prix from 1927 to 1976. A complete hall was decorated in the natural atmosphere of the 22.8 kilometres long track through the Eifel mountains bringing back the exciting days of Caracciola, Fangio, Clark , Rindt, Stewart, Hunt, Bellof and many, many other heroes of the past. The dark moments of history are far away for a long time and in 2005 the hell was in the hall.