London International Motorshow 2006 << 56k warning >>

[drunken monkey]

Some of you might know that I had planned to get myself there to provide some coverage of the show for AF so here is my first day report.
Before I post the photos I had taken, I think a quick de-brief is in order.

The London event is held at the ExCell centre in the East End/Docklands area of London. Transport wise, it is relatively well serviced by the Docklands Light Railway which also has the benefits of taking you over some of the ever devopling areas so you get a nic-ish approach. By car though, is another matter. If like me you are travelling from East of the Site, you'd have to navigate the A12/A13/A406 route which is always a major pain as it is ALWAYS jammed at rush hour periods. It is not unknown to take 40mins to travel 1 mile....
If you are travelling from the West then it is slightly better if you were to cut through central London but that would cost you £8 on a weekday... Or you could go around London and then cut down after the Congestion Charge area which takes you back to the lovely A12/A13/A406 bit I mentioned earlier....
When you eventually park, you have to pay £5 for the priveleges but then you do get a nice and hot and stuff bus to/from the actual exhibition.

A couple of friends of mine cycled there from Woodford (I think... my mind is hazy...) so if you live close by, that is a very good suggestion, especially seeing as we have been getting lots of lovely/horrible* sun.

(* delete as applicable)

Entry to the site is a bit of a mess and i had expected it to be more.... grand.
Basically, it was railed off into snaking lanes that eventually leads to the ticket purchasing booths if you don't already have a ticket.
or a ticket collection booth if you've paid/booked online....

spot the difference?

After this, it is a simple case of walk up the stairs into the centre itself and you are greeted by not cold enough air conditioning.
And the smell of car polish.

[drunken monkey]

first of all, some of the Caparo T1 car.
so far, I've only seen CG images of the car and to see it in the metal (or whatever it is...) surprised me with its size,
or to be precise, lack of.







Around the corner from this was the now old-ish Stratos Concept.
To be honest, this wasn't that impressive.
Sure it had nice proportions and that livery is always a bit emotive but this doesn't stir me in the way that the original did.
Pretty much the same as how that Miura concept (not at the show) pales in comparison to the real Miura.







I'll finish the first set of photos with some of the display Focus WRC car.
It's a little dissappointing since it wasn't actually a working version and was just a mock up but it's still pretty cool to see it before the real one gets caked in mud.















oh....
and one of the up and coming focus convertible done with a little help from Pininfarina.
I didn't get many pics of this as it didn't impress me much and someone at Ford decided that it'd be clever to put a blue car on blue carpet against a blue backdrop with some blue ambient lighting.
Great for taking pics don't ya know?

[drunken monkey]

now for something exciting..... ish.
This show was supposed to be a grand return for the London show as the Big International affair that is once was.
The reality is that it isn't all that great.
Porsche, Audi, Lamborghini, Ferrari and Maserati were noted for their absence and of the other companies that were there, many of the important car premieres had already taken place elsewhere.

Still.... that's not to say there wasn't anything nice to look at here.

As seen earlier at Geneva(?),
the Aston Martin Rapide














To be fair, there were a couple of genuine worthwhile World Premieres (as opposed to something like the M6 cabriolet...) and this is one of them;
the New Freelander





they also had nice display of engines/cut-aways.

[drunken monkey]

On to the Mazda stand.
Two (of three) concept cars that we should all look to see the future of design in mazda cars.
Of the three that were designed by their Japan, Europe and US offices, only the Japanese and American ones were there.

Let's start with the Japanese Sassou.










And then follow with the absolutely stunning Kabura













and its equally stunning interior.






There was also a plethora of MX-5s on display including the hard top convertible (apparently) but I seem to have missed it. I'll be going back for more photos so I'll try to get some of that.
In the mean time, they had a naked MX-5 on the wall, which while it's cool, it's not as cool as that famous transparent S2000 from Honda way back when...









more to come....

[drunken monkey]

onto Nissan and let's start here with the current Xanavi 350 SuperGt car.
sure it's not new but it sure is a sexy beast....















and here we have a pic from a different angle and position.



you'll notice that everyone seems to looking in a certain direction.
In that direction were some rather hot and sexy gals doing a damn fine dance routine as part of the premiere for the Micra CC car. Alas, I was too busy taking pics of the car and failed to get any of the hot girls.
See? I suffer for AF....

[drunken monkey]

more Nissan and this time it's a concept (don't get many of those anymore...)












and to finish, two of the ever wonderful 350Z in both incarnations.

[freakray]

Is it me or is there something weird going on with the exhaust tip on the Focus WRC?

[drunken monkey]

yeah.... the focus car is just a mock up.
the brakes and the exhaust as well as some of the vents weren't real.
like i said, disappointing...

anyway.
photos continue.

Renault.

a concept, a bit interesting but not exciting.
proportions a little odd but does this mean that they are going to see about producing a shooting brake style car? A sporty coupe in the vein of the Z4 and Cayman but uglier?







and seeing as how the Clio is a biiiig seller in the UK, there was more than one variant of this car but undoubtedly the star of the show was the 192 car, with the Cup car on the floor and the road car sharing centre stage with their F1 car.













and finally another not too exciting concept.

[drunken monkey]

and onto....



not much actually on display apart from the F1 car and like Renault, with the UK being the biggest market for the Civic, there's a whole slew of Civic models to play with.









I have to say, the new Civic is an absolute stunner, especially in the pearl white paint job they gave it for the show. Unfortunately, it was display only so no pics of the interior and the stupid barrier/band was in the way.











and the fantastic interior/dash.

[drunken monkey]

something more interesting....
Lexus.
Ok, that it's still not that exciting but well, you might now be getting an idea of how disappointing it really was....

not much to see except cars that are already on the road.










And now for something really quite special.
I've seen these cars quite a lot already at various classic events but still, a great car is a great car.
Mercedes Benz.















I was hoping to see the new CL there but alas, I must've been blind but i could've sworn that it wasn't there.
so much for the grand return to London eh?

[drunken monkey]

Not much from the Italians with Fiat being absent and the more prestigious brands also being missing so it was down to Alfa Romeo to impress but alas, they don't really have any new totally unseen cars to offer except the still stunning Brera and Spider models.
























As i said earlier, Ferrari, Lamborghini and Maseratiw ere all absent frm the show but other companies such as car hire and members clubs had various models on show. Shell petrol had one of these:

[drunken monkey]

There was also an enclosure where they held the more valuable cars so here are the usual suspects.

[drunken monkey]

"And now for something completely different....."

ok... that's enough of the quotes...
anyway, in case you missed the reference, this is the British car post (ignoring the Caparo T1 and Aston that is.....

First of all, Lotus, who had a very nice little enclosure where anyone was allowed to climb into their lovely little machines and play with the buttons.

First off, the up and coming Europa car.
Unfortunately, the enclosure meant I couldn't get a clear shot of the car.





and the Exige S with a smaller supercharger than that in the 240 so it only gets approx 225BHP.












And TVR.

Tuscan S2











Sagaris









and it looks like my old friend the Cerbera Speed 12 has been given yet another total make-over

[drunken monkey]

Another enclosure in the centre of one of the (two) halls.

[drunken monkey]

..and back to the normal production cars

Seat.
Not much here to see except the Leons that I think look great, especially the Cupra model.











here's a Hyundai that I think is looking better everytime they make minor changes. It's now looking a very mature design and much beter then the slightly over detailed early version of this design.




Saab and their concept.