Frankfurt's auto show is big. Damn big. Ten halls big. Herewith, rumor, gossip, and big, pretentious thoughts from the widow-making show floor...
Volkswagen's Hall of Mirrors (Hall 3) has more reflective surfaces than the bathrooms at Studio 54. Slate floors, plastic floors, highly polished wood floors. It's like someone forgot to tell VAG that people would be walking through here, not bowling. As a result, it's loud and slippery and boisterous but definitely worth the aural assault. At the VW stand, most of the smaller cars have labels on their front license plates that tell you how many grams of CO2 they burn per kilometer. I predict it's only a matter of time before the German fetish for badging everything expresses itself in chrome g/km badges on the back of Polos...Lamborghini, also in this building, just revealed to the press its $1.4 million Murcielago variant, the Reventon.
Yes, it's undeniably macho and argumentative. And yes, it has the kind of stealth-fighter creases that will make bats fly into it at night, unwittingly kamizakiing themselves. But 1 million Euros for this thing? It does have a sweet, Space Invaders-style dash, but I just picked up a mint tabletop Ms. Pac Man last year for $350. Still, this limited edition Murcie looks like a solid business move for VAG. Not only have all 20 sold out, but a $1.4 million Reventon means Bugatti can now justify raising the price of its Veyron to the $5 million it actually costs to build...In the festively named Festhalle, the new Chrysler LLC showed its 5+2-seater Dodge Journey, a toughened-up and handsome take on the Chrysler Pacifica. It introduced this active-lifestyle vehicle (shoot me, please, so I never have to hear that word cluster again) with the aid of two quick-change artists, whose costume swaps were supposedly a metaphor for Journey buyers' "quick-changing lifestyles." This is also known as the "Larry Craig Defense." And in truth, the quick-change artistry seemed more like a metaphor for Chrysler ownership than it did for this crossover. Also at Chrysler sat a new 2008 300-with 2007 doors. Apparently, the upgraded door skins for the new model year weren't ready in time for launch...Mercedes-Benz and Chrysler still share the same piece of real estate, the IAA layout having been determined in advance of the sell-off. The focal point of the Mercedes area (somewhat bigger than the Reichstag, and incubating some 120 cars) is the F700 Research Car concept, but I almost had to shield my eyes from its searing hideousness.
That's unfair - the car might look like the offspring of a CL-class and a Florida manatee, but it is at least well sculpted. A rival designer told me this about M-B styling boss Peter Pfeiffer: "Peter was a clay modeler, so his designs have terrific surfaces that show the skill of the person sculpting the clay. But the overall proportions and detailing of his cars can seem positively perverse. Exhibit A: SLR. Exhibit B: the new S-class." And the F700 was not without its perversions: a snake-skin pattern on the seats; clear spats for the rear wheels; a dorsal satellite-antenna fin that spans 1/3rd of the roof; triangular skylights in back; and right rear seat that rocks up to face rearward, its seat bottom becoming a seat back and vice versa. Our post on this car has details of its groundbreaking engine. Also at Mercedes: a new single-cylinder "green car," a three-wheeler with tiller steering - oh wait, that's the 1886 PatentMotorwagen. Never mind. Lewis Hamilton in the haus!...BMW has its own hall, too, a freestanding tent-like structure in the middle of the expo complex. In it sits the new X6 SAV and its hybrid variant, featuring the two-mode hybrid system jointly developed with GM and what was DCX. The X6 begs the question: What's the point? It promises all the driving dynamics of an SUV and all the practicality of a coupe. If you were BMW and you wanted to make a sporty, four-passenger coupe, would you raise the Cg and add weight? Argue amongst yourselves...For sheer audacity, look no further than Porsche, which sandwiched its fill-'er-up-every-hour-whether-she-needs-it-or-not Cayenne GTS with technical displays and whole-car cutaways of the new Cayenne Hybrid. Congratulations Porsche, you win the 2007 Inaugural Look Over Here Don't Look Over There Award!
More tomorrow...
Till then be sure to check out our complete PHOTO GALLERIES live from the show floor.
