British motor show diary

How do you like your motoring? Straight-up? Or right-on? There was something for everyone, but the underlying message was invariably serious.

ANTHONY HOWARD takes a wry look…

WHAT a contrast. This year, Britain’s international motor show returned to London, its spiritual home, after 30 years at the National Exhibition Centre  in the West Midlands – the ‘windswept wastelands north of Solihull’, as one sceptic described it at the time.

The idea behind the move from London’s ageing Earl’s Court to the new NEC in the 1970s was to site the show centrally, making it more readily accessible by road and rail from all over the country.

But it became a soulless sausage machine, based on the grand assumption that the public would happily travel for hours to tramp round the show, and then go home without the opportunity to enjoy other attractions.

ExCel, the show’s new home, is in London’s Docklands, now revitalised as a business and residential area after decades of decline – first at the hands of the Luftwaffe in the 1940s, by union strife in the 1950s and ‘60s, and maybe most crucially by increasing ship sizes geared to the now ubiquitous container.

Opened in 2000, ExCel offers 90,000 m² of exhibition, event, conference and meeting space – as well as six hotels and various pubs, bars and restaurants.

Within minutes of central London, with its obvious attractions, the centre has three on-site Docklands Light Railway stations providing quick access to the London Underground network. If you must drive, there is parking for 4,000 cars. And London City Airport is only five minutes away.

Timing was another key change. The final show at the NEC in 2004 was shifted from its traditional October slot, with the dank onset of winter, to more optimistic May. With the return to the capital came another date shift – to mid-July – and with it soaring temperatures, which some love and others loathe.

A preview of this year’s show revealed some significant absentees. Much of VW Group – Audi, Skoda and Volkswagen – had declined the invitation, though Bentley and SEAT were well represented.

Suzuki, Subaru, Proton, Perodua and Fiat – but not Alfa Romeo – had also decided against participation, as had Ferrari, Lamborghini, Maserati and Porsche. Whether they will come to rue their decisions remains to be told.

The rest of the industry steamed in, determined to put on a good show, and chose it as the occasion to introduce 33 new models.

Press day provided the ever-competitive rat-pack with plenty of exercise as it criss-crossed the two long halls, following a quick succession of one manufacturer’s presentation after another. Though one couldn’t help feeling that any exhibitor scheduled to present after lunch had drawn a short straw, especially as the outside temperature soared into the mid-30s C.

If nothing else, this prelude to the show afforded privileged onlookers with a fascinating back-to-back comparison of corporate styles as senior industry figures walked the walk and talked the talk l

POWER TALK

FIRST on stage was BMW AG chairman Helmut Panke, immaculately suited and surrounded by acolytes standing to attention under the bell-shaped marquees of his company’s exclusive ‘show outside the show’.

This 11,000 m² BMW Group Plaza accommodated 21 road cars, a BMW Sauber Formula 1 car, World Touring Car champion Andy Priaulx’s WTCC 320si, a Formula BMW and three brand new motor cycles. Also there to represent the company’s sponsorship interests were a full size replica of the BMW Oracle America’s Cup yacht and a hole-in-one golfing contest with a ‘green’ floating on the sinister waters of the Royal Albert Dock.

While a slight breeze from the River Thames brought some relief from the blazing morning sunshine, Panke delivered a flawless address in English to the – er – slightly less immaculate media persons assembled on the granite tiers of the amphitheatre above him.

He told us that in 2005 BMW Group became the world’s leading premium manufacturer in terms of retail volume and earnings, and that it remained ahead of its competitors.

BMW had launched 27 new models and updates since 2001. With sales up eight per cent to more than 698,000 vehicles in the first half of 2006 – more than 597,000 BMWs, about 100,000 Minis and 287 Rolls-Royces – it was well on its way to record sales and a ?4 billion highest-ever pre-tax profit for the year.

Britain was the BMW brand’s third largest market, and was Number 1 for Mini and Number 2 for Rolls-Royce. It was also BMW’s second-largest global production location. Between them, Mini pressings at Swindon and assembly at Oxford – and all BMW’s four-cylinder engine production at Hams Hall – employed 6,500 ‘associates’.

‘This makes the BMW Group one of the country’s most important employers,’ said Panke. ‘At the same time, we are a major investor.’

Since 2000, BMW had sunk more than £800 million into expansion development of its British plants, and expansion of the Oxford plant will have accounted for an additional £100 million by 2007.

The company also spent around £1 billion a year on goods and services from British suppliers. We got the understated power message very clearly l

SECOND stop on the day’s media agenda was to see and hear the new Corsa revealed. Though GM had – slightly – jumped the gun the day before with a ‘sneak preview’ of the new Corsa for 1,000 guests invited from across Europe. This took the form of an ‘exclusive booty-shaking gig’ by Grammy-award winning reggae/hip-hop artist Sean Paul, world-wide ambassador of dancehall, at London’s Old Billingsgate music venue.

Much the same theme continued the next morning, with breathtakingly lunatic mid-air gyrations by roller-bladers and BMX riders bemusing some of the grown-ups awaiting the world première of the car and some serious information about it. So now we knew the sort of people GM had identified as buyers for its new pride and joy. Right-on, baby!

Marketing communications manager Vijay Ayer introduced chief designer Niels Loeb, who provided very laid-back low-down on the new Corsa. Both gentlemen appeared to have had their ties confiscated at the door. GM Europe president Carl-Peter Forster, sporting neckwear but rather thinner on top than his younger colleagues, added an essential touch of gravitas l

BIG CAT ROCKS

JAGUAR seemed to remember its roots and core values. Certainly a generous dose of good old rock ‘n roll was much more appealing to observers of a certain vintage, as was the basic message: speed, sex and exotic destinations, though not necessarily in that order, epitomising what grand touring is all about.

Get the car. Call the girl. And whisk her off in a whirlwind romance to faraway places with strange-sounding names. If the pleasures of the performance car weren’t meant to be shared, why bother installing a second seat? Just to be sure I cover all the bases, the message could be re-written as: Get the car. Call the guy. Whisk him off…

There to introduce us to the delights of the new supercharged XK-R sports car was a nattily trouser-suited feisty American lady with a twinkle in her eye, Bibiana Boerio, Jaguar Cars managing director since mid-2004.

Her Ford career path, with a strong financial thread running through it, reminds me of the apocryphal story of the first day for a new intake of bright young hopefuls at Dearborn. ‘Well, gentlemen, what are we here at Ford in business for?’ A first hand shoots up. ‘Why, sir, to build automobiles, of course.’ ‘Wrong, son. We’re here to make money.’ I’m sure the point never eludes Ms Boerio.

Anyhow the Jaguar team had plenty to be upbeat about. For the new stunner had been shamelessly picking up accolades: ‘Car of the Year’ and ‘Best Coupé’ – ahead of the BMW 6 Series and Porsche 911 – in the Auto Express 2006 new car honours. ‘Ground-breaking, bold, beguiling and breathtaking’ they called it. What Car? had named it ‘most exciting car to be launched in 2006’, and the crush of hacks around the XK-R on the stand certainly seemed to endorse this view.

More prosaically, the XK had won the Prince Michael Award for Safety and a World Traffic Safety Symposium’s Traffic Safety Achievement Award.

Successor to the model introduced in 1996, the new XK comes in coupé and convertible guises with the latest generation naturally-aspirated 300 bhp 4.2-litre JAJ-V8 and sequential-shift 6-speed automatic transmission. The aerodynamically cleaner coupé delivers 0-60 in 5.9 seconds and 50-70 in 3.1 seconds en route to an electronically governed maximum of 155 mph.

The XK-R has a 420 bhp supercharged 4.2-litre V8 endowing the coupé with 0-60 in 4.9 seconds, 50-70mph in 2.5 seconds and a 155 mph top speed, also limited  l

GETTING GREENER

FORD was pushing its green credentials like mad. First it made a ‘serious statement’ by staging a full-house pre-show media briefing at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre.

An overpowering dark grey blockhouse with heavy security, it glowers inappropriately across the street towards the delicate beauty of ancient Westminster Abbey.

All contemporary architects and town planners should be shot? I couldn’t possibly comment.

The UK’s leading automotive company, as Ford styles itself, is pledged to spend ‘at least’ £1 billion in Britain to develop environmental technologies for its Ford, Jaguar, Land Rover and Volvo ranges.

Claimed to be the largest ever such undertaking by a car manufacturer in the UK, it will double Ford’s rate of environmental spend.

The strategy is to cultivate much deeper collaboration between the 9,500 engineers at Ford, Jaguar and Land Rover R&D centres in the UK, and to bring additional engineers both at Volvo in Sweden and at other Ford establishments in Europe and worldwide into the loop. The aim is to deliver more than 100 models and derivatives with better emissions or fuel economy over the next six years.

Ford kicked off its press day presentation with a rather worthy rap performance – ‘The fuel of the past - it just can’t last. Cos the future fuel is here.’ – by green T-shirt-clad youngsters from north London’s ‘inclusive’ Chicken Shed Theatre Company. Right-on! And then Ford of Britain chairman and managing director Roelant de Waard followed through by unveiling ‘the coolest car at the show’ – a 6½-ton life-size replica of the new Focus Coupé Cabriolet, sculpted in ice.

I asked if anyone was running a book on how long it would take to melt, but nobody wanted to play. A sense of humour is most frightfully important, don’t you think? l

SAFE IN THEIR HANDS

PREDICTABLY, one of the hot attractions during the pre-show flurry of media activity was the Palm Court at the Waldorf Hotel. However, the big draw this time was not the thé dansant, revived at the hotel in the 1980s to recapture a more gracious pre-war age, but Yu Jianwei, president of China’s Nanjing Automobile Corporation, new owner of the iconic MG brand.

Mr Yu had come to reassure the Brits that MG was safe in his hands, but it was a tortuous process that suggested there is still some way to go in developing mutual understanding – shades of early Japanese motor industry contacts with Western media.

Introduced by Professor Garel Rhys, Mr Yu opened in pretty fair English, but then apologised, saying it would be best if he addressed us through an interpreter.

Such proceedings are inevitably more taxing for speaker and audience, but to suggest that Mr Yu harangued us for 59 minutes would imply a Little Englander’s disdain for cultural differences.

No doubt Mr Yu thought his messages were pretty straightforward, but the subsequent Q&A session went round and round the same ground while Mr Yu remained smilingly patient.

If evidence were needed of Nanjing’s seriousness, it came with the revelation of the amazing speed with which all the manufacturing kit at Longbridge had been packed into 4,000 containers and shipped to China. Installation and commissioning was scheduled for September, October and November, 2006.

Longbridge seems unlikely to regain the significance romantics may have hoped for. Nevertheless, Mr Yu revealed that NAC had taken a 33-year lease on 430,000 m² – 255,000 m² of it under cover – of the Longbridge site. ‘It’s quite clear,’ he said. ‘If we don’t want to resume at Longbridge, why sign a lease?’

With 57 Britons already on board, an 80-strong Anglo-Chinese management team is working up plans for a CKD operation at Longbridge. With capacity for 15,000 cars a year, it is intended to recommence production of MG’s TF mid-engine two-seater in the first half of 2007.

Sales in the UK and Europe should resume in the second half of 2007, and work to establish a dealer network has begun.

Longbridge will be supplied with TF components direct from the plant NAC is now building at Nanjing, with scope to produce 200,000 cars and 250,000 engines a year.

NAC’s strategy also includes recommencement of UK sales of – Nanjing-built – MG ZTs with ‘significant enhancements’ in 2008.

Mr Yu concluded: ‘Car enthusiasts all over the world can be reassured that MG, one of the great motoring brands, is safe in our hands. We are committed to rebuilding the marque in major markets, with cars supplied from the UK or China as appropriate.’  l

STRONG, VIBRANT

AS the show doors opened, the organisers declared it to be a showcase for how strong and vibrant the UK motor industry really was.

Society of Motor Manufacturers & Traders chief executive, Christopher Macgowan said: ‘SMMT is delighted to have this show back in London, and with 12 new cars being premièred within the halls, outside driving events and evening rock concerts, visitors can expect a stunning best-of-British from the motor industry.

‘The British motor industry generates a turnover of £47 billion every year, contributing well over 10 per cent of the UK’s total exports. We support around 800,000 jobs, and still have more volume car makers than any other EU country.

‘All these factors show just how strong the UK industry is and why we must have a world-class showcase to celebrate our success.

‘We have a committed and efficient workforce which continues to demonstrate world leadership.’

Key facts about the UK industry

• Nearly 200,000 workers make more than 1.6 million vehicles per annum in the UK.

• 800,000 people work in the whole automotive industry – from manufacture to sales, service and repair.

• Every year, more than 2.4 million new cars are sold in the UK, making it Europe’s second largest market behind Germany.

• In 2005, more than 7.5 million used cars also changed hands in the UK.

• Nissan has invested more than £2.3 billion in the UK since 1986. Designed in Paddington and developed at Cranfield, the new Micra is produced at Sunderland, Europe’s most productive car plant.

• More than £1.3 billion has been invested in Honda’s Swindon manufacturing sites since 1984. The new Civic is being made there – the first time ever a new Honda model has started production outside Japan.

• In the last four years, BMW has spent around £900 million upgrading its UK production facilities. The group has contributed £2.5 billion to the UK’s GDP over the same period.

• Ford has invested £560 million in its Dagenham Diesel Centre in the last three years – taking its capacity more than 700,000 engines a year l

CABRIO OF THE YEAR

THERE could not have been a better time to re-acquaint the British public with the delights of wind-through-your-hair motoring, Italian-style.

Latest addition to the Alfa Romeo range, the Spider is derived from the Alfa Brera coupé, styled by Giorgetto Giugiaro in collaboration with Alfa Romeo’s Centro Stile.

A two-seater, redolent of the 1960s Spider Duetto, it offers a ‘welcoming and sophisticated’ interior with features such as dual-zone automatic climate control, steering-wheel-mounted radio controls, VDC and cruise control.

The new Spider comes with a choice of two JTS petrol engines: the 185 bhp 2.2-litre, and the 260 bhp 3.2 – both allied with a 6-speed manual gearbox. The 3.2 version has Alfa’s Q4 four-wheel drive system, and an automatic derivative is in the pipeline.

The chassis comprises high double-wishbone front suspension with a multi-link setup at the rear. Sophisticated electronic systems control the car’s dynamics, from braking to traction.

A panel of 23 leading motoring from 12 European countries acclaimed the Spider  as ‘Cabrio of the Year 2006’ at the Geneva Motor Show in March.

Eligibility criteria included a Geneva debut and a price of no more than 60,000 Swiss Francs. This is the second time a Fiat Auto product has claimed the award as the 1995 title went to the Fiat Barchetta  l

BABE MAGNET

WHEN Lionel Martin began competing in hill climbs at Aston Clinton in Buckinghamshire – Chequers, the prime minister’s country residence, is just around the corner – before World War 1 he could never have dreamt of the long heritage he was establishing or where it would all lead.

The company has enjoyed mixed fortunes through its 90-odd-year history. Though, under the stewardship of tractor magnate David Brown from 1947 to 1972, it produced elegant, nimble cars and attained crowning glory by winning Le Mans with the beautiful DBR1 in 1959.

Aston Martin Lagonda changed hands several times during the 1970s and ‘80s, producing brutish cars that evoked Ettore Bugatti’s ‘fastest lorry in the world’ observation about Bentleys. Maybe the most stylish car – opinion has always been sharply divided on this – of the period was the William Townes-designed Lagonda 4-door saloon, produced from 1980.

The 7th Cavalry arrived in the form of Ford, buying 75 per cent of the shares in 1987. Ford took full control in 1994, and in 1999 placed the company in its Premier Automotive Group alongside Jaguar, Volvo and subsequently Land Rover.

Aston Martin has since got into a really confident stride, and for the first time in its history operates from a single purpose-built base opened at Gaydon, Warwickshire, in 2003.

The DB9-derived 4-door Rapide concept made its UK debut at ExCel, extolled by one of the most elegiac of press releases – for example: ‘…the Rapide combines the company’s commitment to power, beauty and soul with space and practicality for every eventuality. It stands for stylistic excellence, market innovation and flexible manufacturing. The Rapide is the epitome of Aston Martin’s low-volume, high-technology approach, the synergy of modern methods and materials with traditional skills to create a new form of craftsmanship for the 21st century…’

But does it do the business? Well, it certainly looks very elegant in the flesh, a good example of adhering to the original proportions while squeezing in extra seats and doors. Overall length is stretched to 5 m, 30 cm longer than the DB9, and the roof line is 4 cm higher. A hatchback and folding rear seats combine to accommodate those golf clubs or the occasional pigskin cabin trunk.

The result is 140 kg heavier than the DB9, and so the 6-litre V12 has been uprated from 450 to 480 bhp. Mated to a ZF Touchtronic gearbox, this provides DB9-equivalent performance – 186 mph and 0-62 mph in 4.9 seconds – while carbon brake discs and callipers add reassurance when it’s time to calm down.

All in all, pretty mouth-watering. And I’m not just thinking of the exquisite legs that are sure to be glimpsed easing in and out of such a babe magnet l

STARS IN THE EYES

I confess to having stars in my eyes when it comes to the Bentley legend. In the 1980s, I had the luck to be driven around the Circuit de la Sarthe in the 3-litre that won Bentley’s first Vingt-Quatre Heures victory in 1924, start of the mythology.

Next I hurtled a Mulsanne Turbo R around the 8.48-mile course, surrounded by swarms of pre-war racers.

Driving a Turbo R home to England from the Austrian Grand Prix, my companions and I were riveted by the rate at which the fuel gauge needle travelled while using cruise control at 130 mph on autobahnen.

Another jape with Bentley Drivers’ Club members and their steeds involved a cross-Channel hot air balloon race. Light winds prevented the balloons from flying. So I jumped from basket to vintage Bentley, and we automobilists enjoyed a good dinner in Paris.

In the 1990s, Ed Hubbard drove me in his £10 million ‘Old Number 1’ on the crumbling remains of the Brooklands banking while I was helping out during a High Court hearing concluded with a long certificate of authenticity from the judge.

Congenial scribe Steady Barker even took me impromptu to visit elegant Mrs Bentley for tea under the watchful gaze of WO’s portrait over the mantelpiece.

One can only speculate what Walter Owen would have thought when Vickers sold his marque to Volkswagen – the Germans of all people – in 1998. Though by now he might have agreed they had made a pretty fair fist of it, he would have deprecated a lèse majesté clanger that a previous generation of Bentleyistas would not have dropped: a reference to Her Royal Highness The Queen’s upholstery choice for the Golden Jubilee State Limousine. Off with their heads!

Key to Bentley’s revived fortunes is the Continental GT. A drop-dead-gorgeous motor if ever I saw one, it combines modern elegance and restrained brutality worthy of its lineage. Even without the mechanicals that deliver the near-200 mph dynamic experience, it would be a pleasing object immobile in the courtyard.

Add in the 552 bhp 6-litre twin-turbo W12, paddle-shift 6-speed automatic transmission, four-wheel drive and all the other bells and whistles, and you’re really talking. Don’t tell everybody about it, or they’ll all want one. But Bentley did, and there’s a 1½-year waiting list.

‘Eighty per cent of all Continental GT customers are new to the Bentley marque,’ said chairman and CEO Dr Franz Josef Paefgen.

The Continental GTC convertible is due to start reaching customers towards the end of this year. Though to my mind lacking the visual punch of its tin-top stablemate, the GTC has obvious attractions, and is no scuttle-shake special as a great deal of work – and an extra 110 kg – has gone into attaining high torsional stiffness.

Bentley celebrates 60 years of production at Crewe this year, and marks the anniversary with ‘Diamond Series’ limited editions: 60 of the Arnage saloon and 400 of the Continental GT.

And the Mulliner Driving Specification, first available on the Continental GT in 2004, is now offered with the Continental Flying Spur. It adds touches such as 20-inch alloy wheels, pedals drilled for lightness and more extrovert interior trim.

My attention was caught by the rather snappy red and white ties worn by gentlemen staffing the stand and, thinking them to be company or club neck wear, I enquired. My smiling host turned his tie over to reveal the label: Next!  l

Copyright © 2006 by Anthony Howard

for Vehicle Engineer

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