XCAR at the 2013 Frankfurt Motor Show
It's the biggest show of the year and we're focusing on three manufacturers. Here's why.
Motor Shows are a big deal. Everyone with a hand in the automotive market gets themselves a stand and puts on a glitzy press conference telling all in attendance how well their company has been doing, why their success has been achieved and then showing off either a new model, a concept or both promising big things for the future.
Now, usually we'd be all over this like stink on cheese, but not for the Frankfurt show. If you've not seen what XCAR has done at the 2012 Paris and 2013 Geneva Motor Shows head to YouTube and take a look -- we usually find 20+ of the hottest new cars and make a film on each. There's only two of us out there and we're always pretty pleased with the results - lots of cars, lots of films, lots of... everything.
For Frankfurt we've decided to go a different route. We're making three proper XCAR features around the show rather than lots of little films. This is happening for two reasons. 1) We feel you'd learn more about the cars we do feature, their background and all, if we put more effort in to fewer films. 2) FRANKFURT IS CHUFFING MASSIVE.
The Frankfurt show is the size of a small town -- no lie. The halls are huge and take an age to cross, then you take in to account that there's loads of them and you begin to get the picture. There's more to it than that though - Frankfurt is where the Germans go to show off. The big three will be waving their proverbial willies as far as they can to show just how great their product is. Last time their stands cost millions to build. Audi wasn't happy with the regular halls' offerings so built its own mini hall/mansion with a race track INSIDE IT. It was big.
To put the size in further context - a photographer from a well known British car mag wore a pedometer at the 2011 Frankfurt show. He walked 14 miles over the show's press days.
We're leaving the long walks to the chaps at Car Tech and focusing on the big stories in greater depth than we classically have. Let us know what you think of what we're doing...