A Day Unlike Any Other.(Column)

Byline: Dutch Mandel

Don't know what to feel going back to Frankfurt for the auto show next week, seeing as how the last time the event was held the world fell apart.

First, you should know Frankfurt's biennial car cluster has always been the one about which to grumble loudest. (This is true, at least, for Detroiters, who accept the unyielding attraction of Motown in January. There is none, but we live with it.) Invariably, Germany's autumn is hot and sticky or wet and gloomy, and the show is spread over something akin to 238 miles of exhibit hall space. Couple a forced march between press conferences, scheduled seconds apart from each other, with the humid cling of high- riding Jockeys in a country known for its grace and conviviality, and it's close to a Martha Stewart-in-leg-irons moment.

Now throw Sept. 11, 2001, into the mix and you sense what other luggage we will carry. In many ways for those of us stuck in a foreign land, last year's first anniversary of the terrorist attacks on Washington, Pennsylvania and New York seemed otherworldly. The time zone in which we watched the horror was six hours ahead of events, and still we felt far behind.

Not to diminish the tragedy, not in the least, but other moments of that day stick in my mind. It was then that Jaguar's design chief Ian Callum unveiled a breathtaking concept, the Jaguar R Coupe. The car had presence and poise, and it looked not too dissimilar from Bentley's gangbuster Continental GT that was unveiled at Paris a year later. That the R Coupe had the misfortune of making its debut on such a horrific day is truly bad timing.

Standing near the R Coupe, I remember, was someone for whom I will always hold deep personal and professional respect. Russell Bulgin, perhaps the best automotive journalist of his time for the ...