Euro Bling Needs To Get Blung.(Column)

Byline: Matt Davis

As an early Christmas gift, I recently took myself to Germany's industrial heartland for the Essen motor show. For years now, Euro colleagues and car execs have been telling me Essen is the Euro SEMA: the continent's

aftermarket showcase where Saxons and Latins lose their glossy manners, hang up girlie posters and get seriously crunk, G.

After one day marching through the 15 halls of the almost-a-palindrome Messe Essen, it is my well-considered opinion that Europe has a long way to go if it wants to emulate the aftermarket reverie that pumps through the veins of North American car guys.

Talking with some folks from Abt Sportsline-one of the big players in the German touring car series DTM, and a leader in the Euro aftermarket-I finally said, "This all just feels so sober to me compared with any get-together in the States, be it SEMA or a lesser show.'' Their honest reply was, "Well, isn't everything more sober here than in America?''

This was an interesting sidebar. Because my immediate reply to this, if we're talking about cars, is a humongous no. But this is another rant for another day.

I came to Essen expecting scantily clad, high-heeled Teutonic women to be bursting out of dozens of broiling-hot 500-hp Golf V GTIs, new Ford Focuses and Alfa 147s. What I saw were myriad tastefully dropped CLS coupes, 6 Series, 1 Series, only a couple of Golf Vs, some A3s, three 997 911s, three SLR McLarens and two 360 Modenas. Asian tuning was represented only by five 350Zs and three RX-8s. Two treated Mustang GTs acted as ambassadors for all of the Americas. And nary an exotic-dancer-by-night in sight.