Giorgio Giugaro

Giorgio Giugaro’s portfolio of car designs is without peer. I met him not long after he set up Italdesign in 1968 and found not only a talented artist but also an enthusiastic communicator. Flamboyant, arm-waving, Italian and despite his celebrity status he has the rare gift of making you feel worth listening to. And what cars. He worked at the Bertone studio from 1960-1965 creating memorable Alfa Romeos and Ferraris, and the exquisitely proportioned Gordon Keeble, a large British car that he somehow shrunk to a manageable size. Among his masterpieces were the BMW 3200CS and in 1965 a Mustang commissioned by Automobile Quarterly. From 1966-1968 he was with Ghia, producing the beautiful Maserati Ghibli. When he set up on his own he was able to pursue the distinctive ‘origami’ designs, which made him famous, such as the 1972 Lotus Esprit. Prolific Giugiaro’s flair spread from one-off haute couture to popular cars that became best sellers. He became a popular consultant to manufacturers in the developing industries of the Far East, not only producing cars that were the height of fashion but also, by virtue of their clever detailing, cheap to make. His work for VW on the Passat and Golf brought enormous commercial success, culminating it seems, according to the usually reliable Luca Ciferri, in a takeover.
My motoring column in The Sunday Times 24 April 1988

TURIN – Volkswagen AG will buy a controlling stake in Italy's largest design and engineering firm, Italdesign Giugiaro S.p.A., two industry sources confirmed to Automotive News Europe.
One of the sources said that an announcement could come as early as next week. Italdesign and VW representatives declined to comment.
The move is consistent with VW's plan to be the world's largest automaker by 2018 with sales of 10 million vehicles a year. To reach that goal, VW's 10-brand group, including Porsche, will need more designers and engineers. In 2010 alone, VW group plans to add 60 models, including upgrades.
Italdesign, co-founded by Giorgetto Giugiaro in 1968, currently has 975 employees and 800 computer aided design workstations. Most of the workers and equipment are based at the company's headquarters in Moncalieri, 15km south of Turin.
Italdesign is a private company entirely owned by Giorgetto Giugiaro, 71, who serves as chairman, and his son Fabrizio, 45, who heads the design and model division.
Both executives are expected to continue working at the company following the VW takeover.
Italdesign does not disclose its financial results. The most recent data available shows that in 2008 the company increased its revenues 6.2 percent to 136 million euros ($166 million) and reported an operating breakeven. Luca Ciferri

There is always something worth seeing on the Italdesign stand at Geneva.

Mercedes-Benz Simulator

It looks as though Mercedes-Benz wanted its simulator to be run-in, as it were, before inviting Ray Hutton and me to drive it. Inaugurated 25 years ago, on 10 May 1985 at the Daimler-Benz Research Centre in Berlin Marienfelde, we flew there, my diaries tell me, via Bremen, between 14 and 16 August. The Sunday Times Magazine published the feature on 10 November 1985 headed GOING FOR A SPIN, BUT ONLY THE FEEL IS REAL. The Walt Disney animation would be passé nowadays. You would get Avatar in three dimensions but it felt realistic enough at the time, when Berlin still had a wall and Checkpoint Charlie was a bit more than a sandbagged memento of a divided city. For some reason the BBC's royal correspondent Michael Cole was included among Mercedes-Benz's guests and we saw Checkpoint Charliefrom "our" side. Flight back was diverted to Bremen, where the flight crew regretfully ran out of flying hours. Mr Cole drew himself up to his full six foot three and remonstrated with BA that we, the passengers, had run out of passenger hours. We remained in Bremen overnight while Elizabeth, who knew Ray had been visiting East Berlin and had not heard from him, fretted, sure that he was somehow locked away behind an Iron Curtain. Who would have thought that 25 years later, with Ruth, Jane and Alex we would have a multi-duck dinner in the Reichstag roof. See view.

Hybrids and Why We Need Two Cars

HYBRIDS, ELECTRICS, LEGISLATORS AND WHY WE ALL NEED TWO OR MORE CARS.

Fleet Street Group last week. Nice to be back at Rules. It’s agreeable entertaining fellow Europeans in an establishment set up when Napoleon was opening his campaign in Egypt. The oldest restaurant in London has moved on a bit from porter pies and oysters but you can’t disregard its history. A separate entrance enabled the Prince of Wales (Edward, not Charles) to come and go discreetly on his assignations with Emilie Charlotte (Lillie) Langtry. Rules was a favourite of literary greats including Dickens, Thackeray, Galsworthy and HG Wells. Not many literary giants in the Fleet Street Group of motoring correspondents and not all of us write much for what used to be Fleet Street newspapers. Still it’s composed of leading lights in the business and I’ve retained my membership for 25 years I suppose from my Sunday Times days. Guest this time was Dr Thomas Weber, member of the Board of Management of Daimler AG since January 2003, and responsible for Group Research & Mercedes-Benz cars’ development.

Alas the days are gone when the head of research at what we used to know as Daimler-Benz could report progress on how it was aiming to make the best passenger cars in the world. Daimler is spending €4.4 billion annually guessing what wheeze the politicians will decide on for dealing with climate change or safety or whatever cause celebre lobbyists come up with. Catchy headlines are crucial.

Stuttgart’s technicians are never self-effacing and Dr Weber was not being modest when he parried a couple of searching questions with a plain, “We don’t know.” He could not predict how fuel cells will develop, or whether petrol or diesel will provide the best answer for hybrid car power units because it all depends on things he can’t control, legislation, infrastructure, energy prices. He must have plan A for some circumstances, plan B for others, and a whole alphabet of plans for when Brussels changes its mind.

Some things he can be sure of. Electric cars will be fine for towns (they always were) but not for dashing down the autobahn (nothing new there) and ic engines will shrink (well they’ve been getting smaller and more efficient for years).

What seems certain is that Dr Weber’s €4.4 billion is being cleverly disposed on having some solution ready whatever happens. There is lots of jostling over infrastructure (refuelling with electricity, hydrogen) and who is going to pay for it. There are co-operative projects on battery technology that will extend beyond the motor industry. What seems perfectly clear is that one general-purpose car of the sort we have now won’t do. A zero-emission green car for towns will not do the Autobahns. It is all very well Dr Weber saying we need to reinvent the car, reduce battery charging time and set up hydrogen stations, but none of the solutions on offer provides a single sort of family car that will do everything. Not for a generation. We shall need two cars for every one we have now. Let us wait to see how a world, already agog at two or three-car families, will cope with fleets of electric bubblecars topping up batteries on parking meters, while whizzo cruisers proliferate town-to-town.

Scotland on Sunday Motoring, Eric Dymock 2 February 2002
New Technology

The next big thing in cars is how to make them go when the oil runs out. Futurologists can’t make up their mind whether to back fuel cells chemically manufacturing their own electricity, or hydrogen working the sort of engines we have now. America seems to think fuel cells, Europe hydrogen and existing engines. A hundred years ago inventors were struggling with steam, electricity, and petrol, against optimistic “systems of levers” and “gravity”.

Wilder flights of fancy fell by the wayside and the contest to win credibility by the main protagonists was taken up in earnest.

Half a century of railway engineering meant steam was well understood. Stanley steam cars remained in production until 1927. Steam lorries were still working twenty years later. Dobles, Locomobiles, Serpollets and Whites, although slow starters, once under way were swift and silent but people wanted cars that started on a button. Flash boilers and condensers were of no avail, and even though Fred Marriott’s Stanley set a world speed record in 1906 at 127.66mph (204.93kph) steam did not prosper.

Electric cars seemed more promising. In April 1899 Camille Jenatzy exceeded 100kph (62.3mph) in La Jamais Contente, built by the Compagnie Internationale des Transports Automobiles Électriques, with a cigar-shaped body of partinium. It weighed 1450kg (3196.67lb), of which 305kg (672.4lb) was batteries, but they only had sufficient energy for the kilometre course.

Pure electric cars are as far away now as they were in Jenatzy’s day. Practical batteries that go beyond milk-float capacity are not imminent. However hybrid electric gets a boost this month through exemption from London’s congestion charge. Honda and Toyota have cars on sale that could save a London commuter £1,250 a year, as well as qualifying for a £1000 bonus from the Energy Saving Trust.

Hybrids have small engines to charge up the batteries, the Toyota Prius is smooth, quiet, tractable, and economical. A computer rings the changes seamlessly between petrol and electric. The Prius has been on sale in Japan since 1997, and qualifies for reduced Vehicle Excise Duty, with carbon dioxide emissions less than 120g/km.

Its performance is leisurely, so in two years’ time Toyota plans a Lexus RX 4x4 with Hybrid Synergy drive. It will be sold in North America, where SUV gas guzzlers have been attracting some opprobrium. It will have a V6 instead of a V8, yet still produce the kind of performance SUV drivers want, with the economy and emissions of a small car.

Operating at twice the voltage of existing hybrids its front and rear electric motors will drive all four wheels.

Honda’s hybrid programme is well advanced. The £17,000 Insight’s batteries took up a lot of space, it was only a two-seater but the new Civic IMA is a full four-seater, it will do 58mpg, 100mph (160kph), and its CO2 emissions are 116g/km bringing it within the 11 percent tax band. The Civic qualifies for exemption to the London congestion charge and, when it is introduced in May, will cost £15,000 against the Toyota Prius’s £16,440.

Hybrids are not new. Audi had one in 1989, with a 2.2 litre 5-cylinder petrol engine driving the front wheels, and a 9.3kW DC electric those at the back. The petrol engine charged up nickel cadmium batteries, at 181kg (398lb) two thirds the weight of Jenatzy’s, but they gave a range of only 30km (19miles) and took three quarters of an hour’s running to re-charge.

A separate electric motor worked the power steering, brake servo, and ABS, and a petrol-fed heater when the electric motor was working. It was not a success.

The hybrid represents a half way house towards cars that use no fossil fuels and Honda is ahead with fuel cells. Last July its FCX was first to gain certification from the United States Environmental Protection Agency. Fuel cells combine hydrogen with oxygen to generate electricity chemically. The only exhaust material is water vapour, but the cost of a fuel cell engine is £450 per kW, against about £12 for a petrol engine, and hydrogen generation remains problematical. It can be extracted from petrol, methanol, or natural gas on board the car.

Huge hydrogen-production plants are decades away, yet all the major manufacturers are researching fuel cells. Ford and Daimler/Chrysler have increased their stake in Canadian Ballard Power systems, the fuel cell developer, and General Motors has shown its Hy-Wire, taking the concept forward to a vehicle with no steering wheel, no pedals, and dramatic appearance.

But even Hy-Wire manages only 94kW (126bhp), about the same as a 1.8litre Vauxhall Vectra, and VW and BMW are among the Europeans who feel that if you are going to have hydrogen available, it is best used in internal combustion engines with the power and flexibility we already have. I have driven a hydrogen BMW and it works much like any other BMW. Fuel storage is no problem; it is in a pressure tank like LPG. A fleet of hydrogen-powered BMWs clocked up 125,000 miles in 2001 and would give us the prospect of motoring much as we do now, well into the century.


Scotland on Sunday Motoring, Eric Dymock 8 February 2003
Toyota Prius road test

The significance of the Toyota Prius lies not so much in the car itself as the technology that drives it. Toyota has hundreds of patents on a mechanism that General Motors, Ford or DaimlerChrysler could use to make their own Hybrid Synergy Drive models under licence since, on the face of it, the Prius represents a technical revolution.

However it is as well to remember that the last breakthrough of this magnitude, the Wankel rotary piston engine of the 1960s, proved an industrial cul de sac. It went into production with NSU, and licences were obtained by Curtiss-Wright, Daimler-Benz, Deutz, Rolls-Royce, MAN, Krupp, Fichtel & Sachs, and BMC among others. Citroën planned the GS of 1970 with a Wankel engine, small, light, minimalist it spun like a tiny turbine but Wankels had two drawbacks. Problematical rotor seals made them unreliable, and it had fuel consumption like the bath running out, especially going fast. I drove a splendidly aerodynamic NSU Ro80 down the then-new Autoroutes to a Monaco Grand Prix, and had to send for money to pay for the petrol.

The Toyota’s hybrid Synergy Drive is as revolutionary as the Wankel but has more chance of success. The Prius feels like any 5-door automatic hatchback. The starting procedure is a bit fiddly and when you press the Start button nothing much happens. It moves off when you put it in Drive, gliding away sometimes in electric, sometimes on the quiet little engine in response to instructions from the computer. Brake, or slow down, and the computer turns the electric motor into a generator, pumping energy back into a battery behind the rear seat.

It is accomplished technology. You can follow it on a monitor screen, which shows power going to the front wheels from the petrol engine, or the electric one, or both at once. It is not specially swift. It is slower than a 1.4 Ford Focus but its CO2 output puts it in the lowest tax category.

The facia monitor shows fuel used every five minutes. One column gives an instantaneous read-out, so downhill goes off the scale at 100mpg because the petrol engine is shut down. Labouring uphill it collapses to 25mpg. Ambling along on the level it registers 50mpg, then goes up to 60mpg cruising at 50mph. Its best was 95mpg driving slowly with the electric engine helping.

Overall economy depends on how you drive. Prius was not at its best on motorways. The petrol engine is a feeble 4-cylinder, not best suited to pushing a streamlined but broad-shouldered saloon through the air, so has to work hard at speed. Like a diesel the Prius does best in traffic. Over 1300 miles of mostly motorway driving 46mpg was not really surprising, although a good way short of the official combined figure.

Sometimes Prius argues with itself, hunting through the CVT-style transmission, uncertain whether to propel itself with petrol or electric. This results in unevenness, but probably the most disappointing aspect of the car is road noise. Coarse surfaces send a lot of drumming up through the structure, all the more noticeable since the mechanism is so quiet. At red traffic lights there is uncanny silence, the engine stopped awaiting GO.

BOX: Verdict: Astonishing technology, quiet, for the most part smooth, mandatory for Greens
Length 4,450mm
Width 1,725mm
Body Five-door hatch
Engines One and a half litre petrol 76bhp (56.67kW) and 67bhp (49.96kW) electric
0-60mph 10.9sec
Fuel Combined 65.7mph but see text

Goodwood

GOODWOOD

The Goodwood Revival meeting this weekend 18-20 September is a highlight of the motor racing and social calendar. Nostalgia, they say, isn’t what it used to be but judging by the way people dress for the occasion, turn up in old cars, old aeroplanes, motorcycles and steam buses it’s here to stay. The waiting list for the Goodwood Road Racing Club may be shorter now than it was in 2007, when this feature appeared in The Business magazine, but the appeal of the event remains undiminished. Buzz Aldrin, Mr Bean, and celebrations of Stirling Moss’s 80th birthday will all feature.

From: The Business July 2007 by Eric Dymock

Key ingredient of the Goodwood Road Racing Club is to offer something money can’t buy. Conducted tours of the Ferrari racing department at Maranello can’t be bought without buying a Ferrari. You can’t just buy a paddock pass for the Goodwood Revival Meeting or be eligible for the Kinrara or March Enclosures. You may not drive on track days, or get invitations to the Summer Ball and Christmas party at Goodwood House but you can as a member of the GRRC, so it’s small wonder that membership is capped at 5000 with a waiting list of 2000. Since 94 out of a hundred members renew annually, it could be two or three years before you get in.

Goodwood’s rolling acres are reinterpreting the traditional sporting estate. No longer the exclusive realm of the nobility and gentry, new sorts of corporate and individual members are invited. The Earl of March, who took over management of the 12,000 acres on the Sussex downs from his father, the tenth Duke of Richmond, in 1994 lives in the spectacular Regency house surrounded by priceless paintings, furniture, porcelain and tapestry. Charles March is down to earth about his heritage, presiding over a culture of style, design, fashion and luxury. Every combustible litre is commercial: “I suppose we’re most famous for the sports – horse racing, motor racing, golf, flying, shooting and cricket. They were all started by keen amateurs at Goodwood, the Duke or the children of the Duke.”

The third Duke brought horse racing in 1802. He provided a course on a field known as The Harroway for fellow officers of the Sussex Militia. The Earl of Egremont had turned them out of Petworth Park, and the Duke was so pleased with the military’s two days’ racing that he organised a three day meeting under Jockey Club rules. Racing has continued ever since almost without a break.

Glorious Goodwood is a 205 year-old horse racing hallmark. Golf came later. “You join for about £150 and then buy the golf credits you want. It means people can come from far afield without paying massive green fees. It’s an effort to make golf more modern, get rid of stuffy clubhouse routine. We have no dress code. We appeal to younger golfers. It was all started by the seventh Duke’s three children. Widowed for the second time he told them to stop hanging around the house. One daughter was only thirteen and got James Braid to build them a golf course. Originally it was just their own, then it became a member’s course.”

Motor racing came with the ninth Duke. A car enthusiast, the Earl of March Frederick Charles Gordon-Lennox joined Bentley Motors as an apprentice, drove his first big race in 1929, and as works driver for Austin together with SCH Davis won the BRDC 500 Miles at Brooklands. He raced his own team of MGs to win the Brooklands Double-Twelve, Britain’s answer to the Le Mans 24 Hours, run in two parts because residents of woody Weybridge couldn’t bear the noise of racing at night. In the 1930s Freddie Richmond flew aircraft of his own design from a field near Goodwood House, gaining an Aviator’s Certificate from the Royal Aero Club. The field became RAF Westhampnett, a satellite of the Battle of Britain station at nearby Tangmere, and Douglas Bader took off on his final wartime sortie from its grass runway.

Following the loss of Brooklands after the War, Freddie Richmond now Duke of Richmond and Gordon sanctioned motor racing on the airfield perimeter track. It became second in importance only to Silverstone until 1966, when it was summarily closed. Bringing it up to date would have been costly, although it was said that Freddie didn’t much like the nouveaux riches infiltrating motor sport. In just under twenty years Goodwood was instrumental in the careers of Mike Hawthorn and Jackie Stewart, although it effectively ended that of Stirling Moss in 1962. After it closed, the picturesque circuit remained in a motor sporting time warp until the 1990s, when Freddie’s grandson gave up being society photographer Charles Settrington, and as the newest Lord March, set about fulfilling his vision of a modern sporting estate.

“There are traditional estate-type activities, house, property, farm, forestry, then there’s aviation. We’ve got an engineering business and a flying school. There’s a retail business that sells clothing to our various members and in celebration of our events, and a farm shop selling our meat.”

The 52 year old Charles, Earl of March and Kinrara, has some Charles II in his dna, a result of the liason between the King and Louise de Kéroualle, Duchess of Portsmouth. The inheritance might be responsible for Lord March’s Cavalier charm and Hugh Grant good looks. His enthusiasm for the Goodwood brand’s motor racing highlights, the Festival of Speed in June and the Goodwood Revival Meeting in September, is infectious. This is motor sport with upper class style, the Festival sprinting the latest and greatest, fastest and oldest on a little hill-climb track between the manicured lawns of Goodwood House. At the Revival Meeting on the old immaculate racing circuit you are asked to turn up dressed pre-1966. Nearly everybody does. It is like a film set with 130,000 extras.

Lord March communicates close attention to detail to 400 people on the estate. It runs to piling the infield corn carefully in neat lean-to stooks, tied with baler twine, not spun by a baler and wrapped in plastic.

Attendance at the Festival of Speed is fixed at 150,000. That not only keeps it, as Brooklands used to be, “The Right Crowd and No Crowding”, but also the tickets are pre-sold as an insurance against the weather. Pay-at-the-gate punters might look out on a wet weekend and stay at home. If they’ve already paid for their tickets they’re more likely to attend the £5 million event, eat in the smart marquees, drink the Champagne and come back next year.

Charles March is doubly astute. Last year he launched a grander version of the Goodwood Road Racing Club conferring the delights of Goodwood on a corporate clientele. Not only has he 150,000 and 130,000 happy punters turning up at Goodwood for the Festival and Revival meetings, contributing roughly a third towards the £5 million (the other thirds come in sponsorship and concessions like catering). But he also has the 5000 members of the GRRC who although they only pay £120 subscription, cheerfully chip in for the foreign jaunts to Ferrari and Spa, and £240 for the Kinrara and £280 for the March Enclosures. There is a pay restaurant and bar, or a hamper service if you prefer.

GRRC and other sporting members to share the delights of The Kennels, the James Wyatt Grade 1 listed clubhouse built for the Charlton Hunt, restored with library, dining room, and clubrooms. Shooters, aviators, drivers, riders or players can join as full corporate sporting members. Goodwood already has six, with a box for guests at the horse racing and their own sponsored and named race, as well as a flight in a De Havilland Rapide for a day’s racing at Deauville. Full sporting members can have 20 VIP guests at the Goodwood Revival with their own celebrity racing driver, an exclusive shoot for 8 guns, a day’s golf for 72, and exclusive use of Goodwood’s historic cricket pitch. You can have an English picnic for 50 with the refuge of Goodwood House if it rains.

Frankfurt Motor Show

FRANKFURT MOTOR SHOW

Dithering about electric cars, a rash of unlikely concepts, GM in trouble in America, Ferdinand Piëch making a stir in Germany; as the Frankfurt Motor Show of 2009 gets under way it turns out it was much the same 16 years ago. Columns in The Sunday Times of 12 September 1993 show that Mercedes-Benz was about to make a small car but had not yet toppled one on to its roof – not in public anyway. BMW was planning a small car too. It showed the 344cm (135.4in) long, 164cm (64.5in) wide Z13 with a 1.1 litre 4-cylinder engine producing 82bhp but never made it. It was about the size of an Issigonis Mini but prettier. Instead it waited until it had bought Rover and made a slightly bigger Mini 365cm (143.7in) x 193m (75.9in) with 1.4 litre and 88bhp (or 210bhp for the brave). BMW thought it would sell the Z13 for $35,000 or about £15,000 and roughly what the Mini sells for now. Honda was on the right lines with another pretty car, the Civic Coupe, with which I was so impressed I ran one for a year. Smooth, swift and economical it was, and totally reliable. The concept cars all came and just as speedily went. The one in the picture was a later creation of Giugiaro’s.

Sunday Times: Motoring, Concept cars at Frankfurt Motor Show 1993, Eric Dymock

Testimony to the importance of the Frankfurt show as a shop window came from the Japanese manufacturers who chose it as a launching platform for cars such as the Mazda Xedos 9 a flagship affiliate to the year-old Xedos 9, the 1994 Mitsubishi Space Wagon and Space Runner, and a new edition of the Lexus.

The Japanese also selected Frankfurt to display their latest concept cars instead of next month's Tokyo motor show to which they will be shipped as soon as Frankfurt closes its doors.

Daihatsu's arch-shaped electric hybrid follows the logical pattern for an electric car, until battery technology catches up with petrol as a convenient means of storing energy. The Dash 21 uses its own power plant to generate electricity. A 660cc three-cylinder petrol engine at the front starts up when the batteries stored under the floor run low.

The nickel metal hydride batteries have a better performance than lead acid batteries, and Daihatsu believes that they would last the life of the car. The enormous cost of battery replacement - a penalty equivalent to heavy fuel consumption on an ordinary car - has inhibited the development of electric propulsion.

Burning a lean mixture of petrol and air would make the Dash 21 very economical, and with a top speed of 75mph and a range of 280 miles, it looks like a realisable production possibility. Some restyling might be necessary.

The ESR (Ecological Science Research) Mitsubishi also pursues the hybrid route. Electric motors provide the motive power and the batteries are charged by a novel petrol engine which runs at a constant speed. A four cylinder of 1.5 litres, its even speed enables ultra-low exhaust emissions and a thermal efficiency, which Mitsubishi claims is superior to a diesel.

Nissan shows two concept designs in Frankfurt, the AP (Attractive Performer) - X and AQ (Ambition with Quality the Japanese have a way with names) - X. AP-X has a lightweight V-6 engine and a new kind of stepless automatic transmission. AQ-X is a rather disagreeable-looking four door saloon which has a smooth front and a flat underbody to achieve good airflow.

Ford has gone for a bulbous look in its Sub-B compact, which has a two-stroke engine serving as a reminder that a fleet of two-stroke Fiestas has been undergoing a user-evaluation programme. The tall narrow configuration, Ford says, is the best one for giving the occupants most space. The Sub-B is more compact than a Fiesta, with a sliding door on the right which gives access to the rear seats.

The rear-mounted 1.2 litre engine develops 82bhp and would give the Sub-B a fuel consumption of well over 50mpg.
END

Sunday Times: Motoring, 1993 Frankfurt Motor Show Report, Eric Dymock

Most of the new cars were previewed weeks before the sprawling halls of the Frankfurt Motor Show opened on Friday. The aluminium Audi, the Mercedes-Benz C-class, the revised Volkswagen Passat and Golf estate were all presented in advance. The Mercedes and BMW small-car prototypes, due for production in the mid 1990s, are already familiar. Mercedes-Benz revealed that it intends to make the car in substantial numbers and is still discussing the possibility of establishing a separate identity for it while keeping it firmly within the Mercedes-Benz family.

General Motors revealed the engaging shapes of concept cars based on the Vauxhall Corsa. Officially shown to gauge public reaction, they had a maturity that suggests they are closer to production than GM is willing to admit. Indifferent sales of the Opel Corsa in Germany probably hastened their appearance to stimulate interest.

Called the Tigra, Roadster and Scamp, they looked too well finished to be mere flights of the design department's fancy, and seem likely to be in production within the year. The Tigra is well proportioned and good looking despite its short wheelbase and since the Corsa is brisk and handles well, so the Tigra ought to have a performance to match its appearance. The open-topped and recreational derivatives also look the part, and will fill market niches in a segment where a good deal of the opposition is staid.

The Tigra's big glass canopy carries the stamp of the accomplished design studio set up at Opel by Wayne Cherry before he was taken back to Detroit to revive GM's lacklustre home products. The Roadster is a pert two seater that promises fun at an affordable price. It may not be a sports car, - it has leather-trimmed seats and stowage space for a cool box - but with close-ratio gears, power steering, and anti-lock brakes it promises to be lively.

The engine is GM's latest ECOTEC 1.6 litre 16-valve unit giving 109 bhp, which provides a top speed of about 120 mph, and acceleration to 60 mph within the 10second benchmark that distinguishes the lively from the leisurely.

The same level of performance is promised by another handsome newcomer, the Civic coupe made in Honda's American factory at East Liberty, Ohio. Cleanly styled, beautifully made and coming to Britain in February at less than £10,000 with a 1.5 litre engine, it is similar in size to the Vauxhall Calibra, Nissan 200SX, or Rover 200 coupe but a good deal cheaper. It will also be cheaper to insure and run.

There will be two trim levels, the ESi has power steering, central locking, four-speaker radio-cassette player and tinted glass. The LSi adds a sun roof, electric windows and a wide range of optional equipment including leather upholstery, alloy wheels and air conditioning.

The German motor industry is desperately anxious to regain its customary self-confidence. Sales are down 20 per cent on last year and some of the exhibition halls had unlet space. Frankfurt was a gossipy place for the 55th IAA motor show, full of rumours about the running war of words being waged between Volkswagen and Opel over the Piëch and Lopez affair. German industry opinion is about evenly divided on whether Piëch can survive when Lopez goes.

The Fiat Punto and the Toyota Supra, already on sale, were on public show for the first time, together with the latest Porsche 911 which, although it looks much like all the 350,000 other 911s made in the last 30 years, has been altered a great deal. Yet another new suspension will help with its out-of-balance rear-engined handling.

Porsche AG will manufacture the Audi Avant RS2, which made its debut at Frankfurt. An estate car based on the Audi 80, it has a turbocharged 2.2 litre engine giving 315bhp and a top speed of about 162mph. With acceleration to 60mph in 5.8 seconds, the RS2 is aimed at sports car drivers who have had to give up two-seaters. Production starts next year and only 2,000 are planned for 1994 and 1995.

America used to export large numbers of cars to Europe, in the days before General Motors and Ford established their own plants, much as Nissan and Toyota have now. Chrysler has rediscovered a commitment to export to Europe, stressed by chairman Bob Lutz, at the unveiling of the new Neon. This took place in a Frankfurt exhibition hall made up to look like a rather tacky pin-ball table, and in a noisy introduction Lutz revealed a Ford Mondeo clone, which will not go on sale in the UK. Chrysler's commitment to Europe apparently does not extend to cars with right hand drive.

British exhibitors had their tails up following an apparent rush of sales in August, although Geoffrey Whalen, President of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, cautioned against a euphoric view of the UK market. “Our manufacturing industry depends heavily on sales in Europe, and our economic recovery is bound up in Europe's economic recovery”.

Rover alone is inceasing sales in a declining European market - thirteen per cent up, it will sell more cars this year than Mercedes-Benz and only a few hundred fewer than BMW. Land Rover has had such a strong response in Germany to a special edition Discovery with chrome accessories, fancy wheels, and finished in British racing green, that it has had to make a fresh batch.

MG Rover

MG Rover

It is all very well for the Department of Trade and Industry, or whatever it calls itself this week, being wise about MG Rover after the event. How much better had it been wise beforehand. It was obvious six months ahead of the April 2005 collapse that the company was coming to pieces. Here is what I wrote in November 2004.

Scotland on Sunday Motoring by Eric Dymock, 28 November 2004

MG Rover and China

Nearly everybody wants MG Rover to thrive. There are too many jobs, too much industrial prestige at risk, to allow loose talk. Yet the euphoria that greeted last week’s news of a billion pound Chinese investment is fraught with peril. Put it this way, if I was a senior executive at MG Rover, and wanted to find a scapegoat for its collapse next year, an inscrutable Oriental government would look tempting.

The groundwork has been laid. Dire warnings that MG Rover is not viable without a major partner have been widely aired. The company admits that without the Chinese deal it has no future. It is so short of cash that its research and development budget is the lowest for decades. It has no new models anywhere close to production. Sales from the group, the rump of the British Motor Corporation that once had 30 per cent of the British market, have sunk to around 3 per cent.

In November its auditors Deloitte drew attention to the problem. The company’s parent Phoenix Venture Holdings could only be considered a going concern because it had assumed that a deal with Shanghai would provide money for the development of new models. “In forming our opinion we have considered the adequacy of the disclosures,” said Deloitte. “These relate to the satisfactory completion of negotiations with Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC), which may supply additional sources of finance. In view of the significance of this uncertainty, we consider this should be drawn to your attention.”

What an opportunity. If SAIC’s owners, the Chinese authorities, refuse to ratify the deal the Birmingham Four who own Rover can say: “The game’s up but it wasn’t our fault. A big boy said he was going to give us money and then ran away.”

Shanghai is already counselling caution. The industry was more sceptical than British newspapers following the announcement, carefully arranged for a Saturday, that billions were on the way from China. Suspicions were raised that once again MG Rover was buying time by claiming it was all over bar the shouting. But the small print spoke louder It was clear that the deal had yet to be agreed by the Chinese government. Rover maintained this was only a formality and approval was arranged for January or February.

SAIC’s response was: “The programme of the deal is still under discussion and we still have to talk about many details. We read in the British press that we are going to invest £1billion into Rover, but it’s not like that, that’s not how it works. We need government approval for a project like this, and we’re not used to the British custom of going to the press, as this would cause inconvenience with the government. If the British press say one figure, then we hand a report to the government with a different sum, then it’s a problem for us.”

You can bet your life it’s a problem. But it is nothing like the problem MG Rover is facing. Moreover betraying incomplete negotiations to the press is not customary at all, despite what MG Rover may have told SAIC. Not only have Rover sales collapsed; its directors faced such criticism over their featherbedded pension fund that they had to scale down its payments. Desperation over new model announcements has reached fever pitch. Concept cars, plans, projects, coupes, and racy never-to-be-produced sports saloons have earned plenty of column-inches in an uncritical motoring press.

The aim of the publicity is not to sell cars, so much as convince creditors, suppliers and the SAIC that MG Rover is a viable vigorous company. It is a chimera. Rover engaged one of the best stylists in the business, Peter Stevens, to produce stunning new designs. Some of his MGs, based on old Rovers, have found buyers. Yet the failure to sell sufficient numbers speaks volumes. The customers are not convinced. Some Rovers like the 75, designed under BMW’s tutelage, are outstanding bargains yet they are scarcely profitable.

We have been down this road before. Likely partners in rescue plans have been paraded ever since BMW backed off in May 2000. Proton of Malaysia, China Brilliance, even Tata of India which produced the lacklustre City Rover have all been rumoured or announced as likely investors for the hundreds of millions needed. New cars have been under development, notably by the talented but in the end failing TWR Group, led by the ultimately unsuccessful Scottish former racing driver Tom Walkinshaw.

The question is whether China needs to spend a billion on MG Rover when BMW, Volkswagen, Ford, Honda, and Citroën are queuing up to spend billions inside China. General Motors’ joint venture plant in Shanghai, built in 1997 with inward investment of $1.5billion, was planned to make 100,000 cars a year but has had to add extra production lines and double-shift working to meet demand. VW will build one assembly plant and two engine factories to double capacity from 800,000 to 1.6million by 2008.

VW has been in China since the 1980s and will spend €5.3billion on its expansion in partnership with the same SAIC with whom Rover has been negotiating. Shanghai has no need to reverse such a cash flow, and spend money on a small time outfit like MG Rover, which uses out of date technology to build cars well past their sell-by date.