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British MotorShow 2000 Roundup.
by Alex Michalas
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It just so happened that the first car we got to see when we entered the show was the new Peugeot 206 coupe-cabriolet (photo). Nothing too impressive as far as power or car
dynamics go but this is the first convertible car to feature a metallic roof after the Mercedes SLK
so we thought it is worth being mentioned here. It goes on sale in Europe in early 2001 and should start the trend of the majority of small,
inexpensive convertible cars featuring a metallic roof soon. Quite a practical thing we think! Then we headed for the Chrysler booth where the Jeepster (photo) concept was on display. The Jeepster is actually an old concept, having been showcased in many shows in the
past, but, nonetheless, we found it to be quite interesting in very much the same way we found the
Audi SteppenWolf concept interesting in the
Paris Motorshow. Also, the PT Cruiser attracted lots of people that seemed to be eager to be seen driving in one. Ford made a big appearance in the show as it took up a
whole floor of it with its ever increasing collection of brands. Ford, Mazda, Volvo, Aston Martin, Land Rover and Jaguar appeared there with lots of interest from the audience for the
Aston Martin booth and a few interesting new cars or concepts like the Ford Focus RS (photo) which is – at last – a hot version of the very good Focus hatchback. Powered by
a 2.0 lt. turbo-charged engine it should have 220hp powering the front wheels when it goes in limited production in early 2001. A hotter RS Cosworth version with
300hp and 4wd should appear later. The StreetKa concept also made another Motorshow appearance and this time Ford execs revealed that they are very seriously considering production for this crazy
Audi TT
look-alike concept. Finally some sad news were there as well as production of the Ford Racing Puma has stopped after only 350 cars were produced, despite initial production plans of 1000 cars.
Apparently there was nothing wrong with the car itself – which is an absolute racing machine for the road – but its production was too costly as Ford was actually losing money on each one sold, despite
the big price tag of 22,500 pounds ($30,000). We guess this will make the Racing Puma an even more excluive model then.
Huge crowds gathered in the Mini booth for the British debut of the successor to the legendary 1959 classic motoring icon. Everybody seemed impressed with the car so we are expecting the new Mini to
be a big sales success when it starts selling in 2001. 160hp Cooper version is quite interesting too! From the rest of the makers, let us note Alfa Romeo – who is set to make a US comeback with the
new Spider and GTV models in 2003. The 147 that was on display seemed a genuinely nice and high  quality car. Seems like the Italians have really got their act together here. Renault also displayed its mad mid-engined V6 250hp Clio – not
bad for a small city car. People at the Smart (photo) booth (Smart is a small 2 seat city car from Mercedes for our US visitors that probably haven't heard of it before) seemed to be questioning whether this is
actually a car and whether it should actually be appearing in a Motorshow. All in all, while the Paris Motorshow was definitely bigger and held some major new car launches, the
British Motorshow just had more really special cars to see – cars that you can't see in any other show in the world. We left Birmingham very eager to come back for the next show so that we don't miss out
on the next generation of crazy British driving machines. Stay tuned to FantasyCars.com and you won't be missing out on them either - in fact you won't be missing out on any news on this world's FantasyCars!
Comments? Questions? Did you also visit the British Motorshow and have a different opinion or simply want to agree with us? Just e-mail alex@fantasycars.com and have your say! Click here to go back to the First Page of our Roundup... page 1 page 2 |
