January / February 2016
26
SPECIAL
INTEREST
By Ric Smith
European Experience of a Lifetime
FRANKFURT AUTO SHOW
I
just got back from the mind
blowing Frankfurt Auto
Show, I say mind blow-
ing because the show is on a
scale I can still hardly com-
prehend. The show is laid
out over 12 separate build-
ing covering over 592,000
square meters and is con-
nected by overhead mov-
ing sidewalks. This year,
just shy of 100,000 visitors
came on the first day open
to the public. The Frankfurt
Auto Show or, Internatio
-
nale Automobil-Ausstellung
(IAA) ran from September
17th to September 27th. The
Frankfurt Auto Show is so
big they only hold it every
other year.
When it comes to the Ger
-
man car manufacturers, they
go all out for the IAA. Audi
builds a temporary build-
ing literally the size of a
Walmart, complete with an
escalators carrying you in
via a dramatic entrance. Af
-
ter the show, the building
goes. Porsche's display was
in the back corner of Build-
ing 6 it shares with VW
and other marks in the VW
Group,such as Lamborghini,
Bugatti, Bentley. The white
918 hanging high on a wall
was the tip-off as to where
"When it comes to the German
car maunfacturers, they go all
out for the IAA."
