Hey all,

What SEMA is for the US the Essen Motor Show is for Europe, the years biggest car tuning show. Of course most of it revolves around the popular brands over here and since it is in Germany actually the most cars and stuff shown relates to German manufacturers like BMW, Mercedes, VW, Audi, Opel and euro-Ford.

However there is always some room for US cars and good for us... the new Stang was on display. There were actually 3 cars (all GT's), shown by two German grey import companies that actually now have them in stock and are offering them to the German public.

The first one is one you guys have seen before, it's Peter1966's white with blue stripes GT. I think he himself posted pictures of it standing at the show earlier already.





Beautiful car in person and I especially liked the wheels. They are sort of hyperblack, which goes very well with bright colors like white or yellow. One thing I did not care for very much was the size of the rear wheels. Contrary to the old SN95, where you had to go wider than front to correct for the smaller axle width on the new car wider rims in the rear just don't look right. Also there are not many suppliers that have the correct offset if you go for like 10" wide. I have stated this before over here, with too low offset they stick out, which is not my thing. You can see what I mean in this picture:



Other than that a very nice car. A lot of people didn't even notice the Caddy XLR sitting next to it

The company that displayed Peter's car (Geiger US Cars) had another one on display at the H&R booth. It was a Mineral Grey automatic (with no IUP).









It was (of course) lowered with the H&R springs and set up on 20" chrome wheels. Proved to me that this crazy dub wheels scene is not my thing either. I liked the 19" on Peters car, but 20's are just too much. It was a most impressive sight though, as the lowering of course matched the skinnier tires very well. I had never seen Mineral Grey in person, and I have to say I loved it as much as I expected. Very nice color on this car.

The thrid one was a Torch Red GT displayed by another grey importer called USCars24. They had it sitting in the booth of Loder 1899, a specialist exhaust company.





This car was set up on huge chrome 21 inch wheels (which looked rediculous to begin with) and not lowered! I looked aweful. If I was show director I would have sent them back to either lower it before displaying it or better yet remove those dumb wheels. It would have looked a lot better with the original factory bullits on it



Of course there were loads and loads of wheel suppliers with booths all over the place. One specific new rim caugt my eye. It's the latest one by Brock (European brand, no idea if it is available in the US) which comes in various sizes including 8,5x19 with offset 45. The one on display was again in hyperblack. These might just be the ones I will have on my 05 one day...



Well that's about it. There were of course a zillion other cars there, but for some reason I just didn't notice them... Took the autobahn back to the Netherlands with the pedal to the metal and a HUGE

 

Nics pics! I really like the Mineral Grey Stang.

 

Nice! I especially like the mineral grey GT! Peter's car is awesome too! I don't really care for the torch red GT with those ridiculously huge and ugly wheels. BTW, what kind of wheels are on the grey GT and what sizes do they come in, cuz if they come in 19"s then I'm sold!

 

Eric,

Thanks for the report!

Exxagerated wheels are not my taste either, but i do like the Mineral Grey GT!

 

Eric, the mineral grey got the same offset than mine with a 255/35/20. I drive a 275/40/19 cause I prefer more tire on the wheel. We in Germany need a very hard technical test for the wheel, for example the whole wheel must get complete in the inner wheelhouse with a 1" gap between tire and body. Without this procedure you will never get a license here. :nono: There is absolute no rubbing and outstanding wheel in Germany allowed!

 

Thanks for the info from Germany! I was at the Frankfurt Auto Show last year and was so disappointed that Ford didn't have a Mustang there!

 

Really? I had the impression it has the same width front and rear. Anyway it's all a matter of taste. I like big fat rubber in the back as well (have 285/35/18 on 10" in the rear of my 98 Cobra), but if I ever get an 05 I will probably do the same size front and rear with 245/45/19. It's all a matter of personal taste of course.

Funny thing is that we know over here that German TuV testing is very strict, but I was amazed to read you guys actually can have the rubber sticking outside the wheelwell. That is strickly forbidden here in the Netherlands. We love the TuV over here by the way. Did you know that all US cars that are imported here first go through TuV clearance to get German admission and then are brought back into the Dutch procedure to get cleared for road admission in the Netherlands? It's sort of a loophole in European legislation. If a car has been admitted in any EU country our department of transportation has to admit it. If it is not and there is no Euro type approval then there is no way you can get it on the road here. So for the TuV or we would not have any new US car on our roads whatsoever!

 

I was at the Essen Motor Show. I really liked the torch red one. It had to be the most admired and photographed car at the show!