Messe Expo, Essen Germany, 10th December 2023:The motorsport & car community here in Europe is going into winter hibernation, but there is one last stop before the year’s end. The place to be in December is at Messe in Essen, Germany, for the 55th edition of the Essen Motor Show (EMS)! And 200.000 visitors visited the Messe exhibition hall from 1st to 10th December. EMS is an exhibition on performance & racing, Tuning and styling, Motorsport, and Classic cars, where exhibitors present their products and trade fair innovations to the attendees.

Text: Benjamin Wefer
Pictures: Benjamin Wefer/ Willem van Lamoen

EMS dedicated three halls (6, 7, and Exhibition Hall 8) to the tuning lifestyle. All the well-known manufacturers such as Borbet, H&R, Hankook tires, Eisenmann Exhaust systems, Prior Design, Protrack Wheels & Streetec Suspension had their best product displayed.

This year’s edition honored NASCAR’s 75th anniversary and brought around 16 of the most iconic stock cars, such as the number 24 Chevrolet Monte Carlo, from Jeff Gordon. Gordon drove the car in five races of the NASCAR Winston Cup Series in the 1996 season and in another four races in his 1997 championship season.

Essen Motor Show also honored Tesla’s 20th anniversary by bringing some of the tuner’s best creations on several models of the pioneer brand in electrification.

EMS had an area for every taste, as well as for the supercar petrolheads. One of the eye-cathers was an Aston Martin Valkyrie. The Valkyrie is a rare Hybrid supercar, as the production was limited to only 150. This 4 million dollar car has a naturally aspirated 6.5-liter twelve-cylinder fueled engine and a 160 HP permanent magnet synchronous electric motor and is the fastest car ever produced by Aston Martin.

There were also cars from several motorsport series, including Quartermile Drag Racing. One of the race cars present was the Red Beast 2, owned and driven by Micheal Winter. This 1937 Chevrolet (body) has an eye-catching paint job (no, it’s not a wrap) and around 3000 horsepower. Another of the familiar names within the Drag Racing world was Gerd Habermann and his Ravenol Dragster. Gerd won nearly every 2023 German championships, including the French one. Another quarter-mile race car (within the Gerd Habermann Racing) exhibited at EMS was the BMW, driven by Marianne Wiso. After a couple of years of absence, this stunning BMW is back!

Not only did you have the opportunity to buy merchandise and parts at EMS, but EMS also paid attention to virtual reality. The Couch Masters simulator was the most notable of the racing simulators available during the Essen Motor Show. The Couch Master is a virtual series for beginners and experienced sim racers. It is a sim racing championship from Hockenheim-ring and has a real connection to motorsport. For EMS, the team brought a KTM X-BOW GTX. The simulation uses several monitors to recreate the exact view from the cockpit. This simulator is very special, as it is an actual car from the Razoon racing team from Austria, which participates in the 24-hour World Series. Razoon Racing won the GT4 during the 24-hour series in Dubai with it, and it’s now transformed into a simulator with some help from the team from Milwaukee Tool, which is also the main sponsor of Razoon Racing and Couch Masters.

The 55 edition of the Essen Motor Show is a fact. The tuning community reacted positively by massively visiting the Messe exhibition halls and left satisfied with what they experienced. The dates for the next edition are already known. The next edition will be from November 30 to December 8, 2024. Make sure you don’t miss it!