# Essen 2011 Photo Galleries and Wrap-Up



## [email protected] (Apr 9, 2004)

Often compared to America's SEMA Show, the tuner-focused Essen Motor Show is really something more unto itself. Whereas the SEMA Show is really an industry only affair and with no day for a media push, Essen is there for the public, the car enthusiast and also there as a platform of PR for tuners... so yes, a day reserved for the media. Where you'd need to be a distributor to place an order at SEMA, private owners can also pick up parts for their own cars at Essen. Essen's got vintage displays and motorsport series participation like that of the DTM as well. In many ways, it's as much of a car enthusiast celebration than an industry event... and while cavernous, it's the Messe Essen is not nearly as big as the gargantuan Las Vegas convention center.









Look through the years of Essen galleries we've managed to collect (nearly every year since 2001 is linked below) and you'll see many years of Audi involvement. For years Audi Accessories, Audi Sport and quattro GmbH used Essen as a platform and as such the Audi display had some very special and enthusiast-minded cars on display. However, as Worthersee grew in prominence and Audi has raised its display presence at that Austrian enthusiast meet, Essen seem to have fallen off of the official display calendar.









That's not to say that Audi doesn't play an official role at Essen. Unlike SEMA where Audis can prove sparse, four-ring cars are very common here thanks to their enthusiastic following. Many Audi tuners such as Abt Sportsline, Rieger and the TC-Concepts displayed here this year. Thanks to the presence of the DTM, current A4 racecars sat beside next year's A5 DTM while Audi Sport drivers such as Timo Scheider and Edoardo Mortara stopped in for cameo appearances.

Interestingly, Audi's main competitor BMW chose 2011 as a year to officially return to Essen.









Part of the classics display, one special exhibition celebrated "100 Years of the Monte Carlo Rally" and included 13 iconic rally cars that have clinched victory there over the years. Among them was one very special Audi S1 rally car.

Check out the latest Essen 2011 photo gallery or many other Essen show galleries from the last decade after the jump.

* Essen Motor Show Photo Galleries *


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