I've not been to a huge number of motor shows in my life. Odd, you'd think, for a motoring journalist. But then my forays into them haven't always been strictly news-focused.
I remember one of the first big trips I ever did after passing my driving test was heading over to Birmingham for the show at the NEC. I went with my cousin and we loved it. We got really excited about it beforehand, partly because we were at last free of the shackles of parental taxi service, partly because we just wanted to see new metal.
You know the sort of stuff - drew up a list saying what we thought the best and worst car was, hated the Audi TT for the entirely rational reason that they wouldn't let us on the stand, thought the Rover 75 did retro much better than the Jaguar S-Type, and loved just getting a passing glance at a Ferrari.
So where would my cousin and I have headed this year?
I think the Alfa stand would've drawn us in. Ferrari and Lambo are all well and good, but too many people seek them out so you can't get really close. The Alfa 8C Spider is as stunning as the Coupe and just as depressingly limited edition.
Another car that's unlikely to register on many shopping lists is the Audi Q7 Coastline. The Alfa is cool, this is not. It's all white, and I mean all white. Carpet, headlining, door leather, seats, paint - everything. The leather has also been given a velvet effect treatment so it now feels like velvet, and about the only 'oooh' thing about it and not 'euck' is the wood on the interior. Now this is smart. It looks great with two different coloured woods running through it and when you press it, it's soft to the touch. Soft-touch wood - how clever is that?
Common theme of the show seems to be the compact SUV. Volvo has done one (much smaller than I expected), Ford has (much better looking than I expected), Land Rover has the LRX. Oh, and Renault has the Koleos, which is so underwhelming, it barely even registers on the stand at all. Far more people were crowding around the Megane Concept, which has ridiculous doors that'll never make it to production. Looks good, though.
Toyota pulled out the only real surprise, the Urban Cruiser, which is a mini-SUV that'll sit underneath the RAV4. It looks pretty special too, but the car wasn't the most startling thing about the Toyota stand. The size of the crowd for the press conference was. They filled two stairwells beside the area and flooded out across the hall floor. If you think this company dominating the world is a flash in the pan, the world's media don't seem convinced.
But Toyota-fever couldn't touch my personal show star. Ironically enough, it wasn't even a new car. Tucked away quite subtly beside the Alfa stand was the 33 Stradale. It puts even the 8C in the shade. All that new metal and I'm still hankering after something that was built 41 years ago. Good job I'm not a news hound.
33 Stradale u Zenevi...Izvanredna slika za desktop
