If it’s Tuesday, it must be Press Day at the Frankfurt Motor Show. I’m not press and I’m not in the motor trade, so what the hell was I doing there? Simple — it just happened to be a convenient location for a meeting I’d arranged. Of course, I wasn’g going to turn down the opportunity to wander around new bikes and cars and relieve the exhibitors of some of their copious supplies of champagne and gourmet canapés.
Simple in principle, that is — however, being Press Day, the organisers had some pretty strict ideas about who were and weren’t to be allowed in. People with trivial needs like business meetings simply didn’t count. Only one thing to be done then — blag Press accreditation. How? As a roving researcher of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy of course. Armed with suitably completed form and my completely unrelated business card, I waited in the sweaty queue of hungry, thirsty hopefuls. Some made it, some didn’t. When my turn came, I handed over the form and card with a studiously casual air, staring off distractedly into the middle distance as it this were a tediously routine process. Bloke behind counter looks at my card. He looks at my form. He looks at my card again. Not a good sign. He opens hi s mouth. The guy checking in next to me also looks over, sees my busines card and goes ballistic: “Aha! You are the Digital Village!”. “Er, yes — part thereof?”. “You are all wonderful — Starship Titanic, h2g2, The Hitchhiker’s Guide — all truly great!”. At this point, check-in bloke shrugs and prints off my press card. Tamás, nice to meet you and thanks for the help!
Having got the serious stuff out of the way, time for a wander. Although primarily a car show, there were some interesting sightings of the new Hondas: the X-11, The VTR1000-SP1 (RC51 in NA, I think) and the 2000 Fireblade. There was also a new Foggy Replica to be seen, although perhaps not quite what you might expect?
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