Modena Expo Tech 2010.
Not an enthusiast’s event by any means, but I was pleasantly surprised by the presence of many of the featured cars and booths.
Supposed to be a business event for automotive suppliers and makers to expose their technologies and capabilities, it has sensibly grown up during these first three years of life, allowing more and more people to enjoy this two days event even if they are not strictly interested in expanding or improve their companies and business.
To be honest one should be involved in an automotive business in some way to be granted a (free) access to this fair. Now the entrance may be free, but the parking is 8 €. Anyway, basically everyone would find a way or another to get inside, as no matter what your business is, they’ll give you an accreditation. I myself was there thanks to this website, even if the very next day I was told it would have been sufficient to be a student at our university to get that famous ticket. Whatever.
Make the jump to know more.
Irrelevantly of this sort of pointless bureaucratic filter, the event was a small one, but relatively interesting even if you’re not going to distribute your curriculum trying to get a job. Specifically, the reason why I was there is because while I was posting my reportage and pictures from the 2010 Modena Terra di Motori event, a member of the Mito Group association contacted me about a photography contest themed around that event. This competition was run through a dedicated Facebook group, which I never got into, Facebook I mean. So I have to thank Giulia Sighinolfi for contacting me in first place about this competition, and for entering my pictures in my place.
Eventually I would have received the third prize (no prizes were actually provided, it was all a glory thing), and the three best shots, plus another small selection, were exhibited during this Expo Tech event for all visitors to enjoy. Unfortunately when I was there I didn’t notice Giulia being there to personally thank here, so this is the right occasion: Thanks Giulia!
You can enjoy also other participants’ images in the shots below.
Among the various suppliers of pistons, camshafts, crankshafts, carbon fiber parts and tolling of various sort, there were also a few teams from the universities bound Formula Students championsip, which possibly you may know as Formula ATA (Italian championship) or Formula SAE (worldwide championship). This small rockets aren’t actually that fast, but that’s not their point. Just being capable of design a car starting from a white sheet (or previous year’s project), and in many cases without a huge budget behind, is quite an achievement, even if I have to admit results can vastly vary. I remember when in 2007 I was a volunteer and marshal during the Italian event, held at Ferrari’s Fiorano test track. On one side of the field you could have the Graz team from Austria, with a carbon fiber chassis and basically everything else too except the engine ( Yamaha R6 in-line four, screaming all the time), while on the other you could find the Rome team, which as far as I can remember barely made it to the event, and which had the two drivers continuously misinterpreting rules and the track until two out of four suspensions failed at a very low speed corner, at the same time. For the record, the Graz team didn’t win despite being about 10 seconds faster than other teams on a 1 minutes and 10 seconds lap during the endurance trial as the engine failed (head gasket, to be precise). Speed isn’t the main aspect as I said.
Now, why am I talking so much about this Formula SAE thing if I took just a quick picture about those tiny little cars? You’ll see.
Talking about taking pictures, most of them were actually taken by the loyal Sara B. which from now on (at the time of this event) will be an hopefully constant presence over The Italian Junkyard team. You already appreciated her efforts and skills during our reportage on the Italian launch of the McLaren MP4-12C in Milan a while ago. She’s not the only new member of our team, as also Alberto P. is now our one and only video operator and will be in charge of the newly established Video section of our website, which will even more hopefully start somewhere in the near future for you to enjoy…
Quick list of the notable featured cars: a very rare and a quite unusual sight in Europe, a red Bill Thomas Cheetah, a Maserati 250F Formula 1 car which was driven by one Juan Manuel Fangio, the mighty Pagani Zonda R celebrating the Nurburgring lap record, a 2006 Ferrari F2006 F1 car and an older Ferrari 625/F1, a Stanguellini 100 Sport Ala d’Oro and the always deadly gorgeous Aston Martin DBS coupe. Not so gorgeous the actually very fast Porsche Panamera S developed by N Technology for the Superstars Championship. Among bikes, a Superbike Aprilia RSV Mille which just allowed Italian rider Max Biaggi to clinch his first SBK title at his fourth season, and a brand new MV Agusta F4.
Enjoy the rest of pictures, and sorry for the long sabbatical period…
All pictures copyright: Damiano Garro and Sarajane Bradshaw for The Italian Junkyard
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