Peugeot Struts its Stuff in London

It is my second visit to this show, and I should say that I was astonished at the huge number of visitors and the increasing number of exhibitors and events.

Unfortunately the only Italian brand present was Alfa Romeo, who took the opportunity to premier the Alfa MiTo. It is a nice, relatively small car, based of the Fiat Grande Punto chassis, with different engines of 1.4 litres (fuel) and 1.6 (gasoline) and a lot of horsepower to compete with the most powerful versions of the Mini. The name MiTo is the synthesis of Milano and Torino, the two big towns where Alfa Romeo and Fiat where respectively born; but there is another way to read the name. “Mito” is the Italian for “myth” and everyone hopes that this model will represent an outstanding future for the Fiat group.

I was also attracted to three prototypes of the French Peugeot: a spider based on the 207 series, a concept car based on the 308 and finally the 908 Le Mans sport car.

Outside the building, a small race circuit has been arranged where sport cars were shown: it is called “heritage enclosure”.
I was lucky to see some sport cars of the past: a 1956 Maserati, a Ferrari F40, plus some Ford GTs, Spykers, etc. It was a nice method to make comparisons between road holding, noise and fascination of the old and new cars.

I hope that next time in 2010, all the manufacturers that were not there this time will be present to give more value to an exhibition that, in my opinion, deserves all the attention of the media and of the visitors.