Essen Motorshow 2023

When it comes to tuning and racing The Essen Motorshow is what you might call a big deal. Often dubbed as the ‘European SEMA’ this event, which takes place in the heart of Germany every December, is one of the biggest car shows on the planet. In fact, by sheer volume of visitors, it’s probably THE biggest.

But of course, there’s not only thousands of visitors that make their way through the doors for this weeklong modifying extravaganza, there’s literally thousands of cars on display, too. Put it like this, what with many of the world’s finest and most revered automotive builds getting together you’ll see just about everything from every facet of car culture all under one roof. And we have to say that this can’t be the easiest trick to pull off.

Essen is also the last major car show of the year, one we always look forward to, and one where we always break out the big guns when it comes to the AF project fleet. Not only do we always pack out our Airstream Land Yacht Mobile Store with the world’s best detailing products for the trip across France, Belgium and the Netherlands into the German city of Essen but we always make sure there’s some of our all-time top builds to see around the show, too.

Last year at Essen 2022 we had our duo of widebody creations on display – our Liberty Walk Super Silhouette S15 and Pandem Yaris GR, so this time we decided to mix it up by bringing along our Datsun Drift Car and one more (very newly finished) special guest…

Yes it wasn't just our Datsun drift special that would be on display at this huge event. No, what with the fact that Essen draws some of the very finest builds from all over the world we thought we'd showcase perhaps the ultimate AF Project ever - our 1954 Chevy Stepside.

Our famous all-American pickup truck, after an extensive 2-year overhall and rebuild, was finished up just in time for the show, so it would have been rude not to pick that up, and get it on the road to Germany. We even launched our brand-new Stepside Tee at the show at the same time. Just think of this premium AF tee as something of a celebration to mark the completion of this momentous project.

Anyway, have a little look at the exclusive video below and you can see exactly how it all went, and check out all the rather special new upgrades...

Back to the other important builds at the show, and if you've ever been to Essen, you'll already know that it takes a good few days just to get around this mammoth event. You'll also know that we just can't show you absolutely everything you'll find here at this Mecca of European modifying… we think we'd end up taking up half the Internet!

Instead just check out a few of these quality builds - some of the main modified stuff that caught our eye over a few days at the event.

If we can pick out a top trend this time around it was probably mentalist livery on just about everything. But as you can imagine there was much, much more to see...

As one of the world's biggest car shows, you simply have to be there to take in everything. There is no other way. So, while we've given you just a taste here, trust us when we say that it's worth keeping an eye on the official Essen Motorshow website, and making a plan to get yourself along to the next one in 2024. Suffice to say that we'll be seeing you there.

And while Essen may mark the end of the 2023 season, it doesn't mean that you can't hit up our archives and check out a few more top show reports from this year. Just click on the behind the scenes section of our blog and there's plenty more from the 2023 season and well beyond. We'll catch you bright and early in 2024 for even more amazing events.