Prince Leopold von Bayern demonstrates the BMW 507 around the ‘upper ring’ road which ran above the BMW hall

Show cars on the ground floor; moving cars on the first floor ‘ring’

BMW had a large hall with all its brands gathered under the one roof: BMW, MINI and Rolls-Royce.

Perhaps more exciting when I strolled in was the sound of a V8 barking above my head. I looked up and saw this BMW roadster circulating around a track above the hall, rather like a real-life slot car with real life aural acoustics. There was a ‘pit’ area with viewing where the car dipped down before going back around its suspended route. It was slightly surreal.

In fact, the BMW hall was slightly surreal with its rolling white clouds against an azure blue sky and lots of gnomic comments along the lines of ‘joy through driving pleasure’ and ‘less emissions, more driving pleasure’. And so on. But actually it was all rather different; more celebratory than Mercedes reverential.

Turns out that Prince Leopold von Bayern