Frankfurt Motor Show

The German auto industry has long been one of the most (if not the most) respected on the planet. Much of that has to do with its reputation for precision engineering and attention to detail. Still more has to do with knowing that most new models get tested to their limits on the Autobahn and/or the Nürburgring. Bottom line: Deutschland takes this car building stuff seriously.

However, when it comes to showing off those new cars, the city of Frankfurt likes to throw a party every other September, and it also invites manufacturers from other nations to join in the four-wheeled revelry. (Naturally, things never get too crazy, what with Oktoberfest being mere weeks away.) This year’s guest list is one for the ages, but we were still able to pick out the 20 automotive attendees (10 concept models and 10 production models) we’d most like to chat up by the punchbowl.

No list of cars and trucks that haven’t changed dramatically over the years is complete without the Porsche 911. Every one since the first has featured the same basic squashed-VW Beetle silhouette and a pancake six in the rump. And the marque purists – who purportedly meet in the woods while wearing Martini & Rossi racing team jackets and sit around the engine cooling fan off a ’73 Carrera 2.7 RS – wouldn’t have it any other way.

So with the latest 911, known within the company and inside Porschephile circles as the 991, Porsche is continuing to give the people what they want. As with every previous new Neun-elf, there’s a lot more evolution than there is revolution. But that’s not to say there aren’t a couple of notable changes.

Despite being, along with the California, one of the “cheap” (and we use that term so loosely you could drive the Queen Mary 2 through the gap) Ferraris, the 458 Italia features performance figures that blow two of the company’s past halo cars (the F40 and F50) into the erbacce and cause the most recent one (the Enzo) to suffer panic attacks and night terrors. All that from a little normally-aspirated 4.5L V8.

Unfortunately, if you hang your hat in a place with a temperate climate, your only fresh air options in an Italia are a) roll down the driver’s door window, b) roll down the passenger’s door window, or c) roll ‘em both down. Not exactly sufficient for taking full advantage of a typical Malibu or Monaco summer day, is it? Luckily, Ferrari is about to release a proverbial patch for this proverbial bug in the form of an open air 458, the 2012 458 Spider.