Aurora Report #5 from Bibendum. 1 June 2010

MEDIA IN THE MIDDLE AND MORE AWARDS

Today, the real audience was the members of the media, all 480 of them. The Bibendum event is primarily about having the media learn of the latest automotive technology first hand by driving cars and talking to the engineers. And for this Bibendum the hot topic was electric cars. Even Aurora 101 is an electric car demonstrating extreme efficiency.

So the Audi electric sports car and the Aurora solar car were of interest to the media as well as many other excellent examples showing how close we are to be able to buy a ‘showroom ready’ silent and smooth electric car for ourselves.

Oliver Biggart, our supporter from Michelin Australia paid us a visit along with one of Australia’s leading automotive journalists Dave Morley. Many other journalists asked for technical details and several TV grabs were also recorded.

Patricia Penheiro from Michelin Brazil gave us a lot of help in the months leading to the event and made sure we were being looked after at the event itself.

During the day we had a long discussion with Phillipe Ricoux from Michelin France about our experience in using the new Michelin solar car tire which we used in the 3010 km Global Green Challenge. This new tire has undergone comprehensive testing and will also be used by the Dutch team Nuna in the forthcoming ‘Dream Cup’ solar car race at Suzuka Japan.

Not all of Bibendum is serious discussion and display. On several occasions including the two major dinners Michelin had organised several of the best samba groups in Rio. Anyone aware of “Carneval” would be familiar with the relentless drumbeat and the swirling dancers. So were the dinner guests.

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We did have Derrick display the solar car in motion amid the Ride and Drive sessions, as did Audi with their wonderful red machine. We were also delighted to meet a group from the Automotive Engineering University in Shanghai. We had met many of them when Bibendum was held in Shanghai back in 2004 and a number of the students acted as assistants there.

The dinner was another excellent effort and was the occasion to award the participants in the round table discussion groups and chief presenters. Mr Rollier, Chairman of Michelin did the honours presenting a well-designed glass memento of this event.

Two days to go and tomorrow we welcome the university groups to Bibendum 2010.