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According to a directive leaked to Chinese media, organisers of this year's event aimed to bring attention back to the curves of the vehicles, and create an "orderly, clean, safe" atmosphere.
The move also followed a deadly New Year's Eve stampede in Shanghai, which prompted the government to crack down on events which could cause dangerous overcrowding.
Like veteran bird-watchers, show visitors swapped accounts of real and possibly imagined models. "We saw some people looking model-ish around there," an industry official said.
Japan's Toyota substituted a row of young men in black polo shirts. "We're just standing here. We're not models," one said when asked about his role.
© Provided by AFP
Scantily clad female models pose on a customized BMW at the Auto Shanghai, in 2009
Suzuki Motor Corp. did have women models alongside its cars, but fully covered in all-white dresses with fashionable scarves around their necks.
According to the leaked directive, organisers had urged exhibitors to "Put an end to the phenomenon of all types of vulgarity, harm to civilised society and ill-intentioned sensationalism," ordering them to provide visitors with "artistic enjoyment" instead.
Ford lacked models, but the US automaker substituted two dancers interacting with computer images on a giant screen to launch its new Taurus into the China market.
They even went through a rapid costume change on stage, but with their modesty preserved -- by a curtain for the man and a red flag for the woman.
Car List of Million-dollar Top auction cars for 2013
Million-dollar babies: Top auction cars of 2013
Owning just the right old car is money in the bank these days. Check out this torrid group of recent auto auction sales — the top 15 so far this year. The stats are mindboggling: They total over $161 million in sales, nearly $11 million per car. Italy leads with nine of the most expensive cars sold at auction, followed by Germany with three, Britain with two and France with one. Six of these are Ferraris, three are Mercedes-Benzes and two are Alfa Romeos. Aston Martin, Bugatti, McLaren and Maserati make up the rest. Here are the top 15 results for 2013 to date, hot off the auction blocks.
Million-dollar babies: Top auction cars of 2013
1954 Mercedes-Benz W196R Formula One monoposto
Selling price: $29,650,095Auction house: Bonhams | Auction location: Chichester, U.K.
What's an old race car worth? The answer is plenty if it's a Mercedes-Benz W196 Silver Arrow such as those driven by the incomparable Juan Manuel Fangio, winner of back-to-back Formula One World Drivers' Championship titles in 1954 and 1955. A technical tour de force in its day, the W196 packed a 3.0-liter twin-cam straight-8 engine, with fuel injection and desmodromic (mechanically opening and closing) valves. Auction authority Thor Thorson, writing in Sports Car Market magazine (SCM graciously supplied some of the photographs for this slideshow), called the incomparable W196 "collectable fine art that happens to be an automobile — a 1,600-pound mechanical Rembrandt."
Million-dollar babies: Top auction cars of 2013
1967 Ferrari 275GTB/4*S NART Spyder
Selling price: $27,500,000Auction house: RM Auctions | Auction location: Monterey, Calif.
U.S. Ferrari importer Luigi Chinetti convinced Enzo Ferrari to offer a roadster version of the sharklike 275GTB/4 Berlinetta. Only 10 open-topped examples were built, making them very rare. Back in the day they sold slowly. Ferrari aficionados today agree that the 4-cam 275s were some of the greatest and most beautiful road-going Ferraris of the last century, and the open cars are now highly prized. Denise McCluggage and Pinkie Rollo won the GT class at Sebring, Fla., in a NART (North American Racing Team) Spyder. Actor Steve McQueen drove one in the movie "The Thomas Crown Affair," and later bought one.
Million-dollar babies: Top auction cars of 2013
1953 Ferrari 340/375MM Berlinetta Competizione
Selling price: $12,812,800Auction house: RM Auctions | Auction location: Villa Erba
Competition history drives vintage race car sales to dizzying heights, and this 340/375 Berlinetta has impeccable provenance. It was one of three 340/375MM competition cars entered at Le Mans in 1953 when Ferrari contested the FIA Manufacturers' Championship. Besides the 24 Hours of Le Mans, it competed at the 24 Hours of Spa, the grueling La Carrera Panamericana road race in Mexico, and it won the 12 Hours of Pescara. Adding to its luster, this is the only Ferrari factory race car to have been driven in the FIA World Sports Car Championship by three World Champions: Mike Hawthorn, Alberto Ascari and Giuseppe Farina.
Million-dollar babies: Top auction cars of 2013
1935-36 Alfa Romeo 8C Monoposto Racer
Selling price: $9,398,469Auction house: Bonhams | Auction location: Chichester, U.K.
Here's an Alfa Grand Prix car that checks all the boxes. A supercharged 8C-35 "Scuderia Ferrari" Alfa factory team monoposto, it was driven by the legendary Tazio Nuvolari, arguably one of the best racing drivers who ever competed. By 1935 the vaunted Silver Arrows of Mercedes-Benz and Auto Union were cleaning up on Europe's tracks. The latest 330-horsepower 8C-35 had fully independent suspension, and while it gave away some horsepower to the C-Type Auto Unions and W125 Mercedes-Benzes, the diminutive Nuvolari was always poised to overtake any German foe who'd faltered or miscalculated.
Million-dollar babies: Top auction cars of 2013
1953 Ferrari 375MM Spyder
Selling price: $9,075,000Auction house: RM Auctions | Auction location: Monterey, Calif.
Heir to the Kimberly-Clark Corporation, manufacturers of Kleenex and other paper products, "Gentleman Jim" Kimberly possessed rugged good looks, a sense of style, tons of money and a yen for speed, whether it was racing ice boats on Lake Winnebago, Wis., or driving the latest Ferrari 375 MM in Sports Car Club of America competition, replete with matching busses and a uniformed crew. Kimberly commissioned this car new from Ferrari. Competing everywhere from Elkhart Lake to Pebble Beach, Kimberly raced eight different Ferraris, but this unique, pontoon-fender 375 MM by Pinin Farina was his best-known mount and the third 375 Spyder on the Type 102 chassis.
Million-dollar babies: Top auction cars of 2013
1937 Bugatti Type 57SC
Selling price: $8,745,000Auction house: Gooding & Co. | Auction location: Monterey, Calif.
Ettore Bugatti and his son Jean built beautiful, often uncompromised racing and sports cars. Jean's prototype for the Type 57S Atlantic, a swoopy coupe called the Aerolithe (French for "meteor") was the toast of the 1935 London and Paris auto shows. Subsequently produced on a special low-slung chassis, only four production Atlantics were completed. A more civilized road-going version, the Atalante, was built with a 3.3-liter straight-8 engine, on either a conventional or low-profile ("surbaisse") chassis. Just 17 examples were sold. The most desirable of these cars, such as the one pictured here, were fitted with exotic DeRam self-adjusting shock absorbers and an optional supercharger, for upward of 200 horsepower.
Million-dollar babies: Top auction cars of 2013
1997 McLaren F1
Selling price: $8,470,000Auction house: Gooding & Co. | Auction location: Monterey, Calif.
Offered from 1992 to 1998, and originally priced at $1 million, the McLaren F1 was a highly desirable sports car from the outset. The carbon-fiber chassis F1 has served as a supercar benchmark ever since. Its center seating, with space for a passenger on each side, was controversial, as was the use of a normally aspirated 6.1-liter BMW M-Sport V12 engine developing 627 horsepower. Critics decried the use of a proprietary, albeit much-modified engine, but the McLaren's 240-mph capability — and subsequent results of race-prepared LM examples at Le Mans — effectively silenced them.
Million-dollar babies: Top auction cars of 2013
1958 Ferrari 250GT LWB California Spyder
Selling price: $8,250,000Auction house: Gooding & Co. | Auction location: Scottsdale, Ariz.
The first Ferrari long-wheelbase 250 GT California Spyders were built at the request of West Coast Ferrari distributor John von Neumann, who convinced Enzo Ferrari that his clients wanted the performance of a lightweight racing berlinetta, but in open car form, just the opposite of Italian tastes. A kissing cousin to the superb 250 GT Tour de France coupe, the open LWBs were visually stunning, especially when fitted with desirable covered headlamps as on this example. Depending upon gearing, competition Californias could dash from zero to 60 mph in just over six seconds and hit 155 mph.
Million-dollar babies: Top auction cars of 2013
1928 Mercedes-Benz 680S Torpedo Roadster
Selling price: $8,250,000Auction house: RM Auctions | Auction location: Monterey, Calif.
What makes this classy Mercedes-Benz 680S Roadster worth just over $8 million? Consider this: Mercedes-Benz only built 124 S (and 114 SS) chassis. This stunning cabriolet is one of three, and the only survivor. Bodied as a short-windshield cabriolet by carriage builder J. Saoutchik in Paris, upholstered in red lizard skin and with rare South American Purpleheart wood, this car was special-ordered by a wealthy American couple who then chose not to take delivery, whereupon it was displayed at the 1929 New York Auto Salon in the hope that someone with good taste and the means to express it would step up.
Million-dollar babies: Top auction cars of 2013
1960 Ferrari 250GT SWB Berlinetta Competizione
Selling price: $8,140,000Auction house: RM Auctions | Auction location: Phoenix
In 1958, to improve the road racing performance of its 250GT long-wheelbase Tour de France Berlinetta, Ferrari shortened its wheelbase from 102.3 inches to 95.2 inches, reinforced the chassis and improved the suspension. Pininfarina updated the coachwork, and Carrozzeria Scaglietti began hand-building bodies in aluminum alloy and steel. Arguably the last true dual-purpose road-going and competition car from Ferrari, the 250GT Short-wheelbase Berlinetta was smartly contemporary in its day. Abbreviating the 250's wheelbase enhanced maneuverability. The 3.0-liter SOHC V12 engine was increased from 250 horsepower to as much as 285 horsepower with larger, 46DCF Weber carbs and hotter camshafts.
Million-dollar babies: Top auction cars of 2013
1939 Mercedes-Benz 540K Special Roadster
Selling price: $7,480,000Auction house: RM Auctions | Auction location: Monterey, Calif.
Few European classics of the 1930s have the visual punch and panache of the regal Mercedes-Benz 500K/540K Special Roadster. One example sold for $10 million a few years ago. Only 25 were built and they were mostly owned by wealthy German industrialists like the Krupp family, Nazi party bigwigs like Hermann Goering and several celebrities. This car sports a unique and voluptuous body by Sindelfingen, and it is thought to be the last one built. Commissioned by Berlin's Horn Brothers, wealthy clothiers with great taste, its bulbous fenders, raked windshield and dipped door-line were the height of baroque architecture in the late 1930s.
Million-dollar babies: Top auction cars of 2013
1955 Ferrari 250GT Competizione
Selling price: $7,150,000Auction house: Gooding & Co. | Auction location: Pebble Beach, Calif.
Ferrari's 250GT Berlinettas, from their inception up through the legendary 250GTO, were the cars to beat in road racing. Ferrari offered the 250 Europa GT as its first series production car, with coachwork by Pinin Farina, Vignale and others. Racers opted for the 250 GT Berlinetta like this example, of which 10 were built. The 3.0-liter V12 engine was equipped with three Weber twin-choke carbs, as opposed to the 4-choke Webers found on 250MMs. One of just four Pinin Farina coupes, this purpose-built racer was finished without bumpers, side vents and extraneous trim.
Million-dollar babies: Top auction cars of 2013
1955 Maserati 300S Spyder
Selling price: $6,069,605Auction house: Bonhams | Auction location: Chichester, U.K.
Maserati's 300S was a tough competitor the moment it appeared in 1955. Using a 3.0-liter version of the company's Grand Prix DOHC 280-horsepower six, with triple Weber 45DCO3s and a 4-speed transaxle, and clothed in a lightweight aluminum shell by Medardo Fantuzzi, it attracted the attention of Briggs S. Cunningham who managed to snag three examples almost before the factory team raced its own cars. Twenty-nine examples were built. Sir Stirling Moss told Bonhams the 300S was "one of my favorite front-engine sports Maseratis . . . one of the easiest, best-balanced, nicest sports-racing cars ever made."
Million-dollar babies: Top auction cars of 2013
1960 Aston Martin DB4GT Jet Coupe
Selling price: $5,242,291Auction house: Bonhams | Auction location: Newport Pagnell, U.K.
Aston Martin's DB4GT is a prime collectable. From September 1959 to March 1963, the Newport Pagnell Works offered just 95 examples on a special short-wheelbase chassis. Seventy-five of these cars were alloy-bodied coupes; this car, with a one-off steel body designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro, and built by Carrozzeria Bertone, is one of a kind. Factory DB4GTs had twin ignition, three Webers and higher compression. The engines developed 302 horsepower. The Zagato coachwork cars, in lightweight alloy and with 314-horsepower engines, were very distinctive looking and examples are highly prized.
Million-dollar babies: Top auction cars of 2013
1948 Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 Competizione
Selling price: $4,840,000Auction house: Gooding & Co. | Auction location: Pebble Beach, Calif.
Little wonder this Alfa 6C 2500 sold for nearly $5 million. It's the first documented postwar competition Alfa Romeo, with a storied history which included four consecutive appearances in the Mille Miglia. Its first owner, Franco Rol, competed in many Italian road races and hill climbs, using the car's 2.4-liter 160-horsepower dry-sump DOHC 6-cylinder engine and modified 8C2900B chassis to great advantage. He sold the 6C 2500 in 1951 to a Swiss sportsman, after which it changed hands again — twice.
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I like the most lovely and Best Ferrari of Century
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