Massive tests in Tannis 2010

The mid-September meeting in Northern Denmark starts the high testing season for CotY Jury members. Tannistest has been organized by the Scandinavian jurors for more than 30 years, but it is open to anyone in the Jury, including honorary members. Among a total of 140 attendees, including the engineers and vehicle servers, 22 former or current jurors seized the unique opportunity of gathering the majority of cars in the list of (41) candidates for the 2011 award. That’s the trademark of Tannis, while later tests in Boxberg, Silverstone and Balocco will focus in the short-listed cars, the nominees, along November.

 A swarm of testdrive chances with new models, the ‘stables’ of Tannis have shown more than 80 available cars, including some non-candidate vehicles difficult to get, as a Mercedes SLS AMG, the fuel-cell Honda FCX Clarity, Porsche 911 Turbo S or the Hyundai Genesis coupe V8; also the first unit for Europe –with left hand drive- of the electric car from Mitsubishi, the iMiEV. One prototype of Opel Ampera (also non-candidate) allowed a direct comparison among this suggestive formula of ‘electric car with extendable range’ and a conventionally rechargeable electric as the Nissan Leaf. Appealing hybrids as the coupe Honda CR-Z or the premium compact Lexus CT200h were also there.

A Tannis tradition is the picture of the group of candidates in the idyllic beach nearby, and also the ‘elk test’ in Sindal airport. The Nordic journalists don’t want to emphasize too much the significance of the results they get there, but it is interesting to underline some individual marks. For instance, the modest Renault Wind was among the most efficient vehicles in this test, on pair with Citroën DS3 or Saab 9-5, and only surpassed by Honda CR-Z and Peugeot RCZ.