PARIS MOTOR SHOW 2002. Sex and cars are joined at the hip if the Paris Motor Show was anything to go by. It seems you can’t have one without the other. Flesh and metal side by side.

There might have been a nip in the autumnal air outside the Mondial de L’Automobile venue where the Paris show was held but inside, a lot of ‘suits’ were very hot and bothered. Served ‘em right for being so overdressed anyway.

The word was out. The best action was at the SEAT stand, on the hour.

Small wonder then that the pack of males there early to get a piece of this particular entertainment, passed the time kicking wheels.

I thought that practice was confined to Saturday morning punters, but boy was I wrong!

Brows were mopped, glasses wiped. Or should I say demisted such was the heated atmosphere of anticipation. All craned for a better look as soon as the beat music revved up to herald the arrival ‘on stage’ of the scantily clad young things from Barcelona, there to promote the SEAT Cordoba.

You’d need a backbone like a banana to gyrate like that. It was the sexiest show surely ever seen at a motor show. Little left to the imagination.

(We’d been told about this hourly show by people in the know. And you know who you are, lads!). But we thought you’d be back for the next show.

Teasers, the lot of them. The dollies and their Manuels. Oh to be able to shake it all out like that or to grab such attention. The guys strutted their stuff with gay abandon, even back-flipping high in the air for good measure.

Elsewhere in the show, other ‘barely there’ beauties in black bikinis and bits of floaty lace below their bare midriffs helped promote highly polished Alfa Romeo cars on the Giugiaro stand. Long haired blondes all of them ... naturally. These Giugiaro people are heavy into design stuff, and have designed the Brera car for Alfa Romeo.

But Paris chic wasn’t confined to the turnabout and platform dollies. The specially-hired PR beauties on each carmaker’s information stands - we saw no male equivalents - always looked the business.

Some were even dressed to match their products. Girls giving out information packs about the high-tech Opel HY-Wire concept car came suitably clad in big light-catching techno necklaces and tight shiny low cut dresses. The future looks bright!

Invariably, it looked as if all the outfits were special haute couture numbers. Especially the dateless LBDs (little black dresses) which always look classy. After all, this was Paris!

But tight-fitting trouser suits - some with high Chinese collars, others pretty low cut - in fine materials, seemed the norm; accessorised by contrasting trim or long floating scarves or pashimas casually, but oh so carefully, draped over one shoulder. I guess they must have been secretly pinned on, because none showed signs of slipping.

Slits were certainly in vogue and were very evident in short or long skirts. They varied from being modestly suggestive to just blatantly short of the hip.

However, these PR girls were no bimbos. All had a knowledge of one or more languages so as to be able to deal with the public. Most wore badges of the countries whose language they spoke. And, they got to sit down behind their PR desks.

But back to the catwalk, or turnaround table. By the end of Day One, the smiles had disappeared from the faces of some of the models, to be replaced with stiff, bored expressions. After all, you can only stand still and stroke a car in that loving way for so long. Their feet, too, must have been killing them, so high were their strappy high heels. The long day certainly separated the pros from the novices. Pros were more than willing to pose for the camera, showing off the car with bright smiles and suggestive looks.

Take the two ‘fast’ Toyota girls in white tops and red tracksuit pants who struck a sexy pose almost without trying.

A few, like the black model on the Mitsubishi stand, had personality that shone through. She was enjoying the limelight, and it showed, even in high-heeled boots.

And I’m sure the girl promoting the new Nissan Micra was specially handpicked for how she complemented the curves of the latest supermini from that marque.

But back to the cars ...

Cars? What cars? The floor shows were great.