Motorshow has everything pumping

For first-time businesses, and there were quite a number this year, it presented an opportunity to explore the possibilities of a challenging market with a new approach.

The Autodealer Motorshow 2019 did this and more. Of course, we all know that there is always more to be done. The show started on Friday evening, July 27, with a cocktail party at the large and quite impressive Hi-Q Riverside’s stand.

Here Rike delighted guests with saxophone prowess and beautiful melodic music which I, for one, consider much more beneficial to the soul than the best of what the movies and or TV can ever offer. Earlier this year Hi-Q and Goodyear ran a tyre promotion offer which saw one customer walk off with a brand-new VW Tiguan.

And, to everyone’s surprise, the winner of the competition, once again for the second year in a row, proved to be a local. Mitch Mitchell’s son-in-law bought him two tyres at Hi-Q, entered the competition and, well, the rest is history.

A delighted Mitch took delivery of a Tiguan with the whole family in attendance. Gary Friend of Hi-Q said, “We are completely committed to service excellence and the staff ensured that every customer entered.”

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The energy at the show this year was slightly different – lighter even – and during the rest of the weekend visitors could indulge the kids in a kiddies play area where competent and enthusiastic volunteers entertained the little ones. The only thing though, you had to walk past the food stalls.

Was this done on purpose? Hey, this is an event that will entice your senses – smell, hearing, visual – and yes, there were some seriously beautiful and expensive cars.

A group of Cobra owners from Gauteng brought some gorgeous specimens to the show, started them up (got the adrenalin going) and just generally enjoyed the attention from keen visitors.

It is always difficult to pick a favourite at these events. The Alfa and Wrangler Jeeps drew a lot of attention, but so did a beautifully restored 1958 Chev V8 Apache done by Classic Kings Customs in Rocky Drift.

It was the first time it participated in a motor show and was thus surprised to walk off with the Best Spirit award. Autodealer will bring you the full story on Custom King in the not too distant future.

This Apache drew the crowds and just once again made me realise that a motor show – any and every motor show – has to have as many as possible classic beauties on display. Modern cars are exceptional in terms of technology, power output and efficiency, but man, the classics still rule the roost.

Saturday also saw a number of beauty competitions eventually crowning Mr & Miss Junior and Pre-Teen winners. Some visitors were lucky to go home with prizes while most others gained some insight into new technologies and cars on offer.

Most manufacturers are fitting smaller, but more powerful engines, often kitted with turbos, in their cars these days and I was quite astounded talking to the guys from Turboformance about this, to learn about the importance of proper maintenance thereof.

At the other end of this is the performance enhancement market. It is now possible to extract significantly more power and torque from an engine by simply installing and applying advanced software for this purpose.

But of course, the best advice always is to do your homework before you go this route. Winner of the Best Exhibitor award was Jeep/Alfa/Fiat (Produkta Motor Group), and Nelspruit Ford received the award for the Most Innovative Promotion on show.

William Blackrose and Mona-Lee Gerber entertained visitors on Saturday evening in the beer tent. Sunday was more of the same and allowed many visitors who were otherwise occupied on Saturday to enjoy the various offerings.

And let us be clear, the weekends in Mbombela have become extremely populated with events demanding everyone’s attention.

Our dorp is becoming a city in terms of weekend activities. Word has it that the organizers will expand the vision for the 2020 event to entice and challenge your vroom-vroom adrenalin to the extreme.

But hey, let us see what it looked like at the show – enjoy!

ALSO READ: WATCH: Highlights from the 2019 Autodealer Motor Show