Melbourne International Motor Show.

1-11 March 1996, 10am-10pm, closes 6pm Monday 11 March.

The Melbourne Motor Show is usually a fairly quiet affair but this year the glamour and glitz of the Australian Formula One Grand Prix came to town (10 March), the new Exhibition Building (the "Aircraft Wing" or "Jeff's Shed") has just been opened and it's show time with a vengeance.

Thanks to the hoo-hah there were some interesting four wheel drives at this year's show - just wait a minute, we'll get there. Outside in the foyer was an excellent display of classic 2WD cars being auctioned by Shannons to coincide with the Grand Prix - vintage Rollers, E-type Jaguars, an AC-Cobra, Aston Martin DB2, Lotus Seven, ...... it took up the length of the building. This part of the show was really good value: free.

Inside, there was a good collection of fantasy cars - Ferrari's including the dream about it F50, Lamborghinis, and the have you driven a Ford Indigo lately. The Indigo is touted as a two seater, road-going Indy car, and I thought an Indy was a Silicon Graphics computer. The kind of Ford mere mortals are likely to buy is the Ford Mondeo which looks like a nice sensible car (someone had souvenired the knob off the gear lever). Aston Martin's DB7 and the Lotus Elise were the pick of the dream wagons to my mind. And then there were four wheel drives.

The Kia and Asia Motors stand had the Jeep look-alike Rocsta and the bizarre Neo Mattina concept vehicle (right), the Ceres forward-control 4x4 truck and Jeep-ish Retona; say it carefully. Across the aisle, Subaru won the ugliest car of show award with the Alpha-Exiga station wagon (below), from some serious competition it must be said. Mercedes were showing the Ssangyong Musso 4x4 station wagon; No oil painting, it looks comfortable but too low to be a great off-road performer. There was an Oka from West Oz standing head and shoulders above its surroundings.

It seems that Land Rover were in some last minute dispute with the organizers as to whether they would get all the floor space they wanted. They got the area but they were tucked away in the south east corner - Defender 110 station wagon, Defender 130 Crew Cab (below), a couple of Discoveries and a couple of Range Rovers. Naturally Land Rover were next door to BMW.

Audi had some four wheel drives of the on-road kind with a nice cut-away display of a Quattro transmission which showed the drive to the front differential being taken back down the middle of the input shaft to the Torsen centre differential, very neat.

Suzuki brought Vitaras, Sierras and the curious, booted X90. Can someone please reveal what the point is? Why take a SWB Vitara sized vehicle and cut out half the load and seating space?

Jeep had Cherokees of both the plain, ordinary kind and the grand kind: the Grand Cherokee will be on sale in Australia later this year.

Toyota had a spruiker on their stand trying to drum up enthusiasm. The Lexus was the star to most, but true believers could ogle the 80-series LandCruiser. Also in attendance were Nissan with Pathfinders and Patrols - the latter looking shiny but dated.

If you plan to go to the motor show over lunch-time or in the evening, eat at Southbank before you go in or alternatively get a pass-out to do the same. Food is available inside the hall but ....... 'nuff said. A civilised cup of coffee can be had on the BMW stand (north east corner) if you do not mind watching the video.

- March 1996

Go to 1997 or other Melbourne Shows