Melbourne International Motor Show.

The Melbourne International Motor Show opened on Friday 28 February 1997 at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre. The show is the main motoring industry show case in Melbourne and coincides with the Australian Formula One Grand Prix which is held within earshot. URL:/4WD.html

Returning after last year's success is the Shannon's Classic Cars auction which this year includes a 1908 Talbot 4F Rois de Belge, a 1925 Rolls Royce Phantom 1 (right), a 1935 Bentley 3.5 litre, a Jaguar XK150, a 1943 Willys Jeep, a 1958 Messerschmidt KR200 Tricar(!), and an Aston Martin DB4/2; all small boys aged over forty-something can start dreaming. The auction is held on the last day of the motor show, 10 March, and the auction vehicles are on display in the foyer, stretching for all of its very considerable length, with a back-drop of the Polly Woodside square rigged ship outside, and making a free show within the motor show.

To exploit the Australian Grand Prix connection, the British Government's newImages stand is showing off Formula One advances in the shape of engines, transmissions, ancillary equipment, exotic materials, and telemetry and drive-by-wire technology. They had a McLaren F1 (road car) and a Williams Formula One car on the stand. There was also a Stewart-Ford Formula One car over on the Ford stand.

Mercedes Benz evoked memories of earlier Grand Prix days with this 1937 W124 Grand prix car (right). Now that's a bonnet; it really gives you something to aim along.

Ferrari, McLaren, Aston Martin and Lamborghini have dream cars, if you are interested in that sort of thing. Two of the Lamborghinis are Diablo all wheel drives incorporating a viscous coupling unit - a Diablo VT Coupe 5.7L V12 at $585,000 (right) and a Diablo VTR limited edition at $650,000. Not the sort of things to take off road.

Last year the Kia and Asia Motors stand had the Rocsta Jeep-like 4x4's and the wild Neo-Mattina concept four wheel drive.

This year Asia Motors and Kia have separate stands, Kia with the Kia Sportage 4x4, their sedan cars and a recent 4x2 acquisition - the Kia Elan which is basically a Lotus Elan with a Kia engine. This is the front wheel drive sports car that, with help, nearly did Lotus in. Although the experts said it was a great car the buying public thought that the rear wheel drive Mazda MX5, ironically a look-alike of the first Lotus Elan, was more to its taste. We will see if Kia can do better with the Elan. Oh well, it's probably just small-change to them.

Toyota's Megacruiser, as seen at the National Offroad Show, is back in town. In size the Megacruiser out Hummers the Hummer but, if you peer underneath, it's suspension components look like dainty ones from an F1 car compared to the Hummer's RSJ girders.

Giving plenty of scope for four wheel drivers to speculate, General Motors Holden is showing the Isuzu Deseo concept 4WD. It is between the Holden Jackaroo and Holden Frontera in overall size. Rear passenger seats are mounted slightly higher than those of the driver and front passenger - to keep the kids quiet of course! Power comes from a 3.2L V6 and feeds into a 5-speed semi-automatic gearbox. Radical features [read unlikely to see production] include an aluminium chassis. Taking a leaf out of aircraft cockpit design, the instrument panel contains a "screen" to show instrument readings and also the view behind the car. (Rear-view TV cameras have been experimented with many times, e.g. on the 1969 Holden Hurricane show car.)

Rover Australia are showing their four wheel drives and also have the rear-engined MGF sports car, the latter officially released on the show's opening day, 28 Feb. The (Land-) Rover stand has gone "rustic" in keeping with its plans to set up new sales centres that promote Land Rovers through the "life-style thing". If you have $149,750 for life-style, you can have a Range Rover Autobiography fitted, amongst other things, with 255/55 R18 tyres.

Other four wheel drives on show - Audi A4 Quattro, Daihatsu Feroza and Rocky, Ford Explorer and Courier, Holden's Australian Safari winning Jackaroo, Honda CRV, Jeep Wrangler, Lada Niva Swagman and Niva tray-back ute, Mazda B2600 Bravo, Mitsubishi Pajero and Triton, Nissan Pathfinder and Patrol including Les Siviour's racer, Ssangyong Musso, Subaru Liberty and Impreza range, Suzuki X90 Sierra and Vitara, Volvo V70 AWD station wagon.

Go to 1996 or other other Melbourne shows