Last week saw the biggest of Thailand’s two annual car shows, the other being the International Motor Expo held in December. After the media/VIP day before the public opening the event got plenty of free publicity from the Ministry of Culture, when it was predictably outraged at the photos of models in bikinis and body paint that escaped into the social media. No bikinis and body paint to be seen after the public opening, but still plenty of artificially enhanced models around although perhaps less cleavage on display than the last show.
Whether that was because of the Ministry’s outrage or not I don’t know, but perhaps they should get out of their office at Huay Kwang and go for a walk around the area. I had to go over there the other day, and within easy walking distance of their offices are several large and prominent “massage parlours”, short-time hotels and karaoke places with girls of negotiable virtue. I’m sure that the show organisers loved the free publicity though !
Lamborghini Adventador
Totally impractical for Bangkok, and way beyond most people’s budget, but is n’t the Lamborghini Adventador the most stunning piece of Italian design work ? Somebody had the money and did n’t care about practicality because it was sold by day 2 when I went. I hope the models were very careful with the paintwork when they leant on it !
The prize for the worst colour scheme would have to go to ISUZU for this iridescent green pickup.
Ford had a couple of “smart” cars there, but I wonder if this “I can park myself” car can park the Thai way ….on footpaths, in front of no parking signs, or just double park because the driver is too lazy to walk 10 extra metres ?
Apart from the usual pretties, some of the stands had shows to attract the crowds. Ford had a rather strange ‘Tap Dogs in lederhosen’ show, Toyota had an even weirder circus type show while BMW had a very spectacular Bladerunner meets Cirque Du Soleil featuring trapeze artists, spacesuits, models wearing hats that turned into drones and took off, while others were zooming around the stand on electric single wheel unicycle gizmos wearing bodysuits with neon lights. Absolutely nothing to do with cars but it attracted a huge crowd to their stand. Yamaha had a singer on their motorbike stand who was apparently a local pop idol, but sounded rather ordinary to me.
We all know that sex sells, but why does it sell small boring cars like Hyundai ? Whatever the reason why, the Hyundai stand probably featured the most prominent “aftermarket accessories” of the car makers stands, although most of the cleavage was in the car stereo stand area.
Alpine stereo certainly knew where people would be looking, and where to place their stickers !
I’ve never ever seen a caravan on the road here in Thailand, and only one motor home ever, but they always seem to sell at the car shows. By day 2, nearly all of these retro style caravans had “sold” signs on them.
Some more car photos for now, and some of the pretties in a separate post tomorrow.
Changes in latitude, changes in attitude 