The born-again event will also have a stronger family focus, will include everything from bicycles to classic cars, and is promised to deliver the sizzle that’s been missing as traditional motor shows have died in Australia.
The multi-million dollar event is being born from the death of a joint venture that was intended to deliver a world-class Australian show that would alternate between Sydney and Melbourne. Falling attendances and a massive slump in car company support led to the cancellation of plans to continue with an old-school event.
Now the Victorian Automobile Chamber of Commerce, which ran the Melbourne Motor Show for generations before its partnership with the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries, is working flat-out on a revival for 2015.
“We’re calling it a motoring festival. It will probably be in March 2015 and we’re looking at a range of venues including Sandown and the Showgrounds,” the executive director of the VACC, David Purchase, reveals to Carsguide.
“We need to look at something for everybody. Consumers want more interactive shows and the manufacturers are looking for shorter events, in different venues, and they want them cheaper.”
Purchase says the VACC has done extensive research and is using a sellout event in Britain, the Goodwood Festival of Speed, as one of its inspirations.
“It needs to be everything on wheels, with something for every member of the family. It will be more broadly based, it will be much more interactive, it will be a combination of indoor-outdoor, and it will have a range of displays and exhibitions.
"It will have new cars, although we won’t have every brand, and we’ll have to get used to that. I expect that we will have some classic car displays, low-volume production cars, motorcycles, even bicycles.”
Apart from the show element, Purchase says the event will be used for the announcement of Australia's Best Car Awards and the VACC’s automotive design awards.
“We will have a fashion parade, children's activities, a black-tie Premier’s dinner. It’s a trial in the sense that we’ve never done it before, but the traditional 10-day static motor show has had its day and this may be the future.”
This reporter is on Twitter: @PaulWardGover
