My overall impression of the British International Motor Show was that a LOT of effort had clearly gone into it. Apparently returning to London for the first time in 30 years I guess those putting on the show wanted to make sure they got it right. The last time I went to ExCEL was for the Movie Comic Media Expo which in no way could be compared in either professionalism or size with the Motor Show.

The Motor Show actually took up the whole of ExCEL plus the area to the front and the back so it was a massive undertaking. But not so massive it seems that I still managed to run into Doyin from work! What a small small world.

I’ve never been to any sort of motor show so I have no idea how it compares to previous shows either for excitment, freshness or newness. I’m fairly sure that most manufacturers were there but I did notice a few that weren’t: Audi, Volkswagen and Subaru or if they were there I certainly didn’t see them.

We started off by heading to the outdoor areas where the Mini Coopers, BMWs and the swish Rolls Royce were on 1display. Like the adverts you may have seen for Mini Coopers where the Minis turn into all sorts of cool things, at the Show you could see a tractor, a shed and even a piano conversion. Pretty cool. Oh, they had even turned a Mini Cooper into an interactive Space Invaders game. Seeing the BMWs and the Rolls Royce were okay but to be honest not high on the excitement list. I guess I had to remind myself that the show wasn’t just for the cool cars but for serious buyers considering the new year offerings. Not being the hugest of car fans I guess a lot of the detail in the newer models of more ordinary cars was a little lost on me. Soon, Amy and I had lost Connie, Chris and Ross to the ordinary cars and headed off to find some more interesting cars. I was looking forward to seeing some of the hotter cars – and these were in the Super Car paddocks over on the North side of the centre – yep no ordinary car for me. Let me just say that the Ferraris were very very nice. 🙂

One of the other reasons for going to the Motor Show for me, other than the hot cars, was going to see the concept cars. I was expecting a lot more – but to be fair most manufacturers had at least one concept car on display. One of the newer and interesting cars was this wierd three-wheeled motor car which is taxed as a motorbike (for congestion charging purposes) but for which you need a car licence to drive.

Overall the Motor Show was quite impressive. The displays were very well set up (and so shiny) and quite professional. I’m fairly sure you could go test drive some cars though how that happened exactly I wasn’t too clear on. There was also entertainment (in the form of a half pipe where we saw some BMX and rollerblade tricks) and a musical show from Ford (though that was merely performing their theme song). For those not into cars there were a few gaming machines spread out across the centre and there was even an Ice Bar where they were serving complimentary slices of oranges. Not a bad way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

The rest of the photos are here.