Brisbane and Melbourne shows boom

MORE than 25,000 visitors packed the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre on Saturday – 8000 more than the Brisbane motor show’s previous one-day record.

Crowds were boosted by the same day’s V8 Supercar Championship Series official season launch in nearby South Bank and show organisers expect the 2006 event to top last year’s total attendance record of 128,000. The show ends this Sunday.

Meantime, last month’s Melbourne motor show attracted a near-record 228,292 visitors, making it one of the biggest in its 72-year history – despite having the usual Moomba public holiday as its final day.

"If you added the usual Moomba Day attendance to this figure, you’d be well over a quarter of a million in pro rata terms," said show director Russ Tyrie. "We have now had more than 2.5 million visitors in our 11 years at the MEC." Vehicle sales were outstanding, with at least one exhibitor selling more than $3 million worth of cars during the ten and a half days of the show.

According to organisers, Rolls-Royce sold four cars and generated another six leads, Bentley took its first of five Azure orders within 15 minutes of the show’s opening, Maybach is now talking with six customers for its new 57S model and Australia’s first $1.3 million Pagani Zonda sale is expected soon.

Mercedes’ new S-class and R-class generated plenty of roders, while Honda’s new Civic attracted keen interest and SsangYong achieved 27 sales, including five Chairman limousines.