Start your engines: Off-road vehicles, vintage cars enthral enthusiasts

Shell Pakistan to sponsor five-member team to watch the Malaysian Grand Prix.

LAHORE:

Thousands of visitors flocked to the Fourth Lahore Auto Car Show 2014 held at the Liberty Market Parking on Sunday.

Vintage cars and 4X4 vehicles dominated the scene. The show was organised by the Tourism Development Corporation of Pakistan in collaboration with PakWheels.com.

Yet despite having more sponsors and attendance this year, the auto show somehow failed to attract the stereotypical “rich racing enthusiast” with fancy sports cars. The organisers claimed that many sports cars showed up.



The organisers said they had modified the parking lot to accommodate more vehicles because of which some visitors might have gotten the impression that fewer fancy cars were on display.

On display this year, alongside vintage cars were many souped-up vehicles and modified locally assembled vehicles.  These failed to grab the attention of most visitors.

Some of the sports cars on display were a Lamborghini, a Mazda RX7, a GTR-35 and two Jaguars.

Among the most beautiful vehicles on display were exquisite vintage cars that grabbed the attention of most of the people.

A group, 4x4 Engage (off roaders), brought 26 vehicles, including three Unimogs, to the Auto Show.

Several gaming events and a musical concert were also arranged.

Roads leading to Liberty Market were packed with traffic throughout the day. Many boys on motorcycles and cars moved in groups and were seen revving around the Liberty Roundabout.

According to a statement issued by the Tourism Development Corporation of Punjab, some 600 vehicles and 200 motorcycles showed up at the event. Pak Wheels.com said more than 1,000 vehicles and 112 motorcycles showed up.

Amidst the fancy vintage, sports and modified vehicles stood a lonely Vespa scooter that also attracted a lot of visitors. The scooter, apart from being out of vogue, was distinguishable only because of the stickers pasted on its front.

Muhammad Azhar, owner of a Mark II and a Chevrolet Sports Van that were on display, said maintaining old cars was very expensive and events like these gave them a chance to show people the amount of effort they put to maintain them. He said for someone who doesn’t own an old car and is not aware of its miseries, it’s like having a second wife. He said he did not mind taking care of his vintage cars it was what he enjoyed the most.

He said despite the fact that the show has expanded and had more sponsors this time, many owners of luxury cars had not showed up. Those are the cars most youngsters come here to see, he said.

Mian Usman, a visitor, said fewer people had attended the show compared to the previous year. He said he had seen several vintage and luxury cars on the road on his way to the show, but had not seen many vehicles like those at the show. He said the show this year had mostly vintage cars which he was not really interested in.



Chaudhry Waseeem of 4x4 Engage said their group of offroaders was expanding. He said last year they had brought 12 vehicles with them, while they had managed to bring in 26 vehicles this year. He said their group planned regular offroad expeditions.

Off to see Malaysian Grand Prix

Shell Pakistan will sponsor a delegation of five sports enthusiasts for participation in the upcoming Malaysian Grand Prix, scheduled to start on March 28 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

The participants were selected through a competition at the Auto Show.

The team representing Shell had been working on this competition since November last year. They visited almost every university in Pakistan. Students with a passion for car racing were selected through qualifying competitions in which an “almost real-time environment” was provided. A total of nine teams from various universities, each with five members, were selected for the final round. Students of the Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Technology won the competition and will be sent to Malaysia on a four-day trip to see the Malaysian Grand Prix.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 17^th, 2014.