RICK @ the RACES (16/17 Jan 2010)
Salon De L’Auto Montreal, Que
Once again Mother Nature made me alter my plans this past weekend , when warmer weather caused the Beauharnois ice racing to be postponed. The unusually high temperatures for January meant a cancellation for the second week running.
Not only was Beauharnois a casualty but St Guillaume lost their show for the same reason.
With these events being canceled, I decided to do something a little different.
I decided to go along to the Montreal Auto Show, or as they call it in French ‘Salon De L’Auto’ held at the Palais Des Congres ( Congress Hall) . In the years, since moving to Canada, I’ve visited similar shows in Ottawa and at Toronto’s Sky Dome, but this show was the best by far.
This is a ‘new car’ show, similar to the Motor Show which I attended many times in the UK, and not a race car show. As well as the latest models to interest the average person, there were many exotic cars to appeal to the wealthy.
I’ll put on my ‘patriotic hat’ and say that my favorite’s were the British Aston Martin’s and Bentley’s. I’ve always liked Aston Martin’s and if I ever became ‘silly rich’ I’d be sure to have one. When I was in the UK , one of the places I lived ( Cranfield, Bedfordshire) was close to the factory in Newport Pagnel and I always envied the test drivers I saw taking them out for a spin.
Other cars that caught my attention were The ‘gull wing’ Mercedes, the family size Porsche, the Jaguars and Maseratis.
At the other end of the scale, there was the ‘enviro friendly’ stuff with a couple of electric powered cars.
Like I said, this was the best ‘new car’ show I’ve attended since the NEC (Birmingham) Motor Shows in the UK and would definitely go again.
Finally before finishing off , I must make an amendment to the hasty report I did on last weeks ‘info’ meeting for Ottawa’s Capital City Speedway. The ACT Late Model Series will still be running there, but it will be the tour race missing in 2010