Just another manic Monday

20/07/06

MOTOR shows - journalists either love them or hate them. Often they start off loving them, and end up hating them after about the 20th occasion they've spent fighting off the hangers-on that sneak in on press day, battling with 30 other hacks to get an exclusive from some manufacturer CEO who wants only to spout company PR-speak, or having their prized picture of a new model ruined by spies from Japanese manufacturers who insist on taking endless shots of the boot catches in a rival's product.

Me, I still sit firmly in the show-loving camp, but this year's London event offered new challenges. Not the press day itself on Tuesday - that proved a highly enjoyable event, with only half the feet-ache compared to previous trawls up to Birmingham, and easy working conditions thanks to the excellent security at ExCel, which actually succeeded for once in ensuring that virtually everyone present on press day was actually a member of the media.

No, 24 hours earlier I had begun a manic Monday, as the sudden onrush of global launchings spawned a number of 'exclusive preview events'. In the days leading up to the show motoring hack conversation tended to go along the lines of; "I'm doing Mazda on Monday, are you? Yes I'm doing the second presentation so I can go to Land Rover, but I'm not sure if I'll fit in Vauxhall..."

Determined to use public transport for such a local show, I made myself out a detailed itinerary for Monday - where I needed to be when, and which tubes I needed to take to get between the various venues.

So around 11am on Monday 17th I synchronise watches and leave Redhill station for Victoria (interesting aside - a one-day Travelcard from Redhill provides all the transport one needs to the show, and costs £10 - about £2.50 more than two years ago Birmingham NEC was charging for parking - never mind the fuel getting there...). First stop is to be a late entry, Chinese manufacturer Nanjing finally revealing what it planned to do with MG, the rights to which it bought last year.

Now all the manufacturers have been sensible enough to schedule their reviews in the same general area of East London - but not Nanjing. We are in the city, a hotel in Aldwych in fact, I arriving just in time to grab some lunch canapés and water and then listen to a press conference which proves to be one of the biggest wastes of time in my career. "First time I've known less coming out than when I went in," grumbles a fellow hack later, after the Nanjing President Yu Jianwei skilfully avoids every difficult question put to him while screaming at us in high-pitched Chinese. The conversation, through an interpreter, goes something like;

How many MGs will you ll buy from me?

Hack: "How many people are you going to employ in Birmingham?"      

Nanjing boss: "We are already employing 57."

Hack: "Yes but how many WILL you employ?"

Nanjing boss: "We are already employing 57..."

At 2pm the conference is still going on, getting nowhere, and I duck out, rapidly running out of time to get to Mazda's venue, in a wine bar near London Bridge station, for the 'exclusive view' of the new MX-5 Roadster Cabriolet. In contrast to the crowded Nanjing conference, just 20 or so journalists have made this one, and as I check in and grab another welcome water, I recognise among the unclaimed name badges many still stuck at Nanjing, a shame as the hardtop on the Mazda is good, efficient technology and something to actually write about.

So I listen to the speeches, photograph the car, grab some more water and do my best to ignore the Danish pastries. Then it's back on the tube, across the river once more, then east to Tower Bridge, checking into my hotel for the night, and in fact most of the media's. A quick change of clothes and then it's off on a brisk walk down the embankment to Old Billingsgate and the biggest event of the day, the international launch of the Vauxhall Corsa.

Flying in Vauxhalls under elicopters – how novel...

Thanks to General Motors flying in loads of continental journalists, as I enjoy my first, and I think earned, beer of the day there are many accents bouncing around, something I'm used to at Geneva or Frankfurt but a welcome addition to the London show. The car flies in too - up the Thames suspended under a helicopter. Some hacks consider this great and spectacular but I can't help thinking back to a Vauxhall Astra advert of several years ago, which also involved helicopters...

Then the entertainment starts, led by someone called Sean Paul - now there may be readers for whom hip hop music, or whatever modern tag is hung on this guy's bawling, is their thing, but it's certainly not mine, and I take the opportunity to duck out early and enjoy a leisurely stroll to event four of five, the unveiling of Land Rover's new Freelander. It's held in another swanky bar in another innocuous street, very close to Mazda's venue in fact, and features the best canapés of the day. I break one more rule, and accept just the one glass of champagne.

It looks like a pub...

Last lap now. Around 90 hacks gather outside where Land Rover has kindly laid on a coach to get us to our next event, hosted by Mitsubishi. The coach travels 100 yards, we get off and walk 300 yards to a Thames-side pier (I kid you not) where we are to join a boat that looks just like a large floating conservatory.

On the journey down river we get the ubiquitous press conference (times are tough but we're doing all right, that sort of thing), and then finally we are off duty, the boat arriving at what looks like yet another bar (but in fact has been specially created for the event) in the shadow of the Millennium Dome for the most enjoyed journalistic tradition of the UK show - the Mitsubishi eve-of-show party.