Bangkok International Motor Show 2008

[motoyen]

After my last Thai motor show experience I wasn't overly looking foward to attending the 2008 Bangkok International Motor Show. The only thing that drew me out of my air conditioned apartment and into the heat of Bangkok is that I heard the local BMW club was going to be having a showing.



One thing that has really surprised me about my time here in Thailand, other than the ladyboys is the amount of cool E30's I've seen. I have seen more modded E30's with M-Teck II body kits here in the last 6 months than I've ever seen in Vancouver. For example check out this guy's E30 M3, it's like my Thai twin!

When I arrived I counted around 20 cars in attendance, with 6-8 E30's and a nice mix of classic and ricer styling. I didn't get a chance to look under the hood but with all the plumbing poking out the bottom it seems that many of these guys are running turbos.








Talk about stretched wheels!



It's fastbmw's twin!






After chatting with the E30 owners I decided to head inside to see what else was on display. Considering that Thailand isn't exactly the motoring center of the world I suspected that inside would be nothing more than a giant show room of generic designs and I was right.

Anyone want a 4 cylinder Mercedes E200? Can you say S L O W.



Is it me or does this Mercedes look a lot like a Hyundai?



Looks like everyone is copying the Koreans. Doesn't this new Lexus look like a 4 door Tiburon?



BMW had the new Mini Clubman on display. What a complete design let down compared to the original. I also noticed that the interior build quality felt really cheap, the plastics on the door felt like something from an 1980's K-car.



BMW also had the new E92 M3 on display. My reaction to seeing the car in the flesh for the first time was meh. I mean it's an amazing technological car on paper but where's the soul? The passion? Did anyone honestly expect this car to be any different than how it turned out? Of course it's going to be better than it's predecessor but where's the uniqueness? I say bring back the guys who built the Batmobile, the M1 and the 1983 Brabham F1 car and let them build a car!



And at 9.9Million Baht ($320,000CDN) who the hell would buy this thing?



Volvo had this on display, perhaps the Swedes should stick to furniture.



The Subaru Impreza WRX STI is an impressive piece of kit. The interior build quality is not on par with other Japanese automakers but you can't argue with the stuff under the bonnet. 300+ HP, twin turbo, and AWD all add up to a very fun car, it's just too bad their styling department has gotten worse every year.

Goodbye Edsel grille.



Hello boring Japanese grille.



Do you ever get the feeling that the large a car company gets the less communication there is between departments? Ford had this Barney colored car on display.



"Make Ever Day Exciting". I hardly think owning this car would be exciting.



Maybe it's referring to the display girls.



So the cars were a bust but one thing that was on display that did catch my attention was the motorbikes. Here in Thailand the most common displacement motorcycle is 125cc, no liter bikes here. And some of these smaller bikes actually have quite a bit of performance packed into them. I think something like this would make for a perfect commuter bike back home.




This bike is interesting because it is electric. Go to work, plug it in, go home plug it in, you would never need gas. Of course these type of commuter bikes work great here in Thailand where it is sunny most of the time.

Performance specs are:
Top Speed: 110KPH
Range: 70km
Charge time: 2 hours



I spent the rest of the show practicing my Thai with the local girls. I had an amazing discussion with these ladies on the benefits of direct injection diesel engines.



She was demostrating the benefits of having a bed in the back of your truck.



Enjoy the rest of the show!

[Swizzle]

I think I know where my next vacation will be, thanks Anthony!

[fastbmw]

Great pics anthony! I wish I had an alpina front lip. Any more pics of that orange e30 with the turbo and M3 flares, I think that looks awesome!

[k-swiss]

Totally love the C30.. Hawt!

[onaquest]

i want chicken
i want liver
meow mix meow mix
pls deliver.....

[evo3]

hey man, at least the ladies are much prettier than the ones featured in the van auto show. i attended this past weekend for shits, the girls they had at the booths were ftl.

[Weeman83]

Is it me, or did some of you also looked twice at every girl in attempt to find hints of the Adam's apple???!

[motoyen]

I forgot to add that if you work for Jaguar or Land Rover meet your new boss.

[Mark D.]

Wow thanks for the show, excellent. And the cars were amazing, too.
Beautiful Thai women, obviously not partaking in the classic "fat" North American drive thru or frozen entre diet. Hmph....why can't chicks here look like that?
I hope your behaving yourself there......hehehe.....

[Blakeoffire]

Once again, great report Anthony...

Why can't our Vancouver Auto Show gals dress like sexy Super Heroes...!?



B.

[evo3]

Because they need to be sexy first.

[mousetoo2]

Very nice work Anthony !!! I like the one with her left hand on the tire !!! Although, that is a nice pair of TaTas !!

[Spalding]

Originally Posted by motoyen I forgot to add that if you work for Jaguar or Land Rover meet your new boss.

Did anyone see the latest Fifth Gear? Tata got agitated when they touched the new uber cheap Tata. It's was pretty funny...

[Mr. Red]

damn, nice looking girls, $320,000 for the new m3?? that's insane!