Relio Quick Auto Mall: A damp squib!

I was a little surprised to see an advertisement in the newspaper some time last week, about a new automobile exhibition 'Relio Quick Auto Mall' in Bangalore between the 13th - 15th, to be held in palace grounds. After all, Bangalorean auto buffs aren't really lucky in this department. All we get is a painfully boring 'Vaahan Yatra' every year.

I have been visiting Vaahan Yatra ever since its conception way back in 2002, hoping that every year it would get better with more attractions for us enthusiasts but it is always the same old stall layout. The location would either be at palace grounds or KTPO, Whitefield. To begin with, there will usually be a few local car dealerships who set up shop- Maruti, Tata, Toyota, Hyundai and Honda showcasing their already-on-sale-in-the-market cars. If you are really lucky you may find a couple of german carmakers strutting their stuff- BMW, Volkswagen, Audi and Mercedes.. but mind you, NOT ALL of them will be there! The tata guys would have hired some MC to keep blabbering something on his mic regarding some contest and he would keep giving away prizes to whoever answers his questions about some tata car's specifications (dumb publicity!). A car customization + modification company would have displayed a bunch of hot modded cars with hot looking babes to match ;) (perhaps the only decent stall). ICE equipment (In-Car Entertainment) and alloy wheel manufacturers' stalls aren't uncommon. In the 2 wheeler department, the standard companies would be there. The japanese bike makers would have displayed their superbikes - the Hayabusa by Suzuki and the YZF-R1 by Yamaha. People hound these stalls and try to get pictures of themselves sitting on the bike or their children seated on the fuel tank, either way it is annoying for people who want to get a decent look or photo of the bike (alone!). Towards the end of the row of stalls, a few would have on offer car/bike polishes, shampoos and lubricants. Not to forget, a few stalls who sell 20-30 Rs. keychains and stickers of any reputed company you want. Harley Davidson, Porsche, Ferrari, Yamaha, BMW, Suzuki, Audi... You name it, they have it! Well. that summarizes it all I guess, about the 'exhibition'.

The Eye of the Beamer (BMW 5 series)

I never expected anything apart from the usual layout but wanted to have a look anyway. So I dragged 2 of my friends along to this place on a rather gloomy sunday afternoon. We went there at around 2.30pm. While the usual car manufacturers' stalls were there, there were no modified cars, no ICE stalls, no aftermarket accessories except a stall which sold Motul lubricants! What was different this time was a small display of Vintage beauties. There was a huge array of vintage VW Beetles. There was also a cute current generation Beetle on display.

A current generation Volkswagen Beetle


The row of vintage VW Beetles on display

No Yamaha this time, just Suzuki displaying their trademark power monsters - the GSX-R1300 Hayabusa superbike to complement the M1800 Intruder and the Boulevard cruisers. The layout in itself was quite small- indicating a lack of participation by most companies.

A Suzuki Hayabusa on display.. the big daddy of superbikes

Suzuki Boulevard - a Mammoth 1800cc Cruiser


One of the many vintage beauties displayed

There was a stunt show outside. RJ Prithvi (popular RJ from Radio One) was compering the event here. They had placed a small concrete road of perhaps 50 metres length. Hundreds of people thronged the place to get a view of the stuntmen and their crazy antics on their machines. What I was surprised to see was a bewildering lack of safety measures. None of the stuntmen wore any kind of protective riding gear while performing. All of them were dressed in loose T-shirts and 3/4ths! What audacity to perform bike stunts in public without even wearing protective gear. Some of them weren't even wearing helmets! Added to this was the lack of any kind of barricade separating the crowd and the bikes. Had any stunt guy lost control and fallen, the bike would be catapulted straight into the crowd! I call it sheer stupidity. I wonder how the organizers allowed such risk without taking any precautionary measures. That said, most bikes were refurbished Yamaha RX100s and the stunts were limited to Wheelies on the RX 100s. After a while it started to get boring. All they did was wheelie the RX100s to and fro across the stretch. I expected much better stunts, perhaps Rolling stoppies, burnouts, 360- burnouts, human compasses, etc much like what we see on TV in the bike advertisements.

Adjacent to this was a book exhibition which was much, much more crowded than the auto mall. There were some really good titles on display and great discount prices (announced right from the billboards kept outside) which ensured that a huge number of people were drawn inside. After making our way through 350-odd stalls in the book expo and coming out of the stampede, we headed home in the evening after a brief stop at Malleshwaram to munch on some chaats. That's about all that happened this sunday. I hope that one day, we Bangaloreans get to see something like the massive Delhi Auto Expo that happens every year.

KK