Geneva Motor Show with a Four Year-old

The last time I went to one of these it was in Birmingham and I met Richard Noble discussing his up coming ThrustSSC project. Shows how long ago that was! Last year I missed it for two reasons; because I didn't really know it was on, and I had just started a new job, so didn't think I could take time off in my first week. This year I was advised not to go on the weekend, and so we went on Friday afternoon. It was busy, but I can easily imagine, this weekend, the last, will be much, much busier.

I asked the big one on Tuesday if she fancied going. I just wanted to test the water. It was boiling! On Wednesday and Thursday the first question up was "are we seeing the cars today?" by Friday it was clear that were I to renege, there would be tears and tantrums. I just didn't want to get there and hear 20 minutes later, "I'm bored, can we go home?" As entrance is only CHF16, it would have been no hardship, it was more to do with the palaver of getting to Palexpo on two buses, just to turn round that bothered me most. As it happened the first sign of dissent didn't show until nearly an hour in, and was quickly bought off with a snack and a drink. In the end we got through two hours of car watching. I was amazed!

The show is divided in to two tiers, the mass manufacturers, Ford, Toyota, Renault all have swathes of cars on thei stands that you can climb in, check out and compare. My four year-old thoroughly enjoyed sitting behind the wheel and shouting at me, "look Daddy, I'm driving!" On these stands, behind a cordon, is also a swanky GT or a competition car just to remind us Nigels that the cars we drive on the road have some pedigree. BMW, Audi and Mercedes all have stands like this, even Porsche has a single Cayene you can climb in. But Porsche is mainly in the other tier, with Lamborghini, Bentley, Pagani and the like. These all have red rope syndrome, low barriers keep you off their stands and more than an arm's length from the cars. You're welcome to pass the red rope if you are a serious potential buyer, but otherwise, just look thank you!

Just looking was enough for us. To the big one the Pagani was just like the Cat in the Hat's car, she hasn't learnt the word outrageous yet, but she gets the concept! We must have spent 10 minutes staring at the Lamborghinis going round and round on their stands. We looked at the Bentley Continental GT and discussed anther we should get one for Mummy. At AC we wondered where the the girls would sit if we bought one for Daddy. We climbed in and out of a dozen cars and pointed at several more that looked like my father's Ford Special, essentially they had to have no roof and be painted in British racing green. At the Mercedes stand we discussed the workings of the internal combustion engine on display, more on how that works with a four year-old another time and place perhaps.

Incredibly we did two hours on the floor, then went to find something to eat. She had a sandwich, I has the classic saucise veau avec frites. Sat at the dirty wooden benches, with serious and semi-serious petrol heads all around us, I was reminded of random BRDC meetings at Silverstone I used to go to when I was a kid, all fried food and everything except the drivers had a slightly amateurish feel. Sat in the sunshine, not necessarily true to the Silverstone experience, enjoying a sausage and a beer, enjoying a cha with my four year-old, I was delighted at what excellent entertainment the Motor Show actually provides to a child. I'd highly recommend it to kill an hour or so, but maybe skip the weekend.

 iPad update
This one is going out on the iPad. This is the third time of writing because seemingly you can't save work on Blogger if you are accessing it on iPad. Hmm, bit of an oversight?