Driving ambitions

The 2006 Motor Trades Association's fair at Beau Sejour had everything the enthusiast would expect and more, as Bruce MacDougall discovered. With vehicles ranging from a high-performance Lotus Elise to a 50cc Piaggio Robin Reliant and a road-legal quad-bike, the 2006 Motor Fair had something for everyone.

And Lt-Governor Sir Fabian Malbon even joked that a seat be put in the back of the Italian three-wheeler as a possible replacement to his Daimler.

Crassus sales executive Rick Sallabank said the vehicle had been brought over especially from the UK.

'In the UK it's going great guns,' he said. 'The back can be converted to refrigeration units, fast food and even coffee machines.

'It's supposed to be a two-seater, but you'd have to be pretty friendly to be honest.'

Another two-seater with perhaps a little more style but no less charm was the Lotus Elise 111R.

Freelance Motors sales executive Martin Cottell admitted it was more of a track car - with a top speed of 149mph and 0-60 in 4.7sec - than a road one and had attracted a lot of interest at the show.

'I think people in Guernsey are into sports cars,' he said.

'They tend to take performance cars such as this away to track days at Le Mans - it's something a little bit different.'

Quad bikes, which were made road-legal only in April last year, were put on show by L'Islet Motors and have been generating a lot of interest in the island.

'Since the law has changed, there's at least 40 on the island,' said Lee Renouf, co-owner of the company.

It was demonstrating the latest Kymmo bikes, which are capable of up to 50mph.

Hybrid 'green' cars that run on both electric motors and petrol engines will one day become the norm on Guernsey roads.

That is the view of two GMTA fair car dealers who believe vehicles must inevitably change to meet growing petrol costs and problems caused by pollution.

'It's definitely an ideal car for Guernsey,' said Honda sales executive Brett Bewey, when demonstrating the company's new Civic.

'Many other manufacturers are heading in this direction, especially with congestion charges likely to be introduced into major UK cities.'

Working in conjunction with each other, an electric motor at the back of the car is used to crank the petrol engine, which fires only when running at a certain speed.

'If it is going under 20mph or stopping and starting, then it runs on electric. Over this speed and the petrol engine will run, which is more efficient,' he said.

'I think people will become more accustomed to buying greener cars.'

Freelance Motors sales executive Martin Cottell agreed.

'It's the perfect marriage between petrol and electric,' he said, describing the new Lexus 4x4.

'Every manufacturer is putting technology towards hybrid power.'

Mr Cottell said the new vehicles were more fuel-efficient and the same price as the equivalent petrol model, with the LS600 even outperforming a Porsche 911.

GMTA chairman Dave Beausire agreed that the development of hybrid technology was a good thing, but was not so optimistic about an immediate cut in the cost.

'To suddenly go to electric will be extremely expensive, although the prices will come down.'

He added that manufacturers were consistently becoming more environmentally aware.

'CO2 emissions in cars have been going down for years as engines are becoming more fuel-efficient,' he said.

'What people don't realise is that home heating is actually pumping out more CO2 globally than the car.' It's probably what the average 60-year-old would think impossible and what every Kev would have on his Christmas list: an in-car DVD player, sat-nav system, satellite TV and stereo system loud enough for a small club.

This was the type of car 'accessory' technology on show at the GMTA fair at Beau Sejour.

And with a retail price of £1,954 for a CD player that can burn music directly to a hard drive, the stereo probably costs more than a lot of cars in the island.

'The sort of stuff you can get now was like something out of Star Trek when I was at school,' said Rohais Motor Centre audio sales and fitting manager Pete Hepworth.

'In this particular vehicle there are 10 speakers, two DVD screens, a computer hard drive and two big 800W vibe amps.'

Mr Hepworth thought the island had a good market for this type of technology.

'Some people have got to have the music

thumping away in the back of the cars,' he said.

However, he added that the item in which people had shown most interest was the in-car navigation system.

'At the moment, most are asking about the sat-nav,' he said.

'People tend to use it to get used to the system before they take it abroad - it takes the stress out of driving.'

The company was also showing a range of industrial steam cleaning equipment and a range of pioneer CD players.