I land at Antiyita International at some godawful hour in the morning. It’s pitch black, yet distinctly mild outside. Interesting. It’s the first time I’ve ever been to Anikatia, the north east Asian island nation that plays host to an ever-growing international auto show. Although one of the newer car expos, its become the crux for the emerging north east Asian car market, with its geographical location putting it right in between China, the Korean peninsula and Japan.
I’ve frequented Japan on a number of occasions, but Anikatia is something new. It’s only been a republic for the past 16 years, but it has emerged as one of the most well developed parts of this region, and with that its automotive industry has grown. Though many companies will be displaying here, this is the central fortress of the Maesima empire. It’s enemy territory for many companies.
My taxi whisks me to my city centre hotel which, thank god, has 24 hour room service. It’s 3:09 am but I’m still on UK time so as far as I’m concerned, it’s time for lunch. The jet lag soon hits though and everything goes weird. I’ll need a day or two to get used to this.
Wait, why am I here again? Oh yes, I’m here to talk about cars. Already a number of car companies have given teasers about what to expect, almost all of which are being focused on cars for Asian markets. Many of these are exclusive trims and even entire models for this region, highlighting its growing importance as a world market.
As always, there are quite a few unique cars being revealed at the show. Vision Dynamics have teased a wagon that promises to be faster than a Ferrari, though it really is a teaser and very little has been revealed apart from a corny Twitter hashtag. Erin are putting on a special ErinSport event at the show for some reason. Some of us as S.A.M. suspect its marketing speak for “we haven’t got anything new to show”. Cornaldie are going to be present in some form, but it seems they forgot to add any hints as to what sort of car(s) we can expect.
A couple of coupes from performance company Zorg will be present, I’m intrigued to see what this quiet car company comes up with here. There was also a teaser emailed to me about something called the ‘Vinson Pilot’. Never heard of it before, will give it a look over though. AL Autos are also making a string of debuts (we think) though it’s very hard to tell, I’ve only seen highly doctored images so far and some various captions.
A couple of sedans are taking my fancy. Kimura are bringing the Auriga to Asia and debuting it at this show. I was really impressed by it at Geneva so it’ll be interesting to see how Asian buyers respond to it. Sinistra are rumored to bringing along a V8 sports saloon called the Arctic that I will be getting a test drive in.
Speaking of performance, I’m expecting there to be quite the clash between the new Newman (hehe) spec Zenshi Altrea and the Rennen Angeles R, which so far we’ve literally only ‘heard’ about. God I’m bad at jokes. Either way, two midsize performance vehicles going head to head never fails to be interesting, plus there’ll be some Japanese-American rivalry going on too. Excellent! Rennen are also showing off the mind-bogglingly beautiful Kastana concept. Eek!
However, the real defining aspect of the show (at least what the automotive press are interested most of all currently) is going to be the many, many compact cars on show. There’s going to be one hell of a clash, that’s for sure. Well established models like the Baltazar Quasar (now coming in hatch form) and Shromet Radiant are being brought to this market for the first time, while other models from Zast (who seem to have an addiction to over sized exhausts) and Zenshi seek to put a spanner in the works for them with the Renegade and Kamata, the latter of which is rear wheel drive, just to make it more interesting. On top of that, newcomers Mekong are debuting their Dang-Yeu (???) super cheap compact at the show too. Whew!
As you can tell, I’ve certainly got a lot of work to be getting on with, though I’m certainly looking forward to it. Car shows like this don’t come around often, in that only a few here are well established and everyone else is vying for ground in this new market. It’s an exciting time to be an automotive journalist.
For now though, I need to find the Anikatian equivalent of a steak dinner. I mean, it’s only 8:30 am, who isn’t ready for a big meal like that this early in the morning!
