For show to go on, work doesn't stop
BILL TAYLOR FOR THE TORONTO STAR
Workers hustle to get the Hyundai display at the Canadian International AutoShow read for Friday's official show opening.
Relax. Hyundai's deep thinkers did the math before they sent out the company's travelling exhibit for the first time two years ago.
Auto shows don't just set themselves up. Almost as much thought goes into displaying the cars as into the vehicles themselves. For more than a week, the Metro Toronto Convention Centre has been one big construction site as exhibitors laboured to show off their wares to best advantage.
Hyundai, for example.
It could be a travelling circus, with 13 semi-trailers hauling 140 crates from show to show.
"And that's not counting the show vehicles," says the company's event planner, Kory Hawkins. "They come separately."
At this year's Canadian International AutoShow there are 19, including the Nuvis concept car with huge gullwing doors that could out-Lambo a Lamborghini. With all its hydraulics and fancy lighting, it could star in its own rock video. The car looks spotless but people are fretting around with spray bottles and dusters, certain they can see a speck of ... something.
"It's info-tainment," says Hyundai Canada public relations director Barb Pitlado. "Concept cars are the eye-candy of auto shows. You don't get to see them anywhere else."
You don't always get to see them, period. With shows all over the world and everyone wanting something special, concept vehicles operate on a global schedule. The Chicago Auto Show takes place at the same time as ours but we won the Nuvis. Even so, it was nerve-racking when the ship bringing it from South Korea docked in Vancouver.
"It was in a massive crate but Agriculture Canada still wanted to see it," says Pitlado. "It's been in so many countries, they wanted to inspect the wheels to see if they'd picked up any foreign soil.
"That can take three days or it can take three weeks. If it was three weeks, we were in trouble."
Adds Hawkins: "I was thinking, `If I can't get it here, what else can I do with it while it's in Canada?'"
As they're talking, a group of guys nearby are fine-tuning an interactive laser gizmo that will be suspended from a frame. When someone walks beneath, it'll activate a light show on the floor. It has to be precisely calibrated.
Right now, there's a Windows logo flashing and the mat where it'll all happen is folded over on itself and needs straightening.
For eight days before the show, it's all go with those 1,100 man-hours divided into day and night shifts. There's an electric saw on a bench as evidence, Hawkins says, that the exhibit never goes up quite the same way twice.
"There's always some cutting and juggling to do," she says.
It was built in December 2007.
"Before that, we had a pretty basic show but now we have our own enclosed area," says Pitlado. "When we started designing it, we had to consider how to represent the brand with colour, shape and mood. A lot of time goes into that. You want to be able to see something unique against the competition."
Right, the competition. Chevrolet, Mazda and Suzuki are cheek by jowl. Hawkins and Pitlado shrug off the idea that Hyundai could be influenced by its neighbours.
But there's an unspoken acknowledgement that, as the opposition positions its vehicles, you might do a bit of a reshuffle to make sure your sporty car is as close as possible to their sporty car.
"And we always try to come up with extra things to add to the booth," says Hawkins.
That includes a "performing" Theta 2.4-litre gasoline direct injection engine and a hybrid Sonata chassis that was flown in from South Korea and also "sings."
"We want to grab people's interest and then make sure they're well-informed," says Pitlado. "There's a lot of passion that goes into these shows, from the moment the crew comes in, measures and marks everything and starts laying cables and carpeting."
It all comes apart and goes back into the trucks more quickly. Hawkins figures three days, tops, for the tear-down. She's five months pregnant but still overseeing shows all over the country.
"It's a girl," she says, patting her stomach. "She's already been to more car shows than most people."
Woman's win over Honda opens door to mileage claim free-for-all
Video: Chevrolet Sonic a small car with a big car price
These four affordable, mid-size SUVs are worth a look
