Home » Business » Autotalk Special
Motor racing festivities staged to whet car buyers’ interest
Print Edition
MOTOR racing is an elite sport for a select few, but the fun surrounding can be shared by everyone.
The 2014 Sports Car Champion Festival held last month by Volkswagen China at the Shanghai International Circuit was not just another competition for top-notch racers in their high-performance Audis, Bentleys, Lamborghinis, Porsches, Volkswagens and Ducatis. Above all, it was a carnival embracing all automakers and all auto fans.
The weekend event attracted 40,000 people, with its ticket sales up 30 percent from last year.
Markus Nels, director of the sports car project at Volkswagen Group China, said Volkswagen started the sports car project five years ago to give Chinese people the opportunity to celebrate motor sport culture in a way they couldn’t do at car shows. Out went the idea that an overseas event, like the Goodwood Festival of Speed, Pebble Beach or Le Mans 24, had to be imported to stage a successful motoring attraction.
At the 2014 Sports Car Champion festival, people could not only watch races close-up in real time, but they were also given the opportunity to sit in some of the cars on display, take their children to a mini-cart circuit or stroll through fields where carmakers parked their brands for a close-up look. The access was like no other event.
In the past few years, Volkswagen China has been investing heavily in promoting motor racing. It wants people feel the thrill of speed and hopes that sensation could spill over into consumer interest in some of the company’s less zoom-zoom models.
Volkswagen is betting that watching cars perform on a racetrack will prove their mettle to onlookers. The “race on Sunday and sell on Monday” slogan worked its magic on some of Volkswagen’s brands in their early days. It may still be an effective strategy.
“From the Volkswagen group side, we are providing a good platform for brands to reach out to interested customers,” he said. “It is like buying an advertisement. I know 50 cents of my US$1 investment pays off. But I don’t know which 50 cents it is. We need to develop a pool of fans before we can convert them into customers.”
The carmaker is also actively engaged in cultivating local motor racing talent. Through its Star Racing Academy, established in 2013, Volkswagen China is trying to identify and develop young Chinese drivers interested in a career in motor sport, starting from global platforms like the Formula Master China Series, the Audi R8 LMS, the Porsche Carrera Cup Asia and the Lamborghini Blancpain Super Trofeo.
Unlike racers in other countries, Chinese drivers don’t have countrymen as role models. The sport is too new in China. This generation will become the trailblazers, Nels said.
In fact, the development of China’s sports car culture isn’t following the route of more established markets. It is being introduced in a uniquely Chinese way.
“We are certainly contributing to the interpretation,” Nels added. “Sports cars are still a culture in the making and too young to be clearly defined in China.”
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
