Trade seemed brisk at Forefront Motors' new 1,500 sq ft Opel showroom on Gloucester Road, Wan Chai, last week. Maybe customers were drawn to the red, presold, two-litre Speedster in the window or the 3.2-litre V6 Vectra GTS ($328,000, below) that starred in police thriller Infernal Affairs III.
Forefront Motors (tel: 2988 8080) seems to have big plans to increase the popularity of the brand in Hong Kong, and pledges to invest more on after-sales service. 'For instance, we will open a new service and repair centre in Kowloon this year,' spokeswoman Candy Ng says.
Ng says the MPV Zafira ($198,000) is the best-selling Opel car because of its price and performance, and the dealers expect to launch the hot-hatch Meriva this summer and the Astra and Vectra next winter. So, stick with your old runabout until December because we hear the Astra is competing well against the Volkswagen Golf in Europe.
The Zhuhai International Circuit's two big races could be the perfect excuse for the perfect petrol head break, next weekend. The Hong Kong Touring Car Championship, Super Production Class races will be held on Saturday, while Sunday is devoted to the circuit's inaugural 1,000km Endurance Race, says circuit spokesman Allan Ng.
You'll see some hot cars. 'Our Super Production class is the biggest in Asia, outside of Japan, and is certainly bigger than the Asian Touring Car Championship of the Asian Festival of Speed,' says Andrew Windebank, chief of event co-organisers, Hong Kong Automobile Association.
Ng says Sunday's race involves 272 laps around the Zhuhai circuit for a daunting eight hours, from 9.20am to 5.20pm. 'This will be the longest ever held in China.'
Organisers have put all cars into four categories, Ng says. 'Class O basically allows any production vehicle to take part; Class A is for production vehicles with an engine capacity above 2001cc; cars joining Class B must have an engine capacity below that of 2,000cc; and Class C is for cars with more than 600cc but below 1,600cc.'