TOP Marques Monaco – the world’s ultimate luxury car show – “eclipsed the dreams” of its organizers’ in terms of innovation and sales, directors said last night
Manoj Bairstow, co-owner of the Monaco auto show, said the 13th edition had been the event’s “best one yet”, with an unprecedented number of sales both in the Supercar Hall and Watches Pavilion.
Top Marques Monaco 2016 drew to a close last Sunday after four days of supercar madness across the Principality, which looked particularly stunning under a brilliant spring sunshine and temperatures of up to 24c.
“The 2016 edition of Top Marques Monaco eclipsed our dreams in terms of innovation and sales, and we were delighted with the number of visitors the show attracted,” said Mr Bairstow, speaking on behalf of his partners Steven Saltzman and Mederic del Monaco.
“It is always extremely hard to quantify the success of the show, but we know that there were an enormous number of sales carried out by our watch and jewellery exhibitors, as well as upstairs in the Supercar Hall.
“One exhibitor for example sold a piece of jewellery for 350,000 euro whilst another watch exhibitor sold four watches in one day. In the Ravel, a number of sales were confirmed and one manufacturer managed to sell one of his supercars before the show even opened through publicity surrounding the show,” Mr Bairstow added.
“Our figures show that on the first three days a record number of tickets were sold, which is no mean feat. We would like to thank all our sponsors including the Edmond de Rothschild Group for their support in the run-up to, and during the show, as well as all our exhibitors – and of course, the public for turning up!”
Approximately 42,000 visitors attended the 13th edition of Top Marques, which opened to the first ever public flight of the ArcaBoard, a ‘flying carpet’ which designers had brought all the way from New Mexico to launch at the show.
The 11,000-mile round trip was well worth it, according to Dumitru Popescu, who sold two ArcaBoards in the first two days of the show for a price of $14,900.
“Top Marques Monaco allowed us to use press and marketing that would have been impossible to reach in another other forum. We are delighted with the way in which our product has been received and would like to thank the Top Marques team for their warm welcome.”
Other highlights of the show were the Martin Jetpack, a personal jetpack which will come on to the international market later this year.
Mike Tournier, from New Zealand-based Martin Aircraft Company, said: “Top Marques has been an exceptional event for Martin Aircraft Company. It has proved beyond doubt that there is a real appetite for innovative, stylish and exciting new means of private transportation.
“We had a lot of interest during the show, particularly from HNWIs, and it has been very fruitful for us. There was a particular interest from superyacht owners who were talking about rearranging their deck space to make room for a Martin Jetpack.”
In the Supercar Hall it was impossible to pick out a winner with supercars and luxury vehicles for every taste – but perhaps not every budget. Highlights included the striking looking Icona Vulcano, the world’s first ever supercar carved entirely out of titanium and the Arrow by Apollo, a vivid orange supercar which proved popular with car spotters.
Top Marques Monaco has become an important event for supercar enthusiasts from all over the world, with hundreds lining the street to watch the test drives organized throughout the show. This year, more than 1,000 VIP guests and journalists were taken for a test drive on a privatized section of the F1 Grand Prix circuit, with a number of direct sales resulting from this unique selling point of the show.
