Shannons Wheels Expo 2015
06 April 2015 / Tony & Iris McDonald
The Wheels Exhibition has been running in Canberra for 33 years, and has become one of the most prestigious automotive display events on the city’s events calendar. The event has been sponsored for the past 15 years by Shannon’s Insurance.
This year’s event attracted a large number of exhibitors representing a wide range of marques. The MX5 Club of NSW – as the focus club - was extremely well represented with 41 MX5s on display, comprising 12 NAs, 12 NBs (including an engineless Turbo Boy on a trailer), and 17 NCs. The display also featured a club member’s Evante, plus the club’s BBQ trailer (half an NB). A big thanks is due to all members who attended the MX5 display, in particular those 17 members of Sydney, Illawarra, and Hunter Chapters who travelled to Canberra to join with local Chapter members to make this such a memorable display.
Canberra turned on beautiful weather on the day, with relatively mild temperatures and slight breezes. The club’s gazebo and banners were quickly set up, and cars were positioned to maximum display advantage by 9 am. Later in the morning, Bob Judd (Canberra Chapter’s immediate past co-convenor) was invited to address the public over the PA system and provide a short history of the NA MX5 and the MX5 Club, following which the event was officially opened at 11 am by Minister Mick Gentleman of the ACT Legislative Assembly.
After a minor glitch establishing gas flow to the BBQ plate, the BBQ trailer quickly swung into action and great sausage and onion sandwiches were produced to provide lunch for hungry club members. A special thanks goes to Dave ‘Bolts’ Bolton and Mike Guina who manned the BBQ and kept the food flowing.
As the crowd and exhibitor numbers began to dwindle at about 2 pm, the site was packed up and members made their farewells before dispersing. Once again, many thanks to all those who assisted to make this event successful, and we hope future such events will attract similar levels of support.
