5 outrageous buys at Top Marques Macau
The world’s most luxurious and only live supercar show for the extremely wealthy takes place this week at Top Marques Macau at the Venetian Macao and will end Sunday.
Top Marques Macau is the Asian edition of Top Marques Monaco and aims to bring in buyers from the region, especially wealthy Chinese.
One of the biggest draws of Top Marques Macau is the chance to test drive some of the supercars that are showcased at the exhibition.
A 2.1-kilometer road close to the exhibition hall has been set aside for invited guests. If you don't have an invite and just want to come gawk at the cars and buyers, tickets to the show are available at MOP$380 (US$46.50) a pop.
Here are five outrageous products on display at Top Marques Macau.
Best car to protect yourself from an AK-47: Conquest Knight XV
If you’re in the market for an armored sport utility vehicle that will deflect rounds fired from an AK-47, the Knight XV is your best bet.
The Knight XV retails at US$629,000, though add-ons can take it above US$1 million. But what’s a luxury armored vehicle without some hardcore upgrades?
The V4 class armor will do the job to protect you from the AK-47, but the V7 Euronorm class takes it a notch further and protects passengers from armor-piercing bullets.
“We deliver the ultimate in security and luxury, for very discriminate tastes,” said William Maizlin, president of Conquest Vehicles Inc.
Owners of the Knight XV with said discriminate tastes include a member of a royal family of the United Arab Emirates and Dwight Howard, basketball player for Orlando Magic.
Most versatile luxury car: Rolls Royce Ghost
The granddaddy of luxury car brands, the Rolls Royce is the car to own for everyday mundane tasks like dropping the kids off at kindergarten and picking up groceries.
The Rolls Royce Ghost may not be the flashiest or the fastest car at Top Marques Macau, but the 100-year history behind the car means that owning a Rolls Royce remains a hallmark of “having arrived.”
“People want to share [the Rolls Royce's] pleasure, comfort and wisdom with their family and friends, their beloved,” said Gary Leung, customer relations manager, Goodwood Motors Ltd., the distributor for Rolls Royce in Hong Kong.
It’s a little gauche to pull the convertible out for grocery runs, but the Rolls Royce Ghost on the other hand is understated class, you know?
www.rolls-royce motorcars-hongkong.com.hk
Best way to get around your estate: Garia golf car
One problem with having an extremely large estate is getting from one end to another, say, from the main house to the garage.
Why not do it in style with the Garia electric golf car?
The Garia is an emissions-free vehicle and claims to be the only luxury golf car brand in the world, according to Justin Chan, sales director of Shriro Equipment Ltd., the distributor for China and Hong Kong.
About 50 Garia golf cars have been sold, mainly to golf courses catering to the needs of their VIPs and owners of large tracts of property.
Most exclusive party beverage: Armand de Brignac, Gold Brut NV Champagne
This is the ultimate beverage to demonstrate the exclusivity of your Christmas party as only 50,000 bottles of the Armand de Brignac Gold Brut NV Champagne are produced every year at the Chigny-les-Roses estate.
Fine Champagne magazine ranked the Armand de Brignac as the best Champagne in the world in 2010 by merit of a blind taste test by Champagne connoisseurs.
Hong Kong is usually allocated between 400 to 600 bottles every year.
Merit Wine Boutique, which distributes the Armand de Brignac in Hong Kong, usually sells all of its allocated bottles during the busy year-end period to high-end hotel chains like the Grand Hyatt and Four Seasons.
“Sometimes it’s hard even for me to get a bottle for the New Year,” said Eric Kwok, director of Merit Wine Boutique.
The 1.5-liter bottles retail at HK$6,800 (US$872) each, but to really impress your party guests, a 30-liter bottle is also available.
Fastest car at the show: SSC Tuatara
Shelby Super Cars seeks to reclaim the mantle of fastest car in the world with the newly unveiled Tuatara after having lost it to the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport in 2010. The Tuatara can near-fly at 276 miles per hour, the company claims, compared to the Veyron's 258 miles per hour.
Bugatti is also at Top Marques Macau, but only the Grand Sport is on show; the car with the record, the Super Sport, is not on display.
The Tuatara model on display at the show is a production model without functioning doors, so no test drives will be possible just yet.
SSC already has some potential buyers lined up, so one of these fighter jet-inspired cars will be speeding down the highway in your city when the first car is delivered in January 2013.
Or it might be kept in storage under lock and key, because what other vehicle can really compete with the US$1.1 million supercar with a zero-dynamic exterior?
