Established in 2010, THE-LOWDOWN.com had been following, capturing and publishing the automotive culture within Australia for a couple of years and had garnered a strong following. Fast forward two years later to 2012, and there were only a few blogs executing what we were doing in Australia, namely DOWNSHIFTAUS.com. Street-Cover was still in its first year and ESTBLSHD, (excuse the pun) hadn’t even been established yet.
The automotive culture during this time was thriving with several impromptu meets and gatherings, but nothing of major significance had risen since the demise of Auto Salon in 2010. There was no flagship event for the following that THE-LOWDOWN.com and DOWNSHIFTAUS.com had created.
This is where the conception of Showcased had originated from and was born. The vision was never to replace or become Auto Salon, but rather to create an event that would bring together the best cars which the eastern states had to offer, Showcased would become a new pinnacle event in itself. Our aim from the beginning was to give our readers the opportunity to experience and view in first person headlining feature cars that we had displayed for many years on your screens in pixel form.
Showcased 2012 was hosted on the Entertainment Quarter rooftop carpark and proved to be a heralding success for everybody involved. Several cars were built and unveiled at Showcased that were not seen before with the likes of Hendra’s WRX, Zomaya’s EVO, KSR’s R34 GT-R and Sergio’s S15. Even more cars from SX Developments and Bodyform Aero made their debut and JDMYard had their first public display of the completed Mugen DC5 Intergra. Coupled with debut cars, our neighbour states showed their support with Street-Karnage bringing down several hero cars from Queensland and Stanceworks heading up from Melbourne.
The original location and debut cars mixed with trade stands, food stalls and entertainment was something refreshing for the entire aftermarket community, largely within the younger demographics that T-LD had appealed to. It was something new that Australia was craving for years and Showcased delivered.
Following from its success, several events started to pop-up on our calendars that emulated the concept of Showcased with variant locations, themes and activities which was great for the enthusiasts as a whole, but not so much for Showcased.
Planning for Showcased 2013 was a tough one for us. We were in two minds about emulating what we achieved in 2012. There were a lot of events that hosted a very similar concept to Showcased 2012 that proved to be successful.
With that in mind, our team was torn on how to proceed. It was either to stick to the same concept or deliver something unique again. In order to innovate and evolve once again, we decided to take the next step and turn Showcased into an official indoor car show.
We chose another fresh location, Australian Technology Park and between the three of us, started to plan Showcased 2013 outside of our normal working hours.
Showcased 2013 proved to be another success, with over 170 amazing cars on display, NULON’s dyno competition, exhibitors and trade stands, models, simulators, food trucks, live DJ’s and an r/c track. For three guys with full-time jobs and other ventures, to co-ordinate an event such as Showcased 2013 was a proud achievement for us. With its success, we were highly driven for 2014.
Early in 2014 we began discussing Showcased 2014. The plan was simple; to grow on the previous year’s success. In its entirety, Showcased 2014 was going to need even more time dedication than the previous year and new car builds from the community to keep the event fresh. Unfortunately for Showcased, this was not possible due to the team having other commitments and implementing new ventures.
Showcased has always provided something unique to Australia and unfortunately in 2014, we honestly didn’t think we could have provided that spectacle again. As a team, we were unable to allocate the time Showcased needed in 2014 to become another successful event.
Showcased is not a meet, but a car show. For this to work, there needed to be enough supply of new car builds to trickle through into the show. In addition to this, the time put into the organisation of Showcased are in no way comparable to a private carpark or showground meet. We could have easily held another event similar to the first Showcased back in 2012, but that wouldn’t have been up to our standards. To accommodate for that, our privately hosted meets and Last Minute Meets continued.
We agreed to not pursue with Showcased 2014, but discussed the possibility of running Showcased again in 2015. Towards the end of the year we were approached by an agency to purchase the rights for Showcased.
We were worried about the direction that any agency would take Showcased and kindly declined the offer only to have them return with a condition that stipulated THE-LOWDOWN.com would become a partner if it were to proceed and had controlling rights on the direction of the show. To this, we agreed.
So, when is Showcased you ask? Well we’re extremely excited to announce that there WILL be another Showcased and that we are currently in discussions with our agency partner regarding dates, venues and the scope of works.
If Showcased 2013 was organised and run by a team of three outside of business hours, we’re damn excited to see what can be achieved with an entire agency behind it guided by its original founding publication.
Showcased is and always will be about you, the automotive enthusiast. We hold the event and its origins close to us and are always looking for feedback, so if there’s anything you’d like to see us improve on or do better, please chime in below. Until then, enjoy the official video of Showcased 2013 below. We will keep you posted on further information regarding Showcased in the near future.