Devon Gilchrist won’t run his Hilux through a car wash, he cleans his ride by hand – although the trusty Toyota isn’t exactly his pride and joy.
The high-end car groomer and detailer is in his element this week, ensuring almost $4 million of luxury vehicles are gleaming when Christchurch motoring enthusiasts can marvel at the latest models to roll off the Lamborghini, Aston Martin, Bentley and McLaren production lines.
There’s a McLaren 720s, specced up to warrant a price tag of $600,000; a sequin blue Bentley Continental GTV8 sports a maximum speed of 318 km/h, while workers in Crewe, in north-west England, used a kitchen fork to hand stitch the dashboard.
Italy is represented by a Lamborghini Huracan EVO, yours for $539,580; and the world’s fastest SUV, the Urus, which houses the same horsepower as a V8 Supercar.
Brought to Christchurch in containers from Giltrap Group Holdings in Auckland, the cars will be on display for three hours from 9am on Saturday at a Supercar Showcase Event, hosted by Avid Group Ltd’s premises in Harman St, Addington.
“I don’t think there’s a car in this collection that can’t go over 280km/h,” said Shaun Summerfield, Giltrap’s general manager communications and PR.
Summerfield is from Christchurch and appreciates the opportunity to bring the dealership’s star attractions home.
“I saw one Lamborghini growing up, at the Christchurch car show in 1985,” he said.
While an Aston Martin, Bentley or Lamborghini are rarely sighted on the city’s roads, Gilchrist has ample business to employ eight staff.
“This is our target market,” said Avid Group Ltd’s owner, as he carefully buffed the Huracan’s blemish-free bonnet.
“There’s more [luxury cars] here than you think, and people have multiples. We have a few customers with hangars full of cars. It’s quite an underground scene here.
“They don’t drive them every day but there’s a lot tucked away.”
Schooled in the intricacies of paint protection in Australia and detailing by a Japanese expert, Gilchrist wasn’t relaxing as he surveyed the lot.
Fortunately he only has to spruce the cars up with a wash, in his low and high-tech way.
“It’s all hand washing, we don’t cut any corners,” he said.
“We use touchless air dryers, we’re not dragging towels over them,” he said. “For grooming we’ll use a dry towel. It’s a lot softer than a coarse chamois. That’s what causes all those spider-webby scratches.”
