Recently we launched on Instagram our own Autogespot Colombia. We find Colombia one of those really interesting countries in South-America which will keep on growing in the upcoming years. Recently we asked Exotics Colombia a couple of questions to get a better idea what secrets the country has.
Can you tell our Autogespot reads something more about yourself? How did you find Autogespot?
Well, I'’ve loved cars since I can remember, so I am constantly looking for pictures and videos in different places (Webpages, Social…) that share my same passion, not only to learn more about supercars, but also to interact with people and to admire all the media.
It was doing one of those researches when I found Autogespot.com , where I found just was I was looking for: Supercars from all over the world. Ever since I visit the page at least 1 time per day.
Especially in Europe, Autogespot and car spotting has become a big and well known hobby. What about Colombia? Is the car spotting scene well known?
Here in Colombia car spotting is very limited, not only because finding a super car is not easy, but also because there is few people who are actually interested or have the passion to look for them and take some nice pictures. I guess it is because in here not everyone knows about cars and people is not aware of the amount of super cars that have entered the country in the last decade. You can say that here in Colombia finding/spotting a car is already cool, while in Europe people focus on Photography. However, more and more enthusiasts are discovering car photography as their passion.
Photo by Sebassossa
In every country privacy and cars is an issue. How is dealt with this in Colombia?
Unfortunately, some super car owners are very serious on privacy issues for many reasons, but mainly for their own safety. As many of you may know, Colombia has had many internal conflicts that created a period of violence that spread all over the country in the last century, although it has decreased a lot in the last few years, security may be issue in many cities. For that reason, some of them are very cautious and prefer not to use their super cars frequently, instead they prefer to keep a low profile. To give you an idea of how discreet they want to be, they order us to cover the plates of the car (which can be useful to find information that can threaten their safety) and in many cases, they don’t let people to take pictures of the car. It’s very sad and understandable that some owners need to be like that, but we hope that the situation changes soon.
Photo by de Carbon Edition
How is car photography in Colombia? Is car spotting just about making a picture of a car, or does it go way deeper?
The number of photographers who actually have a professional camera and are constantly taking nice pictures is very few.
Some of these photographers only take pictures of a car they accidentally found on the street and that’s it, but some others talk to the owners and organize 1 or 2 photo shoots in places were the landscape is unique (like Colombian mountains), take videos, rolling shots and that kind of stuff, but in general professional photography is very rare, it is more like a “strange” hobby. In other cases, some of them actually go to the main streets all day and hope to capture a super car.
Photo by Magstheonlyone
What kind of spots in Colombia are the best to spot? Could you tell us something more about that?
I think that the best spots are the ”big combo” ones that include more than 1 super car, like in a “private” meet were owners hang out together in group all the day, especially on weekends. People love this kind of spots because if seeing 1 super car alone is very rare, now more than 1 would be even harder. People also like spots of the unique cars of the country, like the Ferrari 599 GTO or the McLaren 650S Spider, which are spotted like once a month. This kind of spots only occur in the largest cities, like Bogota (Capital city) or Medellin, on the surrounding areas of them where you can find the biggest houses of the city. Also it is very common to see super cars in big and exclusive malls and areas full of expensive restaurants.
Photo by Brac_Llanogrande
In every country, certain cars are very popular. Which cars are in Colombia very popular? Do you see many tuned cars?
I consider the BMW M3 as the most popular car in Colombia, you can see more than 2 every day. Although it is a great machine, people no longer feel much excited when they see one since it is very common. About tuned cars, we do have many, but not like those famous Brabus or Hamman. Most tuned cars are made by local companies and tuning teams that upgrade the cars using many different parts, for example, there are +1000hp GT-R´s made in here which are welln-known. There are also some owners that decide to use aftermarket parts like exhaust systems and bodykits. At the moment, APR is very used and is becoming very popular among VAG group cars.
Photo by Camiloboterocarrizosa
For one the car is just something to travel in, for another person it reflects their status. How do people in Colombia feel about this?
In Colombia the car that you drive reflects your socio-economic status, since the gaps between the “rich” and the “poor” are huge, so not everyone can drive an expensive car. For many people, driving an expensive car means that you are rich and have a high status in the society. There is people that think that it is ok since it is the result of the working efforts done, but some other say “How come you drive a car that costs more than 100 thousand dollars (which is enough money for a small but proper house) when there is people in other parts of the country that don’t even have a house?”.
Photo by Camiloboterocarrizosa
Do you have some proper roads for driving? Can you tell me something about them?
Unfortunately no, the roads in here are most of them in bad conditions, which discourages super car owners to use them daily and you can also say that it is one of the causes for the “small” amount of super cars in the country. The main roads in here are full of corners which won’t let you drive at high-speed and traffic jams occur frequently. The roads that may be proper for driving fast (which are outside the urban areas) are full of holes that may damage the car and many times the police does many checkpoints in this kind of roads to prevent “illegal races”, so it is very hard to drive the car properly at high speeds. In the country there is only one race track called “Autodromo de Tocancipa” located near Bogota (the capital city) which is very popular both among visitors and people that “race” in the track, but it is more used for quarter mile races. However, it is said that the conditions of it might be much better.
Does Colombia has big car-events?
Yes, few but it does have. Every year the “Salon Internacional del Automovil Bogota” (Bogota International Auto Show) is held in the capital city where car makers present the new models that arrive to the country. Also a Councours D´Elegance Is held in Medellin every year which attracts both classic and modern cars, people from all over the country and also international judges and visitors. There was also an event similar to the Bogota Car Show called “expomotriz” held in Medellin, but it seemed to disappear.
What do you expect the coming years? Do you think there will change much in comparison with the current situation? Do you expect more exclusive cars?
We expect a huge change in the amount of super cars, especially with the arrival of many super cars in the last few years that encourage people to buy one. This change has been being visible in the last 2-5 years, when some cars like Ferrari 458 Italia, Audi R8, Nissan GT-R, Bentley Continental GT Speed, Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder and some others entered the country in what we consider “big” amounts (about 2 to 6). Also Maserati opened a dealership in Bogota and the growing economy of the country made possible the increase in cars that were previously “rare”, like AMG´s and BMW MPower, and specially Porsche. Previously seeing a Porsche was almost the same thing as seeing a Ferrari nowadays, but today at least 1 Porsche is sold every 3 days. At the moment there are more than 50 Porsche in the country that include about 5 GT3, 2 GT2 and more than 4 Turbo S. Last month, a Carrera GTS and Targa 4 arrived to the country, which shows the growing success of Porsche on the last few years.
Between last year and the current year some super cars like a McLaren 650S Spider and 2 Mercedes-AMG GT S arrived to the country, and the most important new is the opening of a Ferrari dealership in Bogota this month , which made possible the entrance of 3 458 (Speciale and 2 Spider) and 2 California T. We hope that this encourages other car makers like Lamborghini (only 2 in the country, both Gallardo Spyders) to expand their markets to Colombia and also that this makes possible a huge increase of the number of Ferrari in the country. At the moment we consider the only 599 GTO in the country as the most exclusive super car here, followed by an Aston Martin DBS, a Rolls-Royce Ghost and an SLS AMG.
Maybe you can tell us something about cool projects you are working on with Colombia?
We want to go further on just taking pictures around the country and going to car events. Last month, we organized an event in my local city Medellin, we managed to gather the best car of city (Ferrari 458 Italia, Lamborghini Gallardo Spider and two Testarossa…) and the event became popular. It is called “Meet N´ Drive” and we expect to make it at least twice a year. People loved it and both participants and visitors are constantly asking “When are you doing another?”. Our goal are to make the biggest and most famous event in the country, also to gather all the best cars of the country in one place and make a rally between cities.
We are also planning some photo contest and raffles with nice awards, some “specials” like TOP 15 cars in here and stuff like that.
Met dank aan Exotics Colombia
