THE glamour of Formula One racing has arrived in style in Basingstoke’s Festival Place shopping centre with the grand opening of a car showroom.

Attracting plenty of attention from shoppers was a Lotus Renault GP F1 car on display at the Martins Renault Festival Place Showroom, on the upper level by Bhs.

The shop unit is the latest addition to the company, which has its main base at Martins Renault Basingstoke, in London Road, Hatch, near Old Basing, along with sites at Winnall, in Winchester and Andover.

Pleased with shoppers’ reaction to the showroom, dealer principal Sarah Martin said: “The footfall has been very good which is great as this is all about an awareness campaign for Martin Renault.

“We’ve found from feedback that because we are out at Hatch, a lot of people don’t know we are there.”

She said in its first 10 days of opening, more than 30 test drives had been booked and that a lot of people had popped into the showroom while out shopping to arrange for their car to be serviced.

The decision to open the showroom on a short-term lease in the shopping centre is a result of the company’s good relationship with Festival Place.

“For the moment, we have taken a six-month lease and then will appraise as to whether we will stay here,” said Sarah.

“We work very closely with Festival Place and we’ve supported a lot of their activities, such as having the F1 car in for Father’s Day and supporting their fashion events.”

Sarah added: “We were chatting with members of the Festival Place team one day and they asked if we had ever thought about opening a shop here in the centre.

“We went away, thought about it and six months later we thought: ‘well, actually that sounds like a good idea’.”

Upbeat about business, Sarah said: “Like everywhere, it is challenging which is why you have to come up with new ideas – that’s what it is all about.

“We are trying to be forward thinking because you need to be and you have got to take cars where people want to see them, and this is a good place to do that.”

Among those impressed with the showroom is Basingstoke and Deane Mayor Councillor David Leeks, who officially opened the showroom at a launch event last week.

He described having a car showroom, complete with Renault F1 accessories, such as watches, T-shirts and kit bags, in a shopping centre as an innovative idea.

Cllr Leeks said: “In these difficult financial times, it is great that Martins Renault have decided to ignore all the doom and gloom and move forward with confidence for the future by doing this, and therefore they must be applauded for that.”