Odds and sods at the 2011 Melbourne Motor Show

A motor show's not just about supercars, concepts, new models and million-dollar exotica. Here's a round-up of the items on display at this year's show that don't quite fit anywhere else.

Much like its stand at the Sydney show last year, Ford has plenty of activities to entertain those weary from a hard day of tyre kicking. There's a cinema that's beamed into the front seat of a new Ford Focus, a machine that allows you to, effectively, arm wrestle the new Ford Ranger's engine and a safety simulator, amongst other things.

But the most fun we had was at the Scalextric track that featured four shrunken versions of the new Focus. And the arm for grabbing marooned cars off the track is pretty cool, too.

The company hopes to build a supercar for Australia. The car on display, with car bra and shape hiding white triangles, though, isn't the final production car. Rather, it's a slightly smaller version that's been produced for tuning the car's aerodynamics.

The company is proud of its unique drivetrain layout, encompassing a boxer engine and four-wheel drive system. So much so that it had a naked drivetrain on display.

The "car" on display isn't a fully working model, rather it features the body shell, wheels and addenda used by one of the cars competing in the Japanese Super GT racing series.

Racing under the Legacy badge (Australia is the only country to call Subaru's mid-size car Liberty), the B4 GT300 has a 2-litre turbocharged boxer engine with over 220kW, a six-speed sequential transmission and all-wheel drive. With a low, wide body and race-ready interior, the race cars weigh around 1250kg.

Part of a road safety initiative between the Wiggles and Volkswagen, this first generation New Beetle cabriolet probably won't pass road safety regulations with its pillow-like wheel covers.

This rather banged up CT200h was raced by Brian McFadden, he of Australia's Got Talent and Delta Goodrem fame, at the celebrity race prelude to this year's Australian F1 Grand Prix.

According to Lexus, the race car features the same hybrid drivetrain as road-going CT200h models. Changes from the road car include the fitment of a roll cage, a racing harness for the driver and a more easily accessible kill switch for the electrical system.

Watching cars get smashed up, in a controlled environment, naturally, is a secret joy of ours. At this year's motor show, Volvo has obliged with an electric C30 hatchback that's been rendered unusable after road safety testing.

As the accompanying mirror and video attest, the car's electric undercarriage is barely affected by the car's head-on smash.

Buried up the back of the exhibition hall, past a collection of award-winning classic cars, is a sparse stand to promote Kumho's latest range of low rolling resistance "eco" tyres.

If anyone can tell us how the lady manages to sit like this with no visible seat, we'd greatly appreciate it.