NYC Auto Show

Big cha-ching for lots of bling

April, 2006

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It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that bling: drop top Bently at the Auto Show. This car is giga-bucks!

The Trip

Every year the auto show comes to the Javitts Center. This year, since we were in town, we decided to check it out. It rained hard all day and we were essentially soaked by the time we got from Tribeca to mid-town. The place was pretty crowded, but most of the folks were civil. There were tons of cars on display, only a few were interesting to me. Most cars pale in the face of my M5 or Kathleen's 330Ci, but there we a few that caught our eye.

A Toyota concept car. Both of us doubted that there was a motor in the chassis. Ability to run notwithstanding, it was a cool concept. Note that the passenger's seat rotates to the outside. This unit is right hand drive.

Odd doors an/or extrance-exit methods seemed to dominate the theme of the show.

Here is some serious metal. This is a Porche Carerra GT, one of the fastest cars on the planet. One of these hit the wall at California Speedway the week before we had a class there killing both occupants on the spot. The club thinks that they hit the wall at over 100 mph.

Oh, yeah. This was popular. And, for only $350K, it can be yours!

Another serious piece of metal. This is a Porche Carerra 4 coupe. The stated top speeds and accelerations are less than my M5. Don't get me wrong, Porche makes fine automobiles, but there is no room for groceries in this rig.

Oh, gag me with a soiled pair of Daisy Dukes. Plymouth had this ripoff of the dukes of hazzard, complete with a Jessica Simpson look-alike bimbo pitching it.

New BMW Z4 roadster. Interesting lines, but if you were going for small, might as well get the Porche.

BMW's formula car.

The bad light does not do justice to the beautiful colors of this drop-top M3 with the rust colored leather interior. This car rocks: it is very sexy, very fast and not that expensive given what you are getting.

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SL600 with a blown V12 motor. The pinnacle of the "vanity ride".

Saab's offering at the temple of odd ingress and egress. The entire top of the car pivots up.

Ford GT. This car is race-bred and very powerful.

Another view of the drop-top Bentley.

This was a Spyder. Another example of odd ingress-egress.

The best for last. There were these pair of Lambo's next to the exit door.

Another view of the Lambos.

The show was moderately interesting. Given that both Kathleen and I have semi-exotic cars, most of the stuff at the show was not that interesting, but it was still worth a trip.

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