Two of the great things about Detroit are that a) the traffic's not bad and b) rarely if ever does it smell like a barnyard. Except on the eve of the 2008 Detroit Auto Show I was stuck in traffic caused by a string of police-escorted trailer trucks packed with steer, heading downtown in preparation for their appearance at the reveal of Dodge's new Ram. We're serious here. But more on that tomorrow...
I, on the other hand was headed down to the GM Style event to see Kid Rock, who looks as if he might smell like a truck-load of steer but probably doesn't. General Motors, in an obvious attempt to appear less stodgy, created Style last year, as an odd melange of lesser celebrities (Christian Slater, really?) and concept cars. This year, GM left most of the B-listers at home and brought instead musical acts instead (also in attendance were Mary J. Blige and Maroon 5) to add a soundtrack to the human and vehicle models rolling down the catwalk.
But the night belonged to Kid Rock, who might have mentioned once or twice before that he is in fact from Detroit, and the Corvette ZR1. This was the first public showing of the ZR1, and GM pulled out the stops by having Jeff Gordon drive it out on to a turntable that then rose majestically over the crowd.
GM head ex-Marine, tough-talker Bob Lutz was so moved by this display (and maybe by what the scantily clad models were displaying) that he busted a move right there in his front-row seat next to Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick who was resplendent in a black and white fedora. Kilpatrick, in fact, raised his hands in the air and swung them like he just don't care.
But then as the sage Kid Rock noted: "We get loud in Dee-troit. That's what we do. We get loud." Indeed. -- Daniel Pund, Senior Editor, Dee-troit
daytona_500 says:
09:18 PM, 01/12/08
Jeff Gordon? I would have thought they would get Jimmie Johnson, considering he was the 2007 champion.
But Gordon is still the real 2007 champion to me.
dvsutton says:
11:29 PM, 01/12/08
I always look forward to the Detroit show. It has the pizzaz and the cars to back it up. Although I would call the Chcago show larger, bigger doesn't always mean better. NY would be next. LA is a yawner.
estreka says:
06:54 AM, 01/13/08
It's interesting how they go from ho-hum fashion show to "hm, ho?" fasion show.
ateixeira says:
08:56 AM, 01/14/08
Well, at least the product they introduced had real substance.