Anne, Carver, and I went to the auto show yesterday afternoon. Here are some comments, in list like form:
(1) The auto show is held at McCormick Place, Chicago’s main convention center. I’ve heard that the Place hasn’t been doing so well financially, that they aren’t attracting the number of conventions they’d like, and such. I’ve now been there twice (the first time was for my “swearing in” for the Illinois bar), and I now know why it isn’t doing well. It is poorly designed. I’ll spare you the details.
(2) The show was incredibly crowded today. I guess that’s what we get for going on a Saturday afternoon.
(3) At the VW space we saw a woman and man, clearly a couple, and the woman was insisting that the man sit his ass in the passenger seat of a CC (a snazzy VW sedan) so she could take his picture. So he got in and did his best badass pose. I saw them a few minutes later at the BMW space and the woman was asking the people at the information desk if there was an X5 that was open that they could get in for pictures. I then was pretty sure that these people just went from MFG to MFG to take pictures of themselves in cars they can’t afford. Part of me wanted to scoff at such ridiculousness, but there was a time when I did the same thing.
(4) The Porsche (which is pronounced por-schuh) space was not where it was supposed to be. So I missed it, and I am pissed off about it.
(5) Some auto museum and a company that makes replicas of cars from movies had a small space. That was fun. They had a ’69 Roadrunner, and it was sweet. They also had a replica of a car from The Great Race, and I was reminded that it has been far too long since I last saw that awesome film.
(6) Toyota had this extremely lame rip-off of Stomp where the group sang about how great Toyota is. It was cringe worthy, but I felt compelled to get close and stand through the whole thing because I figured Carver would enjoy watching the action and listening to the noise.
(7) The Army had a recruiting center, including a “hiring office.” And I feel really sorry for whatever poor souls start their day thinking, “Hey, let’s go to the auto show!” and then that night are wondering how they signed their life away to the Army.
(8) The winner of Trent’s most-awesome car of the show award goes to the Mercedes Benz SLS. It’s so awesome they need to come up with another word to describe how awesome it is. Here’s a picture:
(9) While I believe that car is very beautiful, of the long-nose, short-back look of the Jaguar XKE and BMW Z8, I also recognize that I am also probably moved by nostalgia for the ’55 300SL, one of the coolest cars of all time, which can be seen here:
Yes, that’s the new ZR1 Corvette. Buy that rather than an SLS and you save a 100 grand and 500 pounds, and get an extra 150+ horsepower.
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