2004 North America International Auto Show

These pics were taken in Detroit, Michigan (and Canada) on January 11, 2004.

Once again i flew up to Detroit to hang out with Derek and see the Auto Show. We spent the first night playing poker with the crew (it's a tradition). Then we went to Canada for the night. Friends, it's my sad duty to report that Canada has indeed jumped the shark. First, the Bad Hare was sold, and is now called The Beach. Not Cool. There weren't nearly as many bad hares there as last time.

Then we went to the car show. There were lots of cool things to see this year. The most anticipated car was probably the new Vette, but I saw plenty that was more interesting. Mercedes had the new R-Class. BMW had the 6-series, a car that I would seriously consider buying. Porsche showed a brilliant silver Carrera GT. Audi had the Le Mans concept, and the new A8 with their 12-cylinder engine. Ferrari's 612 Scaglietti was insanely cool.

Funny story about the 6...I was sitting in the driver's seat for a while taking a look at everything. I decided to see how the rear seats compared to my CLK, since I'm thinking about replacing the CLK with a new Coupe. So I get out and go over to the passenger side, to let someone else sit in the driver's seat. I push the passenger seat forward and get in, pulling the passenger seat shut as I entered. So there I am sitting in the back seat, pretty comfortably. So I lean out and tell Derek "Hey, you really can fit people back here!". So some guy comes up and sits in the passenger seat in front of me. He pushes the seat way back, crushing my knees, and leans back and says "How does it feel now, eh?" in some accent that I couldn't place. Well, I couldn't tell if he was joking or not, so I just said "It's ok, but I wouldn't want to be back here long", all the while thinking that he was being a jerk. Then he pushes the seat all the way up, crushing his own knees, and he mumbles something else to me. I was thinking "Ok dude, lemme out now". He quickly gets out and runs away with his friend. So I get out and explain the whole thing to Derek, who just busts out laughing. Some people are just weird, I guess.

There were quite a few Formula 1 cars on display as well. In addition to the usual Jaguar, there was a BMW-Williams and a Ferrari on dispay. This was the car that Michael Schumacher used to win the F1 Championship last year (2003).

But the hands down Best in Show was a real masterpiece. It was also the first thing I saw when I walked into the place. Three letters for you: S - L - R. The Mclaren-Mercedes is simply amazing. Mercedes had flown in two Mclaren mechanics for the show, and I think I spent about 20 minutes with them getting questions answered. It was a really cool experience.

Oh yeah, and then we went to a Pistons game. They beat the Mavericks.

One more thing, here's a pic of the Detroit skyline as seen from Canada.