Just thought I'd share a few experiences from the Sacramento Auto Show going on this weekend (Nov. 11-14, '05) at Cal Expo.

To start off with, I was excited to find that they had a downloadable PDF coupon on their web site (http://www.sacautoshow.com), good for $2 off the $8 admission price. But shocked - shocked, I tell you! - when I got there and discovered they were charging $7 for parking.

They were promoting the additions of a Rod & Custom display, a Harley display, some exotics (Lambos, Ferraris, etc.), historic cars from the Towe Auto Museum, and such, but I was disappointed in these. There were only four customs - nice ones, but still only four. A local Harley dealer brought some bikes and set them up in a corner of one of the buildings. (*Yawn*) Infineon Raceway had a few dragsters on display. No "real" race cars, the kind that steer. And no information about driver's schools or anything like that. (*Yawn*) The Towe Museum had a few cars - three or four maybe? One of them was a panel truck that had been used by Ford as a traveling training center, that went around to dealerships back in the 30s, delivering service bulletins and teaching the mechanics how to use special tools, etc. (I thought this was one of the cooler things there. Forerunner of the Snap-On truck.) There was also the green Jag XKR convertible that the bad guy drove in the James Bond movie "Die Another Day" - the one that had the gatling gun that popped up behind the seats. Pretty cool looking at this and realizing it was the actual movie car - it was a little beat up with dents in the bumpers, etc.

The rest of the show was just dealers showing off new cars. No concept cars, no pre-release models, just a big auto-mall. Oh, well. I did get to see most of the cars on my list. One glaring exception was a Mazda RX-8. I have no idea why they didn't have one there. I probably should have asked.

But I did get to see several other cars I was looking forward to seeing in the flesh. The new C6 Corvette is very beautiful. I am one of those people who really likes the C5s and I wasn't sure how I would react to the changes I'd heard they've made. But up close, wow, they really did it right. It's 5 inches shorter and 1 inch narrower, but it looks a lot smaller. The big slab rear-end (which I always loved because it reminded me of the old birdcage Maseratis) has been narrowed and sculpted a bit. I was driving next to a C5 on the way home from the show, and I had to admit - the C6 looks better.

The new Mustang was there. I haven't seen one on the street yet, so I was looking forward to that, too. I'm not a Mustang fan - I haven't liked Mustangs since the GT 500 KRs came out - what was that? 1968? - but I must say the designers did a very nice job of echoing the "snout" and taillight shapes of the original Mustang. Kind of paying homage to the car that started it all, while definitely keeping it a "new" Mustang. The whole look works very well. (On the other hand, I was expecting to be "knocked out" by it and I wasn't. It doesn't look as good to me as the pictures I've seen!) An all black T-Bird was nearby - with a nice cloth tonneau cover that appealed to the long-time British car fan in me - and seeing the Mustang and the T-Bird near each other, with their combination of new and old styling, was very satisfying.

I went looking for the Prius. Toyota had one whole side of one of the buildings. (How many different SUVs do these guys make?!) I thought, man, how am I going to find the Prius? Then I realized it was very obvious where the Prius was - there was a knot of people over at one end of the hall. Sure enough, that was where the Prius was. Interesting group of people, too. All males, many of them asking very "techie" questions of the guy there. He seemed to have the answers, too, as far as I could tell. I was surprised how roomy the Prius is inside, and I was curious to see how good the view out the back was. I think it shouldn't be too bad trying to parallel park this thing - certainly easier than my wife's Volvo C70 convertible! The guy said that Toyota is going to be coming out with this hybrid technology in one of their SUVs later this year. I don't remember the exact figure he said, but the gas motor is going to be 200-and-something HP. I was surprised at the idea of combining a big gas engine with the electric thing, but then thought, hey, why not? A couple of other things that surprised me were how bare the cockpit was. There's basically a little stalk on the dash for "D-N-R" and a big green (green - get it?) "power" button. I was also surprised to see that the cost was about the same as my MCS I have on order - between $23k and $24k. I have no idea how much dealers are marking these up, but I'll bet it's a lot!

In the way of exotics, there was a dealer from Silicon Valley who had a couple of Ferraris, a Bentley, a Rolls, don't recall what else, really. There was supposed to be a Lamborgini, but instead they brought a Lotus Elise! (Just my lucky day, I guess!) Wow - what a cutie! I didn't realize these were even street legal in the US! Later, I checked and found that the MSRP on these is only $44k or so. (Again, what's the markup on one of these???) If you think the MINI is small, you gotta see one of these up close. And I think we'd be wise not to talk about our cars having go-cart handling if there's an Elise owner nearby! And I'm thinking my MINI is a little impractical, but oh, my - I'm not sure the Elise even has a place to store a clean pair of underpants. (And you might be needing them in an 1800cc car that goes 0-60 in under 5 secs!)

Oh - also saw a Crossfire convertible. Very attractive with the top down. (Haven't seen one with the top up.) Sometimes taking a car with such a distinctively styled roof and turning it into a convertible goes badly, but I think this came out very well. I think they did a nice job of keeping the same crazy slingshot look of the coupe.

So what about the MINIs? Niello MINI had a tiny little space with just three cars - a convertible (in that weird coppery orange color whose name I can never remember), a white MC with a black roof, and a Dark Silver and black MCS. It looked like they were trying to keep the prices down - there weren't a lot of options on any of the cars. One (the MC) had a sunroof, one had a chrono pack. No leather seats, no Nav Packs, no heated seats, no zenons, no HK sound systems. Or maybe it was just what the dealer had handy at the time. And of course no mention of the $2500 dealer markup. (I didn't ask they guy, either.)

Anyway, the cool thing about the MINI display was that it was by far the most fun place in the whole show to watch people. A lot of laughing, people having fun. There was one family, with a daughter who looked like she was college-aged. I think they might have been shopping for graduation present. She was almost jumping up and down, she was so excited about the dark silver MCS. "But don't you like the convertible?" he dad asked. "No, daddy. I like this one! Isn't it cute! Daddy, you have to sit in it! It looks so little from the outside, but when you get inside of it, there's lots of room." At this point, her younger brother stepped out of the driver's side and shook his head. "That's weird - how did they do that? You gotta get in, Dad."

There were people of every age - even little kids - loving the MINIs. Senior citizens going, "Hey, I can actually get in and out of this!" Preschoolers wondering if it was supposed to be a real car or a toy. (The giant traffic cone helped foster this confusion.) And I heard a surprising number of people reminiscing about the original Mini. I talked with a guy who had owned one when he was stationed in Europe with the military. Heard a kid probably in his 20s talking about a neighbor who had one when he was growing up.

I spent a lot of time sitting in them, trying to satisfy this horrible craving I've got. (My car is somewhere on the Atlantic right now.) I'm thinking more and more I made some very good decisions. I really like the Space Grey/Panther interior, which the MCS had. I don't particularly like the alloy patina (too funky looking) or anthracite interior finishes (to dark), so I'm going to be very happy with the silver. It'll go well with the silver seat panels. And I like the Chrono pack, with the extra gauges and the speedo on the steering column. This doesn't make sense to me, but I went back and forth between the cars, adjusting the seats and steering columns, and for some reason, the tops of the speedo and tach seem to be easier to see through the wheel than when the tach is there by itself. And I can't imagine not having a sunroof!

The MINI booth wasn't giving away much in the way of goodies. (The only booth that was giving out lots of stuff was Scion - CDs, key rings, etc.) But I picked up the Motoring Games Official Rulebook slidewheel, a "Manual of Motoring," and the "Book of Motoring (abridged)." These last two still had the tabs attached for binding into magazines, so I guess they were leftovers. Also got a "Let's Enjoy The Smell Of Our Car" thing, that looks like one of those pine trees you hang from your rearview mirror. It's shaped like a MINI and says "unscented" on it. My daughter - whose sense of humor is usually very quick and subtle - thought this was dumb, but I liked it. I think it fits right in with the slightly twisted humor in all the other MINI promotional stuff.

On the way out to my car, all of a sudden it hit me - I was going to have to drive home in my minivan. Damn! I wish Tillie would get here!

 

After I posted my message, I realized I didn't mention the Ford GT-40! Wow! I saw one of the original LeMans cars back when I was a teenager - they had one going around the country, spending a few days at various dealers. Always thought that was one of the most beautiful race cars ever made, right up there with the D-types. The new street version is absolutely gorgeous. The did a great job of keeping the look of the original. The interior is a disappointment, though. I'm sure they were going for "stark" or "functional" or something, but it just doesn't work. A piece of spun aluminum with chrome gauges (like the original) would have been a lot cooler IMHO.

There were also a few cars from the last Serrano concours, including a real 427 Cobra. God, I could look at those all day!

It wasn't a great car show, but I felt like I got my money's worth.

 

I used to live near Sac. And I enjoyed the show for one main reason: its not crowded relative to other car shows. So you're free to actually get near a car and even sit in one


I went to the BC car show last year and they had a decent MINI display although, if i remember correctly, it was harder to gain access to the cars and was much more crowded. The minis seemed to be popular at both shows though. They seem to be the kind of car people enjoy getting close to and sitting in. Theyre 'personable' cars :smile:

 

if you guys ever interested, you can come to Atlanta. We have been have the lotus on our autox course for almost 7 month now.

there are couple of them show up for BMWCCA too.

about the MINI display?? we have average 12-15MINIs in autox every events!
convertable coming soon!

just wondering, did they show the new Chrysler ME yet?

 

No way - this was mainly an automall. Pretty boring.