While Jeff, Joe, Tim and Terry were goofing off at Sears on sunday :D, We made our annual trip to the OC Autoshow. Here are some random pics I took. No rhyme or reason, just stuff I thought was interesting.

I'll keep them in their original glorious size, and stick thumbs on here, click on the thumbs to get the big ones.

Please ignore the blurry-ness of some of the pics (Jerry shaky cam^TM). I haven't figured out the settings on this camera to use when I'm taking close up pics, so some of the close pics are kind of blurry or shiny.

First up, the glorious new Cobra 'Stang. Note the giant oversized Cobra emblem on the side, and the classic GT500 white stripe down the size. It just looks awesome standing there. Note the "Power bulge" on the hood. ;)

I found this very odd. On the Z06, the latch to open the fuel cap door is inside the trunk. So you gotta open the glass hatch in the back before you can fill'er up... Weird.

Close up of LS7 V8 goodness on the vette.

My brother was checking out the specs on the Vette, and noted that somehow GM managed to squeeze better fuel mileage out of the big fat V8 in the vette than Audi from his S4's V8. In fact, there weren't many cars there not named Ferrari or Lamborghini that didn't get better mileage than my brother's S4. hee. He was not pleased. :)

The new Aston Martin V8 Vantage.

The new Lambo Murcielago LP640.. note the rectangular exhaust vs the dual round exhaust on the regular Murcie... I'm talking about the car, not the girl Finn. :P

New Gallardo Spyder

Something for you Dodge fans... the concept for the new Challenger due out in 08 I think?

Now we're getting down to business, Audi FSI V10 S8 ... :drool:


I could live in the interior, it's probably bigger and nicer than most one bedroom studio apartments in LA. ha

If I decide to put the ol' Protege 5 out to pasture, the next car is down to these 2 beauties:
Audi A3 FSI 2.0T S-Line package with DSG!!. The V6 AWD version is too fat and heavy. The 4 banger 2.0T S-Line comes with DSG, flappy paddle goodness, and is much lighter.

Or...

MazdaSpeed3 2.3Turbo (from the MazdaSpeed6). About $5000 cheaper than the A3 depending on options, but no flappy paddle DSG, comes with ol fashioned 6 speed row boat, but 263bhp. Yeah, you read that right, 263bhp in a front wheel drive car. Torque steer anyone? :P It'll blow the doors off of any WRX or GTI.

Big fat intercooler riding shotgun on the engine.

Ooo, and saw this little display at the Mazda section, had to snap it.

Random/fun stuff:
They had the new Bimmer 3 series coupe. I really like the new butt/tail lights on the coupe. It looks much better than the 4 door. It doesn't have the "Beached whale" look all the other Bangl-ized bimmers have.

Don't mess with Fast. ;)

Honda Fit. It's almost as tiny as the original 80's civics! What a funky looking thing.

Funniest moment of the day. We walked over to the Kia section (Korean automaker for you Euros, I don't think Kia is in Europe yet, is it?), and we saw the price sheet for their large sedan.... wait for it... $30,000+ ... FOR A KIA!!! AAHAHHAHAHA. We were laughing so hard, the Kia rep guy was giving us dirty looks. hee. So we left before they called security on us for making fun of their ridiculous price sheet. :P

I never though I'd say this, but I actually like something Saturn is selling. The new Sky is really nice. I prefer it over it's Pontiac twin, the Solstice. The Solstice look like it has no chin or butt. While the Sky has a big square jaw and high wheel arches. Looks like the rest of the Saturn lineup has a heavy Opel influence, which is a good move by GM.

I didn't take a pic, because there were too many people around it, but got to sit in the new Cayman. I actually prefer sitting in the Boxster. With the roof off, the Boxster feels more natural, while the Cayman is a little claustrophobic inside.

Will probably follow up in Jan with LA Autoshow pics, although I usually don't like it as much since it gets packed with people, and the automakers don't show anything cool because they save all the good stuff for the Detroit show later that spring.