You’re asking what is the Washington DC Auto Show, “one of the world’s largest and most celebrated automotive expos” (according to show chairperson Jamshyd W “Jamie” Darvish), really like?
Like Washington, well like the rest of the USA really, it’s generally depressing with a few bright spots. What you’re watching at the 213,670sq m Walter E. Washington Convention Centre are the dying days of the motor show. Frankfurt has gone, Geneva is on the way out, New York has been cancelled for two years in a row, Detroit moved to a private racetrack, Europe’s first big motor show in two years was outdoors in Munich and featured heart-stopper panel discussions like “Decarbonising the Automotive Supply Chain” and “Challenge of the Christian Worldview in the Age of Digitalisation”. Final proof the world is stuffed.
This is not about Covid. This is about falling attendances before the virus that dare not speaks its name when you cough and sneeze standing next to a stranger in a lift. This is about a combination of digital, of electric sustainability and of carmakers staging the same, tired, indoor events for 128 years. Mick tells me that the world’s first motor show, the Internationale de Velocipidie et de Locomotion Automobile, was a hoot: “Johnny, it followed the world’s first car race where we had 102 entrants.”
“All the great brands were there. Peugeot, Panhard et Levassor, Benz, Le Brun and most of the petrol-powered cars ran Daimler engines. There were a couple of electric cars entered but of course they didn’t turn up. And what about the gravity, electro-pneumatic, high-pressure gas and the first hybrid, Pete de Prandieres’ steam and petrol hybrid-powered machines? Look I was co-driver with Marquis Jules Felix Philippe Albert de Dion de Wandonne (we called him Count Bert) in his De Dion-Bouton and to show you nothing’s changed, we won but got disqualified because not only was I navigating, I was also stoking the boiler!”
Of course, the old bloke doesn’t mention that just like in Targa Tasmania and the other events where we share the wheel, he got Bert a bit lost. At Igoville, just near the finish line, the de Dion took a wrong turn and ran into a potato field but still won (unlike us).
Talking of alternative fuels, good to see John Andrew Henry Forrest buying one of the Williams (as in F1 Williams) companies. Maybe we’ll see the Anaconda hydrogen-powered racing team in Twiggy racing machines in the 2023 season.
So, back in Washington the auto show (closes this Sunday) is spread over parts of two floors with lots of vacant space not that subtly hidden. It is like being in a dealer showroom with even less atmosphere. Event highlights for me were the Toyota and Nissan trivia quizzes, the nine-dollar luxury hot dogs and the department store layout that meant you had to walk to the end of the hall then back again to get out. A lot of major brands sensibly decided not to front. Toyota, Ford and Chev dominated with Stellantis (“one fast year down and a bright future ahead” making some pretty ordinary cars) down the back near the nine dollar hot dog stand.
Two cars made it worth the $16 entry. You all know the 2022 Chev Corvette was one. Four on display. You could sit in three so naturally I elbowed my way past the kiddies in the queue and dropped into the Napa leather GT2 seats, immersing myself in the fighter jet-inspired cockpit, with the dash swirling towards me with a luxurious combination of technology and craftsmanship. A bit like my Holden SSV ute. Anyway, a number of you have told me you’ve had trouble getting your hands on one so good news from Melbourne reader Philip, who says the Chev dealer told him this week with real excitement “I’ve found one for you … $180k drive away”. Philip signed up and then the dealer said: “Delivery 2026.”
The other was the much-maligned Lexus RC F in the Fuji Speedway Edition. This is a step up on the RC that’s available in Australia for $200k, which is way too much to pay. The very much better and more beautiful Fuji Speedway is $150k in the US, about $70k more than the Corvette and a Porker. At a lower price in both markets, this would be a great car for the more mature but still serious petrol head.
A car for all you Saturday Night Fever fans out there. The original Cizeta-Moroder prototype and show car, chassis 001 that goes over the blocks on Thursday at RM Sotheby’s Arizona auction. I’ll be there with a Gregory Peck for a mill and change in my hand, getting it on to Donna Summer crooning “Love to Love You Baby” (way to make a fortune: write “I love to love you, baby” 23 times).
Now this is not the one if you have sustainability tendencies and you’re into mobility vs driving. Nup, the CM supercar has 16 big cylinders blasting it to 328km/h while hitting 100km/h in just four seconds (not as fast as the Corvette but quicker than the Lexus). Anyway, the plan was to sell them for just under a mill new. Twelve were built, but this is the only genuine patriarch of disco model available.
Buy this and by next Saturday, you and your loved ones will be in the big shoes, the bell bottoms, the chest hair, the skin-tight spandex, the tube tops and the sparkle. Just imagine how the non-male persons will dress.
Good to see Rocket Rod Sims get a gong this week for his work on Mazda. Rod has worked hard to help buyers even though our regulations and laws protect dud carmakers. Of course, as we’ll see next week there’s more to do.
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