What I
Did On My
Winter Vacation
(by Competition Chairman, Chris Brewer)
I thought I would tell everyone what I did for winter vacation since I flaked on Jay and didn’t submit an article for the February edition of Fast Times. I will provide a little something for the newsletter from now on. For now here is a little some thing to make all you gear heads a little jealous.
If you didn’t already know, I have been engaged to a lovely woman named Sarah for quite some time (seven years unofficially). In February, we traveled to Chicago to make it all legal. Upon arriving at our hotel, I picked up one of the “what’s going on” booklets that grace all hotel nightstands and lo and behold the Chicago Auto Show was in town that very week. I swear I did not plan our wedding around the car show. Monday morning arrived and I boarded a bus that took me to the McCormick Place convention center where I paid $10 to enter the new car "mecca." The car show itself takes place in the main exhibit hall that is 1.2 million square feet (yes, million--27.54 acres!). There was every thing from economical Kia’s to the hottest new concepts.
I saw the new Camaro, Challenger, and the Mustang GT500KR. As a competitor to these three, Hyundai brought their Genesis coupe concept. The production car will feature rear wheel drive and a 300hp V-6. Reportedly, the M3 was their benchmark. Cadillac had the new 2009 550hp CTS-V. I began to wonder if this was 2008 or 1968.
The show is so large that Chrysler had not one, but two large off-road tracks inside the building where potential buyers could see the capabilities of both the Jeeps and Dodge trucks. Toyota had a wall of Scions stacked three high and four wide. A different tuner shop using TRD parts had modified each of the cars. The Toyota booth itself had a full motion NASCAR simulator to highlight their involvement in the sport. Also featured was a Prius decked out for the Bonneville Salt Flats.
At the Subaru and Mitsubishi displays, potential owners could climb into full motion Gran Tourismo driving simulators. Sony produced these specifically so that the new STI and EVO can be “test driven” on track. Pastrana’s new rally car was on display along with a video of his performance at the 2007 X-Games. Nissan, of course, had the new GT-R front and center. Let me tell you this car looks just as impressive as it does in the magazines.
Finally I strolled through the vendor’s area. It was there that I found a large display from the Chicago Region of the SCCA. They featured cars from each type of racing that the SCCA sanctions in the area; autocross, Indy, club racing and vintage road racing. All of their events were listed and they had in-car video footage running. The neatest thing was the Sunbeam Tiger that was on display.
I had a great time at the show and my only regret is that I could only spend one day at the show. Many of you may be asking "what about the wedding"? Wel,l it was great and we are very happy. I tried to talk Sarah into saying our vows at the Mini Cooper booth, but for some reason that didn’t go over very well. She probably thought I would be looking at the new Coopers instead of her. Sarah, if you read this I promise the wedding was the best part of our trip;-)
I hope you enjoy the pictures.