Photos by Zerin Dube & Carl Modesette

We’re back from the 2010 North American International Auto Show and have our photo galleries setup for you.  While the show is entirely too big to photograph EVERY vehicle there, we captured all the new product that the manufacturers showed off.  We hope you enjoy the photos!

2010 NAIAS photo gallery after the jump…

Continue reading S:S:L Event Coverage – 2010 NAIAS Mega Photo Gallery

Photos by Zerin Dube and Carl Modesette

Full Gallery links are coming!

“Imagine a world,” the soft-spoken, rather anonymous man from Toyota said, “where you wake up to find that every car has disappeared.” His meandering, rather confused speech, which touched on everything from fuel cells to “Super Mario 3″, was simply a roundabout way to introduce a junior Prius. Nevertheless, the concept of a world without cars was clearly on everyone’s mind this week.

The twin spectres of an energized Brussels and a pressure-sensitive Obama administration made NAIAS 2010 the least product-oriented Detroit show in recent memory. It’s worth noting that, although the auto industry was suffering near-unprecedented turmoil last year, there was enough product in the pipeline to keep things interesting. What we are seeing now is the aftershock of the financial earthquake. The three performance-oriented introductions — CTS-V Coupe, Mustang 5.0, and Regal GS — were permitted to sink beneath the waves of endless battery-powered concepts and we-swear-this-hybrid-badge-is-legit pretenders like the Volkswagen NCC. The companies which are receiving government aid clearly feel compelled to pander to the panjandrums’ demand for alternative powerplants, while the ones which aren’t are afraid to display even a smidgen of exuberance. Ford went so far as to schedule an enthusiast-media intro for the fabulous new five-liter ‘Stang weeks before the actual show, presumably to avoid having to reveal a four-hundred-and-twelve-horse car before the oh-so-judgmental eyes of the mainstream press.

Take the GMC Granite — please. Is anybody asking for a pint-sized GMC? Are consumers interested in a vehicle which stretches GMC’s already ill-defined brand-image that far? If there are any such consumers, they are likely sitting behind a desk in Washington, D.C. Perhaps the men at the Renaissance Center are afraid that GMC will not be permitted to operate freely unless the requisite three thousand pounds of compact flesh are publicly sacrificed. Across the aisle, the impressive Cadillac XTS Platinum was self-consciously described as a plug-in. Does anyone seriously believe that the next full-sized Cadillac will be delivered as a plug-in? This is Soviet-era thinking, dressing up the unacceptably luxurious in state-approved low-power togs and hoping for the best.

Continue reading NAIAS 2010: Shhh…We’re Building Cars

GM is continuing their streak of hot rod new models with the unveiling of the Buick Regal GS which will make its world debut at the 2010 North American International Auto Show next week.  Sized just below the LaCrosse sedan, the Regal is roughly the size of the Lexus IS, BMW 3-series and Audi A4. 

Though being called just a show car right now, every bit of the Regal GS would be easy to put into production since it is largely a carryover of the high performance European Opel Insignia OPC.  One big differentiation between the Buick and the Opel is that the Regal GS is powered by a turbocharged Ecotec 2.0L four-cylinder which makes 255 horsepower rather than the 325 horsepower 2.8L turbocharged V6 found in the Insignia.   The engine is mated to a six-speed manual transmission which transmits power to all four wheels via a Haldex AWD system. 

For more in-depth details, hit the jump.  We’ll have full coverage and photos from Cobo Hall starting on Monday January 11th.

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Continue reading 2010 NAIAS Preview – Buick Regal GS Show Car

Cadillac has been winning the hearts of the S:S:L staff here lately with the fantastic CTS, CTS-V and SRX models they’ve brought to market over the last couple of years.  Cadillac is expanding their already great product portfolio for 2010 with the 2011 CTS Coupe which was shown at the LA Auto Show, and this new CTS-V Coupe variant which will debut next week at the 2010 Detroit Auto Show. 

While we have seen the CTS-V sedan (and Jack Baruth) in action on the race track, the CTS-V Coupe takes that same pavement shredding performance and packages it in a sexier body.  The rear track has been widened by an inch over the sedan, but most everything else is a carryover from the sedan model.  Power of course comes from the 556-horsepower supercharged LSA V8, mated to either a six-speed manual or an automatic transmission. 

Pricing has not been announced yet, but Cadillac promises the CTS-V Coupe will be showing up at dealers in the early Summer.  Look for continued coverage of the 2010 Detroit Auto Show here next week as our crack team hits the grounds of Cobo Hall on Monday January 11th. 

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It’s no secret that we are big fans of the refreshed Ford Mustang here at Speed:Sport:Life. Nor are we alone: the vast majority of the automotive press has awarded the 2010 Mustang first place in the revitalized ponycar wars. The common theme among many reviewers is that the Mustang’s light weight, manageable size, and obsessive detailing are enough to overlook the relatively uncompetitive engine choices.

For the 2011 model year, those caveats are history. We’ve already shared the details on the variable-valve-timed, 300-plus-horsepower 2011 Mustang V6 with you, and now we are free to tell what has been the worst-kept secret in the industry: the five-liter Mustang is back, and it’s pissed off.

Continue reading 2010 NAIAS Preview: 2011 Ford Mustang GT – The 5.0 is back

We’re just a few weeks away from the 2010 North American International Auto Show in Detroit and we’re starting to get our first glimpses of what the manufacturers will be showing off at the show.  In the case of MINI, it’s the wacky Beachcomber Concept which appears to be half Jeep, half Cooper.  MINI has fitted the Beachcomber Concept with an off-road suspension and tires which they say is “ideal for a spontaneous and active experience.”  We’re not exactly sure what that really means, but we do know that the Beachcomber Concept features a new all-wheel drive system called ALL4, which we’re sure will make its way down through the rest of MINI’s lineup.  MINI doesn’t go into a great deal of detail about the rest of the Beachcomber Concept’s features other than the vehicle was designed without doors or a conventional roof since they “limit the intensity of the occupant’s encounter with their surrounding world.” 

We’re not sure who gets paid to write these press releases, but we are sure that the MINI Beachcomber Concept is one ugly looking vehicle.  Look for the crack S:S:L team of Jack Baruth, Suzanne Denbow, Zerin Dube, Byron Hurd, and Carl Modesette to be bringing you photos and coverage live from the 2010 NAIAS floor starting January 11th.

Check out the full gallery of MINI Beachcomber Concept photos after the jump.

Continue reading 2010 NAIAS Preview: MINI Beachcomber Concept

By Byron Hurd

GM’s press conference on Sunday was not the most depressing of the day’s events (See: Chrysler), but it certainly wasn’t the most inspiring either. Wagoner’s communications team set him up with a healthy four hundred words that had nothing to do with GM’s financial trouble. Now that’s a solid corporate communications strategy when everything is business as usual, but when you’ve just been floated a loan by some 300 million of your peers, a little humility may be in order. (See: Chrysler — sensing a pattern?). But while ChryCo’s conference may have been the most depressing of the bunch, it was the non-event that was Pontiac’s presence at NAIAS that depressed, disturbed, and frankly offended me as both an enthusiast and as “member” of the press. If you’ve ever shown up to a party where you’re surrounded by dozens of people who were your friends just days before and suddenly don’t want to talk to you, look at you, acknowledge you, or even share the same hundred-square foot area of their apartment, then you know what it’s like to be Pontiac. You don’t know what you did (or didn’t do), but suddenly you’re the fattest, pinkest, most foul-smelling elephant ever to be under the table.

Continue reading Lord Byron — Pontiac (Was) Car.