NAIAS in Detroit Remains a Spectacle

It’s the beginning of the New Year, and car companies are pulling out all the stops to show the world their new and innovative concepts. The 2010 North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) in Detroit is a premier event for creating buzz and AMSOIL Director of Aftermarket Products Karl Dedolph has been present to keep an eye out for upcoming and developing trends in the industry. All eyes are on Ford, General Motors and Chrysler this year, but they aren’t the only companies capitalizing on the slowly stabilizing economy. Honda, Toyota, Audi and BMW are also aiming to garner consumer attention with hybrid, electric and luxury vehicles that appeal to all ends of the consumer spectrum. With the onset of ‘going green’ in today’s market, most car manufacturers are trying to keep ahead of the curve to incorporate this theory into their design and production.

Have we finally reached the advent of the electric car era? Roger Huntington addressed the demise of the internal combustion engine in a 1969 Popular Mechanics story titled "How Far Can We Go With The Piston Engine?" The article begins like this. "An early death for the age-old internal combustion piston engine is the prediction of some people. They say the exhaust can't be cleaned up enough to meet future air-pollution and antismog laws and that we'll be running around with batteries, steam, fuel cells and atomic engines in another ten years."

Forty years later and the NAIAS gives evidence that many very smart people have spent a lot of time and money to move the auto industry in a greener direction. The degree of cleanliness in modern diesel technologies was inconceivable in 1969. But the range of alternative solutions to the internal combustion engine is also highly in evidence this week. The outcome of all this will be anyone’s guess.

This year’s NAIAS features a special section called Electric Avenue where companies large and small have electric model vehicles available for test drives around a ¼ mile indoor track. At the turn of the last century (1900) electric cars were quieter, cleaner, and offered a much more pleasant motoring experience than the alternatives. And they could run at a pretty decent clip as well. The 1899 Belgian-built La Jamais Contente was clocked at 100 km/hour (68 miles per hour), setting a world land speed record. Its gas powered counterpart was a hand-cranked contraption that smelled, vibrated a lot and made a lot of noise. La Jamais Contente, pictured here on the left, is on display in Detroit this week.

Open to the public from January 16-24 and unlike any car show you’ve ever been to, we encourage you to try and make it out to see what’s headed your way in the auto industry. AMSOIL will continue to watch these trends as they are developed and tested, utilizing shows like this one to stay ahead of the game in today’s rapidly evolving marketplace.

Dream Cars Get Dreamier With AMSOIL

You can hardly turn around without running into a car show these days it seems. This week both Houston TX and Harrisburg PA are hosting auto shows. Some very hot AMSOIL lubricated vehicles can be found at each.

But first it only seems right to highlight John Pangilinan’s Scion, which had a featured location at the king of car shows in Detroit a couple weeks back. The cobalt blue Scion first appeared at SEMA in November and was also spotted at the L.A. Auto Show later. It's one beautiful car that is catching a lot of eyeballs.

In Houston you'll see some pretty snappy AMSOIL lubed cars including this Twin Turbo Lexus IS-F put together by Fox Marketing and Artisan Performance. This subtle, yet aggressive, golden gem includes several muscular bodywork lines. The Nissan booth features another miniature miracle tuned by Artisan and Fox, a white 2008 Nissan Altima Coupe. And according to an informal survey of passing eyeballs, it's even more exciting than the new GT-R. Maybe because it's dressed for the occasion, and lubed with AMSOIL.

In Harrisburg, Paul Caparello’s ’68 Camaro is a power mad example of emotional exuberance. The current version of the car is 1800 horsepower. The previous alcohol injected version threw off 3500 horses. Both expressions of the Camaro were lubricated throughout with AMSOIL synthetics.

To the left here is a Jeep Wrangler TJ and in the CarDomain.com booth (below) a sweet Ford Focus.
Tomorrow will be a big day in Harrisburg where they will be announcing the winner of the “Xtreme Ride Revamp” contest, in which some lucky person will drive home with the 2009 Honda Fit we mentioned yesterday. In the hands of Brian Fox of Fox Marketing and his team, the revamped ride went from stock to cream-of-the-crop in just over eight weeks. The Pennsylvania Auto & Boat Show, Faulkner Honda and HOT 92 FM teamed with the local car builder to create “somebody’s dream car”…but just whose dream car it will be remains to be seen.

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Detroit Auto Show Features Ultimate Cool

This week is Detroit's world famous car show, the 2008 North American International Auto Show with over 700,000 attendees from virtually every corner of the earth.

AMSOIL lubricants and filters were utilized on a custom car featured by DUB Magazine in their high profile display. The hand built, one-off Delahey design, nicked named the “French Connection,” was a creation by Boyd Coddington built for California car collector Rocky Walker. The car features a special marine V-12 engine made in Italy and an Ostrich Skin interior.

The special project, valued at over 1,000,000 dollars, took over a year to build and will be displayed at numerous car shows and auctions around the world. If you plan on attending the Detroit Auto Show this year, the car is featured in Michigan Hall at Cobo Center along with over 700 other concept, production, and specialty vehicles until January 27th.