Welcome to the 2018 North American International Auto Show, folks! It’s good to be back at Detroit, as this show never fails to impress. There’s been a right slew of teasers and announcements already, which began with…
SI-7 - The first teaser told us it had 822 hp, so it’s ripe for the hypercar market. Plus, triple exhausts on both sides; yes please.
EVE teased another new electric car, and like many electric cars at the moment, it seems to have taken on the habit of looking completely blank and featureless save for some thin design lines that represent efficiency or something. They followed it up with a Radiohead-inspired ‘transmission’, saying that “power is yours”. Oh I really do just love it when companies try to apply philosophical phrases to cars. I really so very much do. Really.
A new version of the Prairie from RCM is on the way, and the clear feature is its parrallelogramic lights. Looks decent from this shady teaser picture, so with any luck, it’ll hold its own when we see the real thing.
AL Autos will be in attendance, and at long last, they seem to have tamed their vent fetish.
DMA teased a truck that looks like it belongs on the set of Dallas and teaser of another DMA badge on some kind of car. It’s probably something sporty given how ‘surprising’ it’s going to be.
Wohay! Looks like RCM have some competition at this show, Shromet’s updated Adirondack is on the way. Let the battle of the trucks commence!
Montes’s updated Urban will finally be making its debut. We’ve had a number of spy shots and leaks about the family hatchback for the past few months, with all leads pointing to a facelifted version of the car with the usual mid-lifespan engine and equipment update.
Linden are presenting “an analog[ue] driver’s car in the traditional sense”. Well, if you insist; it’s called the LE52 and it looks like a knock-off of a knock-off car from GTA. Manual gearbox, premium interior, sportier and quieter version available etc…it’s the usual sports coupe forté.
So then Zasteros, the answer to the equation of “Performance + Economy” is the Eyeore of mid-engined supercars?. Somehow I think the dopey looking Monte Vettore might not quite be it, however exotic that name may be. As always, I’m open to being proven wrong, but we’ll have to wait for the main show to do that.
PROJECT 400 is…a thing. It’s black, it’s got exhausts, it’s probably some fast racecar-for-the-road thing. Etc, etc…
“Making it possible to be In touch with the world in the smallness of a car.” I had to read that back to myself and get my colleague Sophie to read it back to. Neither of us could work out what it meant. As for the car tagged with it, it’s called “Project Goldline”, it isn’t actually gold and it appears to have come straight out of the Honda design studios circa 1985. Thankfully, and I’m not sure how they managed to do this, they managed to significantly restyle the car in the space of a few days. At leats it looks more interesting.
Uh-oh. Monolith’s teaser for the new 270 says it hates VVL. At least they’re (probably) in tune with their customer base. Some commentators were keen to point out that “The tagline implies a pushrod engine (which is incompatible with VVL by design)”. Yes, thank you for stating the bloody obvious.
Holts teased a new car earlier in the week, and followed it up with a picture reveal. The final result? Well, it’s a smart looking sports coupe that’s what. 7.4l V8 to boot, whopping great grill at the front and fat quad exhausts at the rear. There’s way too many daytime running lights on the front for its own good, but otherwise, it looks damn decent.
The upcoming Monarch Gariche M-GT Concept will be revealed at the show and holy god is it over done. The rear looks absurd, the front is confused. Here’s hoping it’ll be prettier in the flesh.
Rennen will be releasing some concept cars over the course of the year, dubbed “LEC-X”. Oh no, the dredded ‘E’; are Rennen going electric? I mean, that’s a very smart move, it just depends on how its executed…
The Orion Cerberus and Olympus Sagittarius are making their debuts and honestly I am lost for words. They’re like budget, Halfords knock-off imitations of TVRs. The subsequent photos released did not help. Mind you, no word on specs yet, so there is some hope there…
[Hennessy Motor Company}(North American International Auto Show 2018 - #38 by Battleboss98) revealed the Le Mans Turbo, a circa-Gran Turismo 2 looking 1132hp hypercar. There might be some issues with that name however, given that the HMC marque is in the running for creating the biggest legal battle in the Automationverse’s history; it originally belonged to the Holland Motor Company of the Netherlands, was also taken on by the Harnish Motor Company who even borrowed the badge design of Holland, and is currently in used by Holts Motor Company.
I’ll leave it to the lawyers to sort that one out…
IMP revealed the first (potential) update to the Alpine mini-off roader in over 20 years. It looks good, and a slew of information came with it. The short of it is: proper off roading suspension, good range of engines with an i3, i4 and even a V6, proper four wheel drive transmission and a fairly decent price tag. I know absolutley nothing about off-roaders but I am assuming this is good.
INCOMING! FRENCH CAR IN BOUND! AND IT’S NOT A MERCIEL! Deverre’s new Fusion GTS is here, and it’s a front wheel drive, 362 hp monster. Has not elegance to its styling, looks like it’ll do no more than 25 mpg and will probably be a nightmare to daily, but heck I’m down to see how good this thing is to drive.
Zasteros revealed another car, the Finheit. It claims to allow you to “tour the world in comfort”. Thankfully, by using it to tour the world, you’ll be able to sit pretty with the comfort of knowing that by being inside it you don’t have to look at the outside.
The new Nodha Assent is here! And boy does it look like the car it’s imitating. Which is a good thing, might I add.
The new Petoskey Stag will be making its appearance, and the good news is that it’s going to have a V10 under the bonnet. Yes please!
So, a packed show ahead, but there’s very promising stuff here. Roll on the press days!
- Gavin Anderson
