Many candidates for show's best and worst

Feb 20, 2010

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Special to the Star

If it's Tuesday, this must be BMW.

In a week of wandering like a lost sheep around Canadian International AutoShow at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, riding endless escalators and passing and repassing exhibits, things start sticking in your mind. Here's a subjective selection, good and bad, of what caught my eye:

Minimalism taken to an almost-insulting level: Lamborghini's two-car black-on-black display.

Most ill-advised paint job: The Art-Deco-on-Acid (John Lennon would've loved it) artwork on an Infiniti G37S. The Sixties are over, guys. Turn off, tune out, drop in.

Concept car that should go into production RIGHT NOW: The Mini Beachcomber. You can't look at it and not smile.

Retro-styled car that comes closest to its original inspiration: The "gull-wing" Mercedes SLS AMG (except for its uninspired rear end). There are way too many silver cars on the road but this Merc should only come in silver. Stunning.

Least likely "I REALLY want one" vehicle: A Cadillac. Xtreme Motorsports' take on the STS-V. Brash, brutal and with no obvious social graces. But ... I REALLY want one!

Best/worst marketing: Smart's wide range of merchandise, from ballpoints to watches. Great idea. But $49.95 for an "ecological" T-shirt? Paying that kind of money isn't Smart, it's Dumb!

Best display: Ford built its exhibit to look like a car, complete with wheels of light. Okay, you had to be told it was meant to be a Focus but you could tell it was a vehicle.

Best PR gimmick: Ford's press kit on a memory stick shaped like a Focus. Informative and you can go varoom-varoom around your desk with it, too. Yes, the wheels turn.

Sexiest colour for a Porsche: Classic hot-rod-style flat black with red accents and black-and-red wheels on Pfaff Tuning's 911 C45.

Least-sexy Porsche ever: The frumpy four-door Panamera. A bulbous blob. Does Jenny Craig do slimming plans for cars?

Most outrageous car: Another "gull-wing." In the basement, Stony Smith's "Hemi-Roid" Model A Ford sedan remodeled into a street-legal slingshot with driver and passenger sitting behind the rear axle.

Conspicuous by their absence: Aston Martin, Bentley and Rolls-Royce.

Toronto Star