I WANT TO EAT A NUT OF LAERMA!

TOP 10 FAVOURITE CARS AT THE OTTAWA-GATINEAU AUTOSHOW.

So I went to the Ottawa-Gatineau Autoshow last Thursday... it was the second car show that I've been to in my life (the first was in Montreal in 2001, an event where I'm very, very annoyed that I didn't think of taking pictures), and it was fun... nothing really worth writing a narrative about. I showed up at the Ottawa Congress Centre, looked at cars, took a lot of pictures, and left. My only real annoyance, other than a near total lack of the "booth babes" you get at Japanese auto shows (Hyundai had a couple of young women, though not wearing anything tight or skimpy), was the total absence of Ferrari at the event, though I suspect my beef there is with Ferrari/Maserati of Montreal not thinking Ottawans are worthy enough to gaze upon their exquisite horseless carriages and not with the Ottawa-Gatineau Autoshow.

Here are my photographic highlights:






Certainly, the main attraction for me in the absence of any Ferraris was to see a honest-to-god fully-restored original Shelby Cobra 427. As far as I can tell, it's an original and not one of the thousands of licensed kit-built replicas (it says "Ford" on the side plate), and it's great to see a Shelby Cobra that has a rear end, unlike those front-end-only Cobra replicas that WirelessWave cell phone stores use for attention-grabbing displays.




This silver first-generation Chevy Camaro was totally badass.




As was this Ford Mustang Mach 1.




And this 1970 Dodge Challenger, one Challenger I truly want to see "go at throttle up".



Speaking of Dodges, this photo of a new Dodge Charger in "Sublime Green" with a 5.7 litre Hemi engine is by far the most popular picture that I took at the auto show, with over 150 Flickr views in just the first four days that I had it up.




The Porsche 911 Targa 4 is the happiest-looking Porsche ever created. Its anthropomorphic "face" looks like the mutant offspring of Lightning McQueen and Sally Porsche, and would kind of look like Pikachu if you painted it yellow with red cheeks.

Ford had its A-list out.




The Ford GT in cherry red with white racing stripes, just the way I have it in Gran Turismo 4 and now Test Drive Unlimited (which has the expensive Ferrari license on the XBox 360 but not in the Playstation 2 version, grrr...)





And the Ford Shelby GT500 Mustang. If I had a Ferrari, I'd probably have this as my second car, but in the reverse colour-scheme, blue with white stripes, so it would be the modern version of the original Shelby GT500 Mustang that Rally Vincent drives in the Gunsmith Cats manga.


Ferrari/Maserati of Montreal might not have been interested in making the two-hour trip west, but John Scotti of Montreal's John Scotti Automotive did, bringing the "exotic" component of the show.



A gaggle of Lamborghini Gallardo and Murciélago cars. Yes, I know Lamborghini uses a bull as the logo, so I should probably say "a pen of Lamborghinis" or "a herd of Lamborghinis", but I think "gaggle" rolls off the tongue better.



And some Lotus Elise Exige cars in red and yellow.




Anyway, you can see dozens more of my car show photos in my 2007 Ottawa-Gatineau Autoshow Flickr album, and I still have dozens of photos yet to post.

posted by Steve Brandon @ 6:58 AM