This year Rev Junkie attended the Twin Cities Auto Show and it was better than expected. Usually the Twin Cities area gets a lack of company participation by not bringing their performance cars to show off. This year I felt was a change of pace and there was a lot more “OOOoooo” moments. 2015 for the Minnesota car enthusiast was not a disappointment.
My authors and I decided to go through the “Green Room” and get the more boring (electric) cars out of the way. Like you might expect there was basically commuter hybrids and SUV’s trying to be good on gas. There wasn’t even a Tesla! Minnesota, an approved state for Tesla sales, didn’t even have one at the show! It was a tad ridiculous. The only highlight in the room must have been the BMW i3. BMW was even offering test rides for this little electric box. My opinion is that it is a very ugly car and BMW could have done much better, which they did, with the i8.
Moving away from the Green Room to the main convention hall of the Minneapolis Convention Center, we headed straight for Dodge, but we were stopped by pure driving bliss. Alfa Romeo made an appearance this year with the 4C and it was quite crowded, as it should be. This little rascal was made for the driver, orienting it perfectly to put a smile on your face. Let me tell you, just looking at the thing put a huge smile on my face. Alfa has done the right thing by releasing the 4C because the auto industry needs more driver cars and it seems like Alfa is pioneering the dying race.
The mans corner, Dodge’s show area. Guess what, I can read your minds, “Did they have the Challenger Hellcat there?” No, they didn’t (I was sad too). Instead they brought its family oriented version, the Charger, which I believe is far less exciting (personally, I also find it ugly). So of course we headed over to the Super Bee they had on display because nothing screams muscle more than a Challenger Super Bee. Then out of the corner of my eye I see it, my dream car. A Viper GTS was sitting there showing off its 8.4 L V-10 for the world to see. This was easily the show stopper at the Dodge floor. I also thoroughly enjoyed the dart. I think it looks great and has huge potential to beat out the SRT-4 Neon in driver engagement.
As we moved on and scurried by the boring Jeep and Mitsubishi displays (except for the RIS tuned EVO) we reached Scion. Scion was obviously showing off the FR-S, but they failed to bring a manual version, for some odd reason. Then the announcer lady stood up on a stage and started blabbering on how the TC was a great sports car (it is clearly not). The Scion section was short lived, but the FR-S was still fine as ever. Then there it was, beauty in the simplest form. Free coffee. I tried finding a way to get to it and then out of no where, I get breathalyzed. Next I was blindly entering my license number into an iPad and sitting drivers seat in a new Mazda 3 (geez, it happened all so fast!). It was really cool that Mazda was allowing people to get engaged and drive some of their cars at the show. I got my free coffee and a Starbucks gift card. Plus the new Miata was on display. Mazda did very well this year and I was pleased with their involvement.
To continue the import section of the convention we headed to Nissan. We were crossing our fingers quite hard that there would be a GTR there. As we closed in there was a sign with GTR on it and a smile flew up on our face. Damn, there is only 370 Z Nismo, screw you Nissan for teasing me like that. Frankly I do not like the 370 Z, I think it is bloated and slow for what it is, the Nismo version, with the automatic, is 0-60 in 4.9 seconds. That is too slow for what it could be. All in all, Nissan was just, alright.
Chevy was next and by god we should have saved it for last. The first thing we saw was the track hungry Z06 (sadly in a convertible version). It sported a beautiful midnight blue and you can tell it didn’t like sitting still on the giant lazy susan. Right next to it was it’s little brother the C7 Stingray, Chevrolet’s Twin Cities Auto Show’s feature last year. It was a joy to be able to sit in it once again. Then there was a large surprise, a Z/28 made an appearance. Man, let me tell you though, this thing is the most muscular car I have ever seen! It was rocking all black and was sitting on some massive tires. The thing was bulky, but not in a bad way. Once I was able to sit in it I just wanted to start it up and eat some road. The clutch was the perfect weight, the throws were short, and the interior was bare. Chevy made the Z/28 into a masterpiece and now I have serious crush on it (sorry to my girlfriend). In my mind Chevy destroyed the show this year, purely due to the fact there was a Z/28 there.
German manufactures, as always. did not live up to their names. Audi brought the R8, which is always an honor to see. They also had a beautiful RS7 tucked into the luxury corner of the convention center. It was a sight for sore eyes because Audi failed to bring any other RS models (and because it is my favorite luxury car). BMW had a very nice surprise for the attendees, an i8! Let me tell you, this thing is absolutely beautiful and the boldest thing BMW has done yet. So many curves and lines that will make you want more hybrids from our car companies. As for Porsche, they only brought one of each their lines. The 911 they brought was only a Carrera 4S (where are the turbo’s Porsche, huh?!). A large disappointment was tucked away in all the trunks of the Mercedes. They had nothing to showcase but a video of the immaculate AMG GT.
Instead of the luxury room this year being in an actual room, it was snugged up in the corner of the large convention center. This gave a lot more room for the expensive show stoppers. Among these wealth magnets was the Jaguar F-Type Coupe, not that expensive but I felt like it fit right in. When I tweeted the photo of it at @Rev_Junkie, I thought it was going to be flagged because I basically tweeted porn, The ass on this car will forever beat every car in history. Long live the F-Type because something that beautiful should be immortalized. Aston Martin decided to join the porn industry and brought a Vanquish S, Vanquish, and a DB9. Every single one was immensely pretty and had every right to be there. Bentley’s and Lexus’s covered the rest of the section, along with a lone Evora S, but who cares really. It was time to get to the last American power house and see what they brought.
As we made our way past the gorgeous Maserati’s and Jaguar’s, Ford finally came into view. We took a look at the new 2015 GT and it is much better looking in person. It is not by any means soft; it had a very aggressive body. The Ecoboost 2.3 L was also super cool, good on Ford for making it. Though it might seem like heresy to put a turbo four in a Mustang, I think it is awesome. Ford also had a surprise up their sleeve, the supposed killer of the Z/28. Ford brought the GT 350 and it looked incredible in every way. Look out Chevy because this thing is insane. I am seriously torn between a favorite. On our way out we, for some odd reason, decided to cut through the van section and out of nowhere was a McLaren 650 S. Thing was an awesome relief from the transit vans and hybrids. Good to see a McLaren at such a small show like the Twin Cities Auto Show. Overall this years show was pretty good, many companies brought a surprise and it was quite refreshing.
Go over to @Rev_Junkie to see our live tweets of the show and original photos. See you all at next years Twin Cities Auto Show!