Today was a good day for retired people like me to go to the Seattle International Auto Show while the working people were, well, working! I supposed that the furloughed workers could have attended too. The show is at the Century Link Event Center. The intent is to show new cars for the 2014 model year. As always, a lot of the displays are glitzy and the cars are displayed under bright lighting. Most of the well known(and lessor known) manufacturers were present. Cars are not for sale at this show, but many brands were offering discount coupons to those people who were really interested.
As usual, I spent a lot of time at the Ford display. Their Shelby Mustang GT500 was a beauty. Elsewhere, everyone had their electric car or hybrid this year. I think an electric car could be a good way to get around for running errands and shopping. But so many of the major manufactures put in all the frills of a gas powered car at the cost of more weight and less range on a battery charge. I cannot buy or lease an electric car for less than what I pay for gasoline each month.
All the "exotic" cars were up on the mezzanine. Here were the Land Rovers, Jags, Bentley's, Porsche's, Lamborghini's and even a Smart Car. What! Did I say? Smart Car? I sure did! I often think they would be a great little car for running around town, or even taking a trip. I was always impressed with them when I was in Europe and am glad to see more of them here.
After a quick trip through the displays and Lemay museum cars, I went back to the 1500 ferry, after a quick trip to Ivar's to get fish and trips to go and was home by 1615.
I am not a convertible fan, but I really liked the Shelby Mustang GT500. This is a very high performance car with a big price tag. It is advertised as having the most powerful production V8 engine in the world at 662 hp with 631 lb-ft of torque. It also has a track tested speed in excess of 200 MPH. I would be happy with the Mustang GT that has a mere 420 HP.
The Cobra emblem.
This year we could sit in the Shelby Mustang GT500. I really like the Recaro seats!
Evil looking snout.
I have always liked the Audi TT.
The new Corvette. At least this year they got rid of the strange looking plexiglas window in the hood.
The little Mini keeps getting larger now with an all wheel drive SUV looking model.
I always thought the Dodge Challenger was a great looking car and was on my list of cars I would like to own. But after owning a Mustang for six months, I appreciate the light weight, high horsepower of the Mustang. The Challenger is a much larger, heavier car. When I set in it seemed huge!
The obligatory Ferrari picture.
The Tesla all electric car. At $70K it is spendy. It is suppose to get 300 miles on a charge, but depending on your home charging system, it can be recharged overnight or it may take a couple of days to recharge.
This is an actual NASCAR Sprint Cup car that used to belong to the Michael Waltrip team. I believe it is a generation one, COT(car of tomorrow). It was wrecked and a group bought it, had it put back together with a driving simulator installed. They take it to events to show it off and advertised their product. I got to "race" Daytona in it. It was so intense that when I came out of it, I was sweaty!
Nicki Lauda's Formula One racer. Griot's garage in Tacoma restored it and will be starting it up on Dec 7th along with the McLaren next to it. This is the car that you will see in the movie "Rush".
The Lemay Museum was represented with a large display of cars. I do not remember this many cars in previous years.
More cars from the LeMay Museum.
I was able to make a side trip to Ivar's on the way back to the ferry and had fish and chips on my way home.
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