The lighter side—notes and quotes: Automotive Industries takes a look at some of the more memorable happenings during the press days for the North American International Auto Show

Automotive Industries, Feb, 2005 by Gary Witzenburg

Walnut Capuccino

The show hall during press days has become like a small Seattle as there seems to be a coffee shop on every corner, or in every OEM's display. Early Monday morning, as one of the young barristas was setting up the Aston Martin shop, she opened a cupboard and came face to face with a squirrel helping himself to the biscortis. Needless to say, both parties were scared out of their respective wits. While the young coffee maker stayed on the floor, the squirrel spent the next few minutes scurrying around in the ceiling before disappearing out of sight.

--John Peter

Exhausting Performance

At an early Monday morning press conference, Ford chairman Bill Ford Jr. roared into Cobo arena in a 2005 Mustang convertible. He stepped onto the stage in front of a packed audience and announced Ford's plan to launch several new hybrid models over the next four years, adding to Ford's commitment to help clean the environment. Almost immediately after, the arena was filled with a throaty roar as eight Harley riders did figure-eights around the arena stage to help introduce the latest Harley Edition F-150, filling the arena with a (literally) choking cloud of exhaust fumes.

--John Peter

Double Lutz

GM's Monday press conference saw GM North America Chairman Bob Lutz unveil the new C6R Corvette race car and Corvette Z06 and Cadillac STS-V high-performance street cars. But before discussing them, he said he had to come clean on one important issue: the need to groom his successor. "I've found one," he proudly announced, as an identically dressed and silver-coifed clone climbed out of the STS-V. "This is 'Bob.' He attends 4:00 a.m. meetings so I don't have to. He plays golf so I don't have to." The audience laughed and "Bob" smiled brightly as the actual Bob continued his presentation.

It's Good to be King

Chrysler's Dodge division grabbed most of the local TV coverage with the introduction of the new Charger. After Chrysler CEO Dieter Zetsche introduced the car, a Charger NASCAR race car drove onto the stage. A pit crew seemed to appear out of nowhere, changing the racing tires to street versions and lifting off the race car shell to reveal the production car underneath. Who better to launch the new Charger than NASCAR legend Richard Petty (who, by the way, won most of his races in a Plymouth, before switching to GM products in the late '70s). King Richard joined chairman Dieter Zetsche and 2004 NASCAR rookie of the year Casey Kahne on stage, bringing both Dieter and Casey a trademark black cowboy hat and sunglasses. The scary part was that Dieter didn't look that bad.--John Peter