LA MOTOR SHOW: the wrap

The 2011 Los Angeles Motor Show will likely go down in history for the cars that weren’t there – and for giving the world’s motoring press a break from the barrage of hybrid and electric cars. Amen.

After a couple of impressive years in a row, LA looked like it was set to challenge Detroit as North America’s premiere event. But if this year is a guide, Motown can rest easy for a little longer.

While as usual journalists came prepared for battle, many ended of us up twiddling our thumbs after the first hour, and wondering what on earth we were going to write about.

Then it occurred to us that good old fashioned horsepower is back: GM, Ford and Chrysler unveiled limited edition V8 models right under the noses of the toughest fuel economy regulators in North America.

After years of hybrid this and electric that it was good to see Ford swapping the vegan diet for a burger and a shake.

The new Shelby Mustang is a doozy: the most powerful V8 in the world, a 5.8-litre supercharged engine with 485kW and 813Nm – and a top speed of 202mph (or 320km/h). And it looks awesome.

The Camaro ZL1 is now diminished somewhat after a phenomenal build-up. Its supercharged 6.2-litre V8 with 432kW and 754Nm was hailed a hero, but has now been overtaken by Ford’s muscle car in the power stakes.

The Yanks were also complaining about the price of the Camaro ZL1: $56,000. That’s cheaper than a HSV Clubsport. If only we were so lucky…

The good news for performance car fans in Australia is that BOTH the uber Mustang and Camaro engines CAN fit in the Falcon and Commodore respectively. Here’s hoping the power struggle spills over the Pacific Ocean and that Barrack Obama isn’t the only high profile US visitor to Australia in the near future.

Note to Ford and GM: you can send these engines our way any time. I will even store them under my house.

For good measure, Chrysler unveiled a hyped up version of its 300C SRT8 – but said it was for customer feedback only, not necessarily for production.

Chrysler shoehorned a 426ci (that’s 7.0-litre) V8 crate motor under the ‘hood’ of the sedan. The stats: 395kW and 730Nm. To quote Tim the Toolman Taylor: Rrr, rrr, rrr.

Chevrolet also snuck some special wheels and super sticky race ready road tyres (the Michelins with the Tic Tac tread pattern) on a ZR1 Corvette. No doubt it comes with a warning label: use only as directed.

The Brits also joined the party, with a wind-in-the-receding-hair version of the XKR-S: the fastest drop-top Jag has ever built and she’s a beauty. But we kind of saw it coming…

The Germans weighed in, too. Mercedes-Benz had a couple of AMG specials: the CLK Black (awesome) and the ML63 (the world’s fastest 4WD, just forgive its appearance). But we’d seen those, too, before we arrived.

The new Porsche 911 bridged the gap between horsepower and fuel economy (more powerful yet more economical). But Porsche also boosted the Panamera sedan line-up with a GTS edition that fills the gap between the V8 sedan and the V8 Turbo sedan.

Its non-turbo 4.8-litre V8 gains 22kW and 20Nm (to 316kW and 520Nm) to sprint to 100km/h in 4.5 seconds. It gets $29,000 worth of extra equipment and yet the price rises by $18,000 to $315,300. A snip really.

There were a couple of important commuter cars: the new Honda CR-V soft-roader was unveiled in one dark corner. It’s a good-looking car but barely raised a fairy clap.

The problem was that the rest of the Honda stand put everyone to sleep, it was so dull and lacking in new models. (Memo to Honda Japan: please wake up, there are still some customers who like your cars).

The Ford Escape joined the Honda CR-V as an important, all-new compact soft-roader.

The Escape is based on the underbody of the Focus hatch. It looks good, and should drive well. And it can’t come soon enough.

Ford also had a four-door version of its Fiesta ST hot hatch while Subaru had a sprinkling of new Imprezas (but no WRX).

The STI version of the Subaru BRZ coupe (jointly developed with Toyota) looked great, but you could see the shoulders of Subaru fans visibly slump when told it lacked the STI’s turbo engine. Oh dear. With a WRX price and Toyota performance, no wonder Subaru Australia is yet to confirm the sale of this car locally.

There was a raft of cars that weren’t there but we were expecting.

For example, California is the world’s single biggest market for the Prius hybrid but Toyota chose to hold off the unveiling of the baby Prius C until the Tokyo motor show in a fortnight.

Indeed, the Japanese car maker (the world’s biggest) didn’t even host a press conference. Nor did its luxury division Lexus.

Other notable absentees? There was a bit of excitement in the lead-up to the show about a Jaguar concept car that insiders have dubbed the new E Type, a remake of the brand’s 1960s classic.

Instead, Jaguar unveiled the same car it showed in Frankfurt six weeks ago – but painted it white instead of silver (pictured). The same went for the Land Rover Defender concepts: same cars, new colour.

What we can deduce from this is that Jaguar and Land Rover know how to paint show cars to perfection.

Great. What’ll they do for the next international motor show? Pinstripes?

Full photo gallery at motoring.com.au

More LA Motor Show news on motoring.com.au

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