automotive

Muscle Comes To Detroit In January

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It's a slippery road to take when you start generalizing about auto shows and how each one differs. One show may have a lot of trucks and another a lot of hybrids, but there's a lot of crossover -- no pun intended.

But while the just-passed LA. show did, in fact, give a lot of attention to alternative drivetrain technology, the Detroit show will be more about muscle, trucks, and premium offerings. The Detroit muscle focus is a little ironic as Southern California car culture used to be all about muscle cars. 

In any case, certain portions of the upcoming North American International Auto Show are shaping up to be an automotive Muscle Beach. And the car doing the most sand-kicking will be the brand new, totally redesigned, mega anticipated, seventh-generation Corvette.

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The nameplate is 60 years old, incredibly enough. Incidentally, rather than being named after an animal or reptile, which tends to be the case with fast cars, the Corvette is named for a smallish naval gunship. And Chevrolet will set sail early, showing the car to the press folks (who manage to arrive early Sunday) the new 2014 Corvette in a big space, and not Cobo Hall.     

Chevrolet has also been seeding the Web with a trio of black-and-white videos about the new Corvette. They don't show the car, but rather designers and engineers carving it out of clay, taking it on hot laps, and testing its aerodynamics and performance. 

Infiniti, and Lexus are also both unveiling performance cars at the show. The latter will focus on the latest iteration of its 12-year-old IS nameplate, a performance car that does double-duty as an entry-luxury vehicle. BMW will add another even number to its lineup (the way it works is a two-door coupe of, say, a 5 Series, is called a 6 Series.) The new concept will be the 4 Series, a coupe version of the venerated 3, BMW's highest-volume nameplate.

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