German Car Zone

Yannis · 01-13-2006, 02:24 PM

AutoWeek Gives Editors' Choice Honors to Top Vehicles at Detroit's 2006 NAIAS

The editorial staff of AutoWeek announced its favorite vehicles of the 2006 North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) this evening at the magazine's annual Design Forum at Cobo Conference/Exhibition Center in Detroit, Mich.

The AutoWeek Editors' Choice Awards were revealed by AutoWeek Editor and Associate Publisher Dutch Mandel during the Design Forum's dinner program.

The vehicles tapped for AutoWeek Editors' Choice honors from the 2006 NAIAS are:

MOST FUN - NISSAN URGE CONCEPT: Fun, fun, fun, kids. Three seats, glass in the lower door panels to watch the ground fly past, glass engine hood to show off the engine cage, flop-down Xbox 360 display right out of Pimp My Ride...the Urge is aimed directly at the fantasies of teen-something dudes and dudettes who live in blogs. Despite the wacky craziness of it all, the Urge presages something that will apparently be highly desirable in 2008. The car is the video game actually. While parked, you can play all your fave post- apocalyptic urban dash-and-smash games -- specifically for now "Project Gotham Racing 3" -- using the steering wheel and pedals. It sounds damned pleasurable, to be honest. Nissan Design America and Microsoft designed the whole unit together. Based on the 350Z, it weighs just 2400 pounds, sits entirely between the axles with no overhangs and uses a small high-revving four-cylinder motorcycle-tuned engine sending all traction to the rear. Dude. Other candidates: Mazda Kabura, Ford Shelby GT500, Mitsubishi concept-CT MIEV.

BEST CONCEPT - DODGE CHALLENGER: Ever since we popped the first spy shots of the Dodge Challenger concept on these pages ("Rising to the Challenger," Nov. 28, 2005), we've heard the steady beating of the enthusiast drums urging Chrysler to build this beast. Though technical hurdles might hurt its production chances (a B-pillarless coupe would require substantial and costly roof reinforcement, for instance), Chrysler design chief Trevor Creed didn't toss any cold water on the faithful when he said "The Dodge Challenger is back -- ahem -- as a concept vehicle." As Creed says, it's a concept -- but one that is so close to production quality in its near-perfect reproduction of the iconic 1970 Challenger as a modern day machine that we can almost smell the production-car rubber burning. Built on a shortened version of the bread-and- butter 300C chassis, and equipped with a 6.1-liter, 425-hp, 420-lb-ft, Hemi V8 and a six-speed manual transmission, Challenger looks like it could be built tomorrow. Time will tell whether Chrysler can pull off this muscle-car miracle. Other candidates: Aston Martin Rapide, Chevrolet Camaro, Lamborghini Miuri, Mazda Kabura, Infiniti Coupe.

MOST SIGNIFICANT - 2007 TOYOTA CAMRY: It just don't get more significant than this for North American car buyers. Toyota will easily and quickly become #1 in the world after just one year of sales of this new Camry. The dull fifth-generation Camry sold over 432,000 units in 2005. This sixth- generation is definitely sleeker, looking like a smaller Avalon, and will sell close to 500,000 units per year in its lifetime. Engine offerings and power stay near where they are -- fours and V6s between 158 and 268hp. But the handsome new Camry adds length, width, height and space, and the interior is a big step up in distinction as well. Sales of the four standard trims -- CE, LE, XLE and SE -- begin this March with the hybrid version on sale in June. (Note: No one else on Earth is capable of anything even close to such a tight and complete roll-out schedule.) This Toyota hybrid will be built in Georgetown, Kentucky, making it the first American-built Toyota hybrid -- electric motors from the Hybrid Synergy Drive together with a 2.4-liter i4 gas engine creating 192hp and even better performance than the 3.2-liter V6 model. Pricing will be announced in late February and, Toyota assures us, it will please customers and frighten the stink out of every competitor. Other candidates: Lexus LS-460L, Chevy Camaro concept, the resurgent B-segment.

BEST IN SHOW - CHEVROLET CAMARO CONCEPT: Only the second time in AutoWeek's long and illustrious tradition of awarding our favorite auto show models with big, fat, shiny trophies has a car won by unanimous vote. The first? That would be the Porsche Boxster concept back in 1993, which puts the Chevrolet Camaro concept -- to our minds, anyway -- in pretty darn good company. We certainly weren't alone in our admiration. At one point during the press preview it looked as if the number of top-tier designers from competing automakers outnumbered the members of the media swarming about the car. That had to have the Bow Tie brass smiling. And if the 400-horsepower Corvette LS2-powered 6.0-liter V8 found under the concept's hood makes its way into a production rendition, we'll be smiling right along with them. Of course, we'll have to wait a few years to see if it really happens. Fingers crossed.

Iconic Design was the theme of the day-long AutoWeek Design Forum, geared to automotive and non-automotive professionals and students. Held in conjunction with the NAIAS, the 13th annual program featured individual presentations by leading design executives. Auto icon Carroll Shelby was honored during the evening program with the inaugural AutoWeek Lifetime Achievement Award. The event was sponsored by Johnson Controls, Alias and Classic Design Concepts LLC, in association with the College for Creative Studies.

Source

The Artist · 01-13-2006, 02:31 PM

lol all suck

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
Audi and Lambo photos from NAIAS 2006.	Yannis	The Audi Lounge	5	01-23-2006 01:39 AM
Audi videos from NAIAS 2006.	Yannis	The Audi Lounge	0	01-11-2006 02:33 AM
Audi A3 2.0T named Car and Driver's "Best Sport Compact" for 2006.	Yannis	A3/S3	0	12-14-2005 02:50 AM
Mercedes-Benz Anniversaries In 2006	Alx	Older MBs, Classics	4	12-01-2005 09:32 PM
Japan Sept sales of foreign vehicles.	Yannis	Automotive Sales & Business News	2	10-06-2005 12:37 PM

German Car Zone

AutoWeek's Top Vehicles of 2006 NAIAS.