IT’S called the North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) officially, but to the average car enthusiast, it’s simply the Detroit Motor Show – and in 2015 it unleashed some serious show stoppers, including the return of two of the most legendary names in GT cars.
We’ve already told you about the Buick Avenir that has given Aussie designers props for their awesome work on this project, and the Chevy Bolt electric vehicle, as well as Hyundai’s uber cool Santa Cruz, but there was more than that on offer for us to salivate over.
So here now, is our very own wrap up of the coolest things to come out of Detroit, in all their glory, and we’ve included pictures of all of them, so you can see just what we’re talking about.
Ford GT (2017)
Hands down the single most talked about car at the Detroit Motor Show was the 2017 Ford GT. On the back of being thumped regularly by marquee European cars like the R8 from Audi and the Huracan from Lamborghini, Ford is setting out to set a new benchmark in light weight supercars, and plans to run an aluminium and carbon fibre body over the top of a new 3.5L EcoBoost V6 engine (with a beefy turbo strapped to it), and a whopping 600 horsepower output.
2016 Acura NSX
The Americans and most of the rest of the world calls it an Acura, but we know it here as a Honda. Branding issues aside, after nearly a decade in the dark, the NSX is back, and sexier than ever. Japans legendary supercar returns with a hybrid drive train, with a petrol V6 powering the rear wheels, and two electric motors powering the front wheels. Expect more than 550 horse power out of this beast.
Volkswagen Cross Coupe GTE
It’s a VW, and it’s a cross over. Built on a new light weight modular design architecture that will allow for different vehicle formats, the plug in hybrid Cross Coupe GTE is expected to form part of a series of SUV vehicles to come out of the VW stable. Interestingly, VW plans to aim this vehicle at the on road market, rather than the off road market.
Infiniti Q60 Concept
A concept vehicle with a production future, the Q60 is expected to be the new marquee car from the Infiniti (Nissan’s alternate up market brand – think Lexus with Toyota). Expected to hit the market in 2016, it will debut an all new V6 engine, featuring more power and more efficiency than the current V6 engine that powers Infiniti’s cars.
Honda FCV Concept
The last car in our showcase from Detroit is out of the Honda stable, and a little different to what you might expect. It’s a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle, and will form the base footprint for a new car to debut in 2016. Expected to have a range of more than 480km on a single tank of compressed hydrogen and take about 3 minutes to refuel.
