A few short years ago, it appeared as if Detroit’s turn as the né plus ultra of auto shows was about to be eclipsed.
North American automakers were in trouble, Detroit itself was all but bankrupt and competing auto shows – Los Angeles, New York and Frankfurt to name but a few – were growing in importance. More troubling was the trend away from the conventional automobile – electric vehicles, hydrogen fuel cells and mobile connectivity – seemed about to leave Detroit’s focus on sheet metal in the dust. And more than a few people – this scribe included – speculated that Las Vegas’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES), held just days before the North American International Auto Show, might eventually steal Detroit’s thunder as more and more manufacturers sought to connect with their inner, err, connectivity.
Fast-forward to January 13, 2014 and few signs of the atrophy remain.
Detroit is indeed bankrupt (though even that has not proven the catastrophe predicted) and the auto show is still held at the ageing Cobo Hall. But somehow, amid this fiscal crisis, some much- needed renovations have breathed new life into the exposition. Ford’s multimedia meeting centre in the Grand Riverview ballroom, for instance, is the most extravagant display ever seen at an auto show. Some manufacturers, who in previous years had shunned the show as beneath their station – Porsche, for instance, as well as Mercedes-Benz, who would often launch cars at a local hotel and then not show them on the show’s floor – have returned with a vengeance. Of course, most importantly, this year’s North American International Auto Show saw no fewer than 50 new model introductions, the most in almost a decade and re-establishing Detroit as the venue where sheet metal shines.
The reason for the resurgence is simple. North America is once again a surging automobile market. China is still where car companies look to increase their profits, but with Europe in a constant state of malaise, the rest of the BRIC countries still struggling to find their footing and the African continent consistently underperforming, America’s almost 16-million car market is being heralded as a return to halcyon days.
And, specific to Detroit’s health, 2013 was also a transcendent year for the Big Three (Chrysler, one supposes, still deserves, at least for the time being, to be classified as an American company, even though it is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Fiat). For the first time since 1988, Ford, General Motors and Chrysler all increased their market share in North America and, perhaps more impressively, also increased the average transaction prices paid for their products. And of the mainstream automakers (not including Mercedes-Benz, BMW, et al), GM has the highest average transaction price in the industry. And, yes, that includes Toyota. Los Angeles may have more star power, Tokyo more technology and CES may yet prove to be the future of the automobile, but Detroit is still where the world’s carmakers gather to move metal.
And metal was literally the highlight of the show. Ford’s F-150 is newly clothed in aluminium as the lorry segment tries to find ways to remain relevant in a low emissions world. Ford trumpeted its all- aluminium body (the ladder frame is still steel, though upgraded to a higher tensile variety) as the first widespread use of the lighter-than-steel material in the lorry segment, noting that the 2015 F-150 will be about 320 kilograms lighter than the previous model. Indeed, so dramatic is the weight loss that Ford is offering an even smaller Ecoboost engine – a 2.7-litre, twice turbocharged V6 – in the F-150. Presumably, the weight reduction is sufficient that its performance won’t embarrass the Blue Oval as, here in Detroit, performance counts a lot more than the fact that Ford’s Sync system has added a few apps.
Likewise, while Chevrolet’s display at the recent CES show may have touted the Corvette’s new Performance Data Recording technology, in Detroit General Motors was trumpeting the Corvette’s actual performance. Essentially a ZR1’s supercharged 6.2-litre V8 – now rated at “at least” 625 horsepower – plopped into the engine bay of the new C7 Stingray, the new Z06 is faster around the racetrack than any previous Corvette.
Even sexier, however, was Toyota’s FT-1. Still just a concept car – the company claims it is being evaluated for production, possibly as the return of the legendary Supra – the FT-1 is more Maserati than Toyota. It may be the hottest concept Detroit has seen in more than a decade; it certainly wouldn’t be out of place parked between a 458 and a Gallardo.
Though its design was entirely digital – penned by Toyota’s California Calty Design research facility for the latest, sixth-generation version of the Gran Turismo video game – legend has it that Akio Toyoda, Toyota’s president, was so taken with the design while playing PS3 that he insisted the concept make its way into metal. Perhaps it’s just wishful thinking, but if this is to be the rumoured cooperation between Toyota and BMW, perhaps the end product will end up with the M4’s twin-turbo in-line six; a throwback to the original Supra’s powertrain.
Toyota’s luxury division was also in high spirits, with Lexus trumpeting the release of its RC F. Taking a page out of the BMW playbook, the RC is essentially a two-door version of the sporty IS saloon and the F nomenclature, essentially Lexus’s version of the M brand, means it gets a high-revving 5.0-litre V8 under its bonnet. Good for 450 horsepower, the V8 distinguishes itself by running both the Otto cycle (basically the good old internal combustion that we’ve all become used to) and the Atkinson cycle (a longer inlet timing version of the Otto cycle, which is often used in hybrids) to maximise performance and fuel economy depending on the situation. Lexus’s first torque vectoring limited slip rear differential helps get all that power to tarmac.
On a more pedestrian, but more luxurious front, Hyundai debuted its latest attempt at a near-luxury saloon: the 2015 Genesis. Although the Genesis’s engines – a 311hp, 3.8-litre V6 and 420hp 5.0-litre V8 – return, there is a new HTRAC all-wheel-drive system to be had, as well as an upgraded eight-speed automatic transmission. HTRAC, unlike some of its competitors’ AWD systems, is performance orientated, its default torque split 40:60 front-to-rear, but it can transfer as much as 100 per cent of the engine’s torque to the rear wheels. And along with the new AWD system, the Genesis has been upgraded with five-link suspension (tuned with help from Lotus Engineering), revised steering geometry for the Rack-Mounted Motor Driven Electric Power Steering (R-MDPS) and an optional Continuous Damping Control system that continually monitors speed, body roll and other parameters to revise damper valving so it can offer the best combination of comfort and body control in one package.
Of course, there was lots of hot new metal on Cobo Hall’s show floor. Ford’s 2015 Mustang may be old news by now, but its shape is no less comely for it. And, of course, the new independent rear suspension system should finally have Ford’s pony car go around corners with the same élan as it accelerates in a straight line. BMW’s M3 and M4 duo, of course, mark a return to the company’s historic – and symphonic – 3.0-litre in-line six. Their twice turbocharged 425 horsepower will also be much appreciated.
There were also, as expected, the oddities that show up every year in Detroit, this year’s being VIA’s over-the-top, plug-in hybrid conversions of Chevy Suburbans and Silverados.
Complete with a 22 kilowatt-hour lithium ion battery and a 4.3-litre V6 petrol engine (that acts only as a generator and does not power the wheels), the company – fronted by no less than GM’s ex co-chairman, Maximum Bob Lutz – claimed 64 kilometres of battery only range and up to 2.35L / 100km fuel economy.
If there was a common theme to this Detroit auto show, however, it was that light weight has taken over from electrification as the cri de guerre for many manufacturers.
No mainstream automaker unveiled a new electric car (Tesla even declined to show off its upcoming model X) and hybrids were few on the ground. But pretty much every new product, led, of course, by Ford’s aluminised F-150, bragged about being lighter than its predecessor. Mercedes-Benz’s new C-Class was typical; 76mm longer than the previous model, the new baby Benz is also 45kg lighter.
A few manufacturers also showed off some creative use of carbon fibre.
The BMW i3’s body, of course, is built using the lightweight material, but carbon fibre is still difficult to process into body shapes and, because of its poor repairability, unlikely to see mainstream use in the near future. However, ZF showed off some suspension struts and steering knuckles partially constructed of carbon fibre that reduced weight by some 14 per cent. Ford showed off wheels similarly constructed and even displayed some featherweight suspension springs made completely of plastic.
Cars may be getting larger and engines smaller, but thanks to the wizardry of the boys in R & D, lightweight materials may mean there is no loss in performance.
Much of that future ingenuity may even come from Detroit – there’s life in this city yet.
[ weekend@thenational.ae ]
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