CALIFORNIA DREAMIN' AT THE L.A. AUTO SHOW FANTASY CARS BLEND OF ZOOM, LUXURY.Byline: BRENT HOPKINS Staff Writer In a room of batlike Lamborghinis, a million-dollar ride and cars that crack 60 mph in less time than it takes to read the words ``speeding ticket Ask a Lawyer Question Country: United States of America State: Ohio I was traveling on a two lane street with an officer driving toward me in the opposite direction. ,'' Andrew Stuart's cheap car sells for $190,000. The dapper Dapper lawyer’s clerk; swindled into believing himself perfect gambler. [Br. Lit.: The Alchemist] See : Dupery chief executive of Bentley Motor Cars USA doesn't so much make cars as he does rolling bank vaults. The Continental GTC GTC See: Good 'til cancelled order GTC See good-till-canceled order (GTC). -- that's the inexpensive one -- arrived in showrooms last week and already has a 12-month waiting list. The Flying Spur, a stately four-door sedan, uses a 12-cylinder, double-turbo engine to achieve acceleration normally found in lithe LITHE - Object-oriented with extensible syntax. "LITHE: A Language Combining a Flexible Syntax and Classes", D. Sandberg, Conf Rec 9th Ann ACM Sym POPL, ACM 1982, pp.142-145. , little sports cars. The Arnage, at a cool $271,696, has built-in umbrella holders and a trunk that's carpeted on all sides. At the Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. Auto Show An auto show, or motor show, is a public exhibition of current automobile models, debuts, concept cars, or out-of-production classics. It is commonly attended by automobile manufacturers. Most auto shows occur once or twice a year. -- starting today -- dreamers will wander through the luxury concourse to imagine themselves behind the wheel of these fantasy vehicles. They'll point, marvel over horsepower and hand-tooled leather and joke about taking one home. These are not practical cars to take to the dry cleaners. They are performance machines decked out with decadence normally reserved for people named Trump or Bond. ``You can churn a car out on the assembly line all day long, but when you build it by hand, that's where the quality comes in -- and the expense,'' Stuart said. ``It's really a piece of furniture and a work of art.'' Works of art that, while they have four wheels and an engine, share little with the cars most patrons will drive to the show. Spyker, a Dutch manufacturer that draws its design inspiration from the airplanes it used to build, doesn't even have keys for its several-hundred-thousand-dollar sports vehicles. Instead, it has futuristic-looking discs that look like something out of ``Mission: Impossible.'' ``The sky's the limit with these,'' said Rona Cortez, a Spyker brand ambassador A brand ambassador is a celebrity used to help advertise a product or service. Importance A company achieves some clear-cut goals by using a brand ambassador. It works out in building brand loyalty, as the consumer may have interest on that particular celebrity. . ``Louis Vuitton The Louis Vuitton Company (more commonly known simply as Louis Vuitton) is a luxury French fashion and leather goods brand and company, headquartered in Paris, France. It is a division of the French holding company, LVMH Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy S.A. will make some custom luggage to match that fits in the trunk for $18,750. ``You can watch it being made 24 hours a day on a Web cam See Webcam. . It's like watching the birth of your child. Your very expensive child.'' The company used the show to highlight its new Super Sport Utility Vehicle, a striking $320,000 contraption, and the LaTurbie C12, which sells for $360,000. The latter, which can be fitted with $30,000 worth of options, will ``humble the most arrogant of drivers,'' in the words of Cortez. And for someone who doesn't want to be humbled, there's the eminently more practical Mustang by Giugiaro. A one-off concept car with a cowhide cow·hide n. 1. a. The hide of a cow. b. The leather made from this hide. 2. A strong heavy flexible whip, usually made of braided leather. tr.v. interior and a 500-horsepower Ford racing engine, the car won praise from Ford design guru J. Mays as ``a classic American icon wearing an Italian designer suit.'' ``This is not the $25,000 Mustang you see driving down the street,'' Mays said. ``If this went on sale, it'd be closer to $130,000. The chances of it ever going into production are slim to none.'' Theoretical bargain At prices like that, the shark-faced Lotus Elise The Lotus Elise is a roadster conceived in early 1994 and released in September 1996 by the English manufacturer Lotus Cars. The car has a hand-finished fiberglass body shell atop its aluminium extrusion and bonded frame that provides a rigid platform for the suspension, while seems like a theoretical bargain. Tiny, lightweight and muscular, it thrives on acceleration rather than massive power and sells for around $43,000. Its supercharged su·per·charge tr.v. su·per·charged, su·per·charg·ing, su·per·charg·es 1. To increase the power of (an engine, for example), as by fitting with a supercharger. 2. cousin, the Exige S, hits 60 mph in 4.1 seconds, down from the just-too-slow 4.9 it managed in a previous model. For $60,000, it's the veritable economy model of supercars. ``A lot of people see this as an exotic car with an exotic price tag,'' said Simon Croft, marketing communications manager for the British manufacturer. ``You Americans are fantastically good at stopping me at gas stations to ask questions, and the ultimate one is: how much?'' For the driver who wants to answer that question with the ultimate response, there's the Bugatti Veyron 16.4. With a $1.4 million price tag and a 1,001-horsepower engine, its maker didn't even have to do anything new to stir up excitement. It put up the exact same display it did last year, brought the same car and had no trouble drawing a crowd on preview day. Top speed, 253 mph Bugatti spokesman Georges Keller said the rare ride, which boasts a top speed of 253 mph, is really quite reasonable to use to get around. ``It's as easy to drive as a Golf or a Passat, but you've got a lot more performance,'' said Keller, who demonstrates an amazing capacity for understatement. ``It's very easy to handle. You put it in drive and send your wife out to pick up the newspaper.'' If she pushed it up to top speed, didn't run out of gas and somehow avoided the California Highway Patrol, she could leave Los Angeles, pick up the paper in San Diego and return in under an hour. It beats having to wait for delivery. That's ridiculous, but that's what cars like this are all about. Most will never see the rigors of the street, let alone maximum velocity maximum velocity n. 1. The maximum rate of an enzymatic reaction that can be achieved by progressively increasing the substrate concentration. 2. . They're expensive showpieces for people who don't mind dropping $500,000 on a Lamborghini, so long as no one else on the block has one. ``To really enjoy and get the full use of the Lamborghini, you've got to know how to drive it,'' said Carrie Spencer, who handles public relations public relations, activities and policies used to create public interest in a person, idea, product, institution, or business establishment. By its nature, public relations is devoted to serving particular interests by presenting them to the public in the most for Automobili Lamborghini. ``Some people will buy these and never even drive them.'' In that sense, and probably only that one, they're much like the folks roaming the show floor. ``Guys come to a show like this to take pictures of the cars and the girls,'' said Taylor Erickson, who suited up in a skintight skin·tight adj. Fitting closely or clinging to the skin. skintight Adjective (of garments) fitting tightly over the body; clinging Adj. 1. outfit to pose next to a slew of supercars on the way into one of the massive halls. ``It's a car they'll probably never get to drive, and a girl they'll probably never get to date.'' brent.hopkins@dailynews.com (818) 713-3738 We want to know If you could drive any car, tell us what it would be and why. E-mail your response to dnbiz(at)dailynews.com If you go to the show When: Runs from Friday through Dec. 10. Where: Los Angeles Convention Center The Los Angeles Convention Center (abbreviated LACC) is a convention center in downtown Los Angeles. The LACC hosts annual events such as the Greater Los Angeles Auto Show, and was best known to video games fans as host to E3 until its cessation in 2006. , 1201 S. Figueroa St. Hours: Fridays, 11 a.m.-10:30 p.m.; Saturdays, 9 a.m.-10 p.m.; Sundays, 9 a.m.-8 p.m.; Monday through Thursday, 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Admission: Adults - $10; children - 12 and younger free when accompanied by an adult; seniors (65 and older) - $7 on weekdays. For details on parking, go to LAautoshow.com CAPTION(S): 2 photos, 2 boxes Photo: (1 -- color) The Spyker C8 Spyder, with a price tag of $294,700, will be among the dream cars featured at the L.A. Auto Show beginning today at the Los Angeles Convention Center. For more on the auto show, see Business. (2) The Mustang designed by Giugiaro at the auto show features a cowhide interior and a 500-horsepower Ford racing engine. Michael Owen Baker/Staff Photographer Box: (1) If you go to the show (see text) (2) Debuts at the LA AUTO SHOW SOURCE: laautoshow.com |
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