Auto Shows (Page 55)

Torque News along with other media organizations have been invited to join Bosch on Nov. 7, 2011, as the company brings together its leadership to address the latest market trends and technological advancements that will impact the car buying consumer – everything from smart navigation and driver assistance systems to estimates on the U.S. market penetration for diesels and hybrids.

In a rare private workshop following the week of The Battery Show 2011, Lotus Engineering brought together a small group of journalists to its Sterling Heights, Michigan office for a Technical Press Workshop, a review of its technologies that will define the cars of the future.

The Ford Focus ST-R, a thoroughbred production-based Focus racer, is in the works for small car speedsters and will be displayed at the Los Angeles Auto Show November 18-27. The globally focused racer will soon be ready for action and available for purchase. The Focus ST-R is technically based on Ford’s Focus racecar development program aimed at professionals, amateurs and track-day enthusiasts.

While Richard Petty’s name is best associated with being a dominating force in the world of NASCAR racing, The King recently began offering high performance muscle cars and at the 2011 SEMA Show, Petty’s Garage launched their first Ford product in the form of the 2011 Ford Mustang GT Signature Series.

BMW will host a special sneak-preview event on Nov. 9th in New York City to unveil for the first time in North America what it considers to be the cars of the future – the BMW i3 and BMW i8 concept vehicles.

Among the many high performance models at the Mopar display at the 2011 SEMA Show was the Ram 392 Quick Silver - a Ram 1500 equipped with the 6.4L Hemi from the current SRT8 lineup and while this truck is just an “image vehicle“, Mopar points out just how easy it was to make this truck, perhaps suggesting how easy it could be for Ralph Gilles’ SRT Group to offer a new high performance pickup.

Among the news of new crate engines and all of the sexy high performance show cars, the folks at Chrysler’s Mopar division used the 2011 SEMA Show to announce some massive racing news - that Pro Stock champion Jeg Coughlin Jr would be making a return to a factory backed Mopar racing team after several years behind the wheel of a GM race car.

Leading up to the 2011 SEMA Show, the good people at Hyundai informed the world that racer/builder Rhys Millen would be bringing something special to the Las Vegas show and when the sheet was pulled away from this mystery car we were introduced to the RM500 - a Hyundai Genesis Coupe powered by the 5.0L Tau V8 from the Genesis Sedan.

Last week we brought you the news that WD40 and the SEMA Cares charity group would be offering up a new vehicle that would be auctioned off with the help of the good people at the Barrett Jackson Auto Auction to benefit children’s charities and yesterday, the new 2012 Dodge Challenger SRT8 392 WD40 SEMA Cares vehicle met the world.

While General Motors devoted a huge portion of their 2011 SEMA Show display to their sporty new compact Chevy Sonic. The Chevrolet Camaro was also out in full force with one of the most impressive versions being the gorgeous green-chrome unit shown on the right - designed in the style of a vintage Hot Wheels racer.