A Jeep Rubicon takes riders on the challenging off-road course of Camp Jeep on the first day of the Orange County International Auto Show at the Anaheim Convention Center. LEONARD ORTIZ, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
If the cars at Anaheim Convention Center are sitting behind a rope or spinning on a turntable, if they re elevated on a stage or fenced in with Plexiglas, it has to be the Orange County International Auto Show. The annual show opened to the public Thursday with more than 500 of the shiniest, newest, most desirable vehicles on the market. The Orange County Register is one of the show s sponsors.
All the hot new metal is here, said Jonny Lieberman, senior features editor of Motor Trend magazine and spokesman for Motor Trend Auto Shows, which runs the Orange County show. Among the hottest of that metal: The Mercedes-AMG GT S sports car, a pre-production version of McLaren s new entry-level 570S; Nissan s first diesel pickup truck; and a concept car even the show s executive director didn t know was coming until it parked on the showroom floor Thursday.
The highlight of any auto show is of course the concepts, and this is by far and away the best concept of the last year, Lieberman said, referring to the Lincoln Continental parked in the center of the Lincoln display.
In pictures, you can t tell how deeply inset the grille is, he said. You can t tell how deeply concave the wheels are. You ve got to come see these things in the flesh. Thousands of people will do just that through Sunday, though exactly how many organizers won t estimate. The show has been attracting more attendees every year since 2010, according to its executive director, John Sackrison.
While I d love to take great credit for that, a lot of it is reflective of the market, said Sackrison, who anticipates that Orange County auto sales will top 190,500 by the end of this year.
When you come to a show like O.C., which is a huge market, what you re looking at are typically cars that are in market now that you can look at and then go and buy, said Scott Brown, spokesman for Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, which is showing its new Ram 1500 Rebel off-road pickup truck on the West Coast for the first time, in addition to the new Jeep Renegade.
I consider it a working show, he said. It s tangible. Everything s in the market. It s not like, Oh, sorry. We re teasing you. Those who want to experience the cars have the chance at the Fiat Chrysler Automobile display.
At Camp Jeep, they can hitch a ride with a professional 4×4 driver for a ride in the Wrangler or Cherokee, up an 18-foot Jeep Mountain. The FCA display also features a lime-green Dodge Challenger that rumbles and shakes and twists and tilts, using hydraulics to simulate the experience of driving one. While more than 100 real cars from 16 different automakers are available for test drives, Ferraris and other exotics aren t among them. Even touching them is discouraged, which is why workers walk the floor with feather dusters and microfiber cloths to remove fingerprints. There are, however, plenty for show in a new Exotic Auto Gallery that displays the cars like the masterpieces they are, on white carpet before black drapes. The cars are provided by Lamborghini Newport Beach, which also sells Ferrari, Maserati and McLaren; Newport Auto Center, which provides the Bentleys and Porsches; and the Dupont Registry, which is supplying a smattering of additional exotics.
We have a few interesting pieces, said Cedric Davy, chief marketing officer at Lamborghini Newport Beach. The dealership is showing one of just 600 already-sold-out Lamborghini Aventador SV coupes the Italian automaker plans to build, as well as the new Ferrari F12 and McLaren 570S, which at $184,900, is parked within spitting distance of the Porsche 911 GTS sellers will shop it against.
This is a car we start delivering at the end of the year, Davy said of the newest McLaren in its show-stopping shade of Mauvine Blue, so some customers will have that for Christmas.
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