Maz at the Chicago Autoshow! *19 pics inside*

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MazKid

MazKid

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Well, my bro got the digicam working again, so here's the pics from the Chicago Autoshow that my parents and I went to on the 15th.

Here was more than half of the drive up to Chicago from here in STL. Snow and ice. Near total whiteout conditions, we could only go 45mph max in the Probe, since the tires are wide and suck in snow and ice. I was taking this pic from the back seat BTW, my dad doing the excellent driving.
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But we made it, and our first stop in the show? None other than the Mazda area. :)

Here's the Mazda 6 Pace car they had, pretty cool, but the doors were locked.
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The matching Star-Mazda racer, which you couldn't sit in...
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The beloved RX-8. They had neat little fold out things for the RX-8, I got a bunch of em. And again, you couldn't sit in this one. :(
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Here's the MazdaSpeed Protege they had. Strangely, I only took one pic of it...
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Goodness gracious great wall of colors! All of the current Mazda colors, on the wall behind the RX-8 turntable.
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The Mazda 6 S 3.0L V6 on a stand with clear covers.
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One of the 3 Mazda 6s they had, I didn't get pics of the others.
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Then, drum roll please, the Mazda Miata SE. Here's me and my mom in it. I can see myself driving one of these.:D My dad took these 2 pics, that's what they aren't really centered or anything. Ohh well...
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I'm so perty. :cool:

Then came the Subaru area. They had this way too cool display of the WRX engine and the Legacy engine. They were cut in half, and they would lift off of the other half, showing the pistons going up and down, everything working, even some sparks from the spark plugs(though I only noticed one plug working...). Very very awsome.
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Then a stop at the Mini display for a quick pic that I'm going to send to my uncle who said that he bought one but he never did, so I'm going to shove it in his face. :D
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And finally, we got lost trying to find the vendors thingy, and ended up on the Cafe platform thingy, which gave me a chance to get an over head shot of the Mazda area.
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And that was that. I should have gotten pics of several other things, such as a Mazda 6S on the way up that passed us at about 60mph in the snow having no problems at all. Also the 112mph Probe GT vs Civic DX highway race, where the Civic driver was tailgating us at about 90mph and kept edging out to pass us, then he ran for it and my dad downshifted to 4th and floored it and we left him about 20 car lengths back. But I just didn't think of taking pics.

So there you have it. Any questions or comments?
 
Yea I know. And my digi cam has a blur problem. Maybe it's just my settings on it, I donno. Still though, you can see what's going on.

And that little kid in the white shirt that is next to my car, the Miata...I saw him touching the car all the way around it, leaving greesy marks. I hate people like that.
 
Heh, looks mighty small for an auto show.. :odd:

Wasnt there more than mazda and mini there, or was mazda the only reason you went?
 
Well, we saw nearly all of the show, but it wasn't that interesting...

I was kinda disappointed. Chicago is usually bigger and better than the STL show, but this time, it didn't seem like it.

The Canadian autoshow had tons of stuff! I got 2 panoramic views of that show, and they had the RX-8 X-men car, the RX-01(from '95), the RX-Evolv, the Secret Hideout, the Washu, and several other ones. Thier display there looks to be nearly twice as big as the Chicago one.

It doesn't make sense...
 
The LA auto show had the x-men car. That car rules!

The LA auto show is definitely the biggest and best... You need to venture out here when you can. ;)
 
Yea I do. Hell, if I go 110 all the way there(the 323 could manage till the Rockies, and then probably break 125 on the downhill parts(though it would be scary as hell in the 3)), I'd make it in a day. :)
 
Was the new GT-40 there? I read that Ford was actually going to produce them. Or did you just look at the Mazda stuff? ;)
 
No no, we saw it briefly. There was a mob around it so we didn't bother to push through for a close look.
 
At the LA auto show, i pushed through to see a Lamborghini Muceulago (sp..).. Yeah. Wasnt that good to be in that TINY room though! There must ahve been more people in the sports car area (lambo, ferrari, lotus, bentley, etc) than any other of the spots! Jeeze, took me 20 minutes to get out and i only got to see 2 or 4 cars in there..
 
Well the Chicago show had a row of exotics...the Shell thingy. No one was near the cars, but I didn't stop to really look at them...they aren't that interesting to me.
 
Wow, I'd love to drive that RX-8 someday... or even the Mazda 6. It's too bad you couldn't get a picture of the GT40; now that car is a beast. It will probably cost upward of 500K when it comes out(There goes that dream down the tubes).
 
Well, I would have, but there was huge crowd around it and no one was moving.
 
Nope. I don't think there's a real LM edition 6, atleast I haven't seen a pic of one. That's the Mazda 6 Pacecar, which I presume would be pacing races at Mazda Speedway.

Now, the police need to make it a cop car. That would be something. ;)
 
I went to the Birmingham NEC in 1998. Haven't got any photos I think. I was one of the first to sit in the Lexus IS200 and Ford Focus.

Memorable for the Daihatsu stand, where (since I'm 6" 4) I could not fit in any of their cars even with the seats pushed back.
 
Yes really. Go there.

Go to the Laguna Seca website.

Mazda became the first car company to own a major racing complex.

Yet another first for them.
 
Cool pics. I used to go to the Chicago Auto show with my dad every year. We'd come home with bags of brochures I'd drool over for the next week or so.

I wonder why they have to have it in the Winter?
 
Originally posted by Giancarlo
Hmm, nice. I hate the damn shinyness, ruins most of the pics...
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Yeah, taking great pictures at an Auto Show is darn near impossible. Not to slight your work (I always sucked at it too!), but it takes a professional with great photo equipment to take good auto-show pics.

Darn lighting!
 
Originally posted by MazKid
Yes really. Go there.

Go to the Laguna Seca website.

Mazda became the first car company to own a major racing complex.

Yet another first for them.
Click to expand...

Umm, no. Toyota has California Speedway since 1996, Honda owns Twin Ring Motegi and Suzuka, in Japan, the FIAT group has something to do with Italian racetracks... Ford and Chevy also own a few racetracks across the USA.

Laguna Seca was both sponsored by Toyota and Honda before Mazda, and it'll change hands in a few years again.

Either way, i'm surprised you paid to go to an autoshow... Knowing your preferences, a trip to the local Mazda dealer would do just as fine... ;)
 
Originally posted by M5Power
Can't see the Six pace car at an auto show...
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For what it's worth... It's a normal 6 with a lightbar, and some shiny graphics...
 
Originally posted by PunkRock
For what it's worth... It's a normal 6 with a lightbar, and some shiny graphics...
Click to expand...

But to MazKid... it's another Mazda to be seen! And you can't pretend that you get it all from these pictures, oh no! When at the Mercury display, I felt as I was one with the Monterey...
 
Agreed, but all the interesting cars are locked, now... What fun is it to sit in a Suzuki Aerio, or a Toyota Echo?
 
Originally posted by PunkRock
Agreed, but all the interesting cars are locked, now... What fun is it to sit in a Suzuki Aerio, or a Toyota Echo?
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It's certainly fun to sit in such a spectrum of cars at once. And you can't tell me Aerios aren't the coolest compact sedan.
 
hmmm...I read somewhere that it was the first...didn't quite sound right to me. Ohh well.

Still though, Laguna Seca is one of the most well-known race tracks in the US and the world, so it's all good.
 

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