Party in Motor City: 2015 NAIAS in Review

By Jonathon Klein - January 14, 2015

Auto Shows sometimes are a complete blur of new models, product spokesmen, free booze, and enough walking to qualify for a half marathon. This year’s North American International Auto Show in Detroit was no exception. We’ve already covered what Lexus brought to the party. Here’s what everyone else was up to.

The big headlines of the show were undoubtedly the two new supercars from both Ford and Acura. And while the long-gestating NSX has been talked about for an eternity, the car is stunning in person. Its proportions are near perfect and it’s already made the short list of cars every journalist wants to drive in 2015.

But there’s a but. And that “but” comes in the form of the delivered-straight-from-the-hand-of-God-to-the-podium 2016 Ford GT. It was built secretly in a bunker under Ford headquarters—only seven people even knew the car existed—and it’s production ready. It was easily the star of the show.

You almost have to feel bad for Acura, given how massively hard the Blue Oval uprocked them.

Many obviously swooned over the lovely exotica, but an equal number of pickups either launched or made their Detroit debut this week. Toyota had its all new Tacoma. Chevy had the ZR-2 Colorado concept. Then you had Ford launching its Raptor, Nissan debuting the new Titan—with Cummins power—and Dodge bringing the Ram Rebel Concept, which no one knew was even a thing.

And while one could—quite easily—make an argument that Ford ate everyone’s lunch, what really dominated the show was the massive presence of performance cars.

For the last decade, people have been talking about the death of sports cars. They beat their drums fuel regulations, and increased electrification, and spread the word that enthusiasts are a dying breed. But you wouldn’t know that looking around the floor.

Lexus has its new GS F, RC F, and brought the new RC F racecar. Ford had the GT350R, Raptor, GT, and a bunch of other performance vehicles. Chevy had the new Z06 and Camaro’s. Ram had the Raptor fighting Rebel. Dodge had the Challenger TA concept, Hellcat twins, and Viper. Along with a whole host of other SRT products. And all the Germans brought their respective horsepower giants as well.