It's time for the prestigious Vehiblog North American International Auto Show Awards! We give these out at the end of the press days to give awards to outstanding cars and concessions that we found throughout the course of the show.
Best Beer
Best beer of the show goes out to Acura for providing Motor City Brewing Works Nut Brown Ale on Tuesday afternoon. After fighting through crowds to get decent shots of the NSX for two days this was a refreshing reward from a local Detroit brewpub!
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| Motor City Brewing Works Nut Brown Ale |
Best Wine
Best wine goes to Nissan for providing a deliciously smooth Cabernet Sauvignon that helped wash down a surprise pulled pork sandwich with spicy coleslaw we were the recipients of while we were looking over the new Titan cutaway frame with Cummins diesel engine in Nissan's hospitality area.
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| It's delicious and we totally forgot the name |
Best Champagne
We have our first repeat winner! Bentley Motors wins again for best champagne after their press conference. Crisp, light, balanced, and delicious! Honorable mention goes to Acura for the champagne reception after the unveiling of the NSX.
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| Champagne from Bentley Motors and again we forgot to ask the brand |
Best Coffee
When we think strong coffee we usually think Italy and we were not let down. Alfa Romeo had some amazingly strong and tasty coffee and espresso's on Monday that did a great job jolting us awake after an early wake-up and traffic jams had us dragging our feet.
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| This cup fueled an entire days worth of walking, photographing, and tweeting! |
Best Food
Without a doubt the best food goes to Ford for their great buffet options available to the media. Not wanting to get slowed down by tons of greasy carbohydrate heavy food, Ford had grilled chicken, vegetables, salads, and soups along with sandwiches and desserts. Plenty of places to sit and eat too. While we ate we could listen to round table discussions on everything from performance and connectivity to the rich heritage of Ford's history.
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| Monday's Lunch |
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| Tuesdays Lunch |
Honorable mention goes to the pulled pork sandwich with spicy coleslaw and macaroni and cheese that Nissan surprised us with on Monday afternoon while we were taking some pictures in their area.
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| Absolutely delicious, thanks Nissan! |
Best Hospitality Suite
There are a lot of nice places to take a load off and have a drink or a bite at the auto show. Our favorite this year was Infiniti's because of the deco, subdued lighting, fire, comfortable chairs, and friendly staff. The cucumber infused water was very refreshing too!
And now onto the car awards!
Best Seats
We've been in a lot of different cars and for the most part seats are seats. Granted some have better support, some give you better room, or some had more adjustment features; but for the most part they don't really stand out one way or another. Then we got into the Rolls-Royce Wraith and Rolls-Royce Phantom at The Gallery, a luxury and supercar showcase that kicks off the North American International Auto Show every year at the MGM Grand Casino in Detroit. We're not sure what voodoo magic went into making these seats but we didn't want to get out. Ever. They just felt so right.
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| The suicide door on this Rolls-Royce Wraith is just welcoming you with open arms to sit down and take a load off |
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| Rolls-Royce Ghost, come on in and sit a spell |
Editor's Choice
There were so many cool cars at this show it was hard to narrow things down. Fortunately we have lots of awards to help solve that problem! Our Editor-in-Chief's personal favorite was the Volvo S60 Cross-Country sedan. While a niche vehicle, it combines the off-road prowess of the XC70 or V60 Cross-Country in a very nice sedan form. The S60 has been a fantastic car for Volvo over the last several years so this will be a nice offering in the lineup. The matte silver paint on the showcar was really nice too.
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| Volvo S60 Cross-Country Sedan |
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| Volvo S60 Cross-Country Sedan |
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| Volvo S60 Cross-Country Sedan |
Photographers Choice
After pouring over gigabytes of photos from The Gallery and the NAIAS, our photographer wound up choosing the Ford GT. The custom Liquid Blue paint and lines that just never seemed to quit put this car over the top for his choice.
Best Concept
This is always a tough choice because there are usually so many concepts to chooses from. The one that stuck out the most in our mind was the Infiniti Q60 Concept. Not only does it have amazing lines but it is actually going into production with a 3.0L direction injection twin turbocharged engine. This should continue Infiniti's competitiveness in the premium sports coupe arena.
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| Infiniti Q60 Concept |
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| Infiniti Q60 Concept |
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| Infiniti Q60 Concept |
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| Infiniti Q60 Concept |
Best Car at The Gallery
The Gallery is the start of the auto show ever year. It is an exclusive event at the MGM Grand in Detroit and is filled to the brim with some of the worlds most exclusive and exotic cars. This year was no exception with cars like the Lamborghini Huracan, Rolls-Royce Wraith, Aston Martin Vanquish, McLaren 650S, and even a Ferrari Enzo in attendance. The one vehicle that really caught everyone's eye though was the Jaguar F-Type Project 7 coupe. With styling cues from the old D-type Jaguar and a modern 575hp 5.0L V8, this 250 unit limited edition car is on our vehicle lust list from here until eternity.
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| 2015 Jaguar F-Type Project 7 |
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| 2015 Jaguar F-Type Project 7 |
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| 2015 Jaguar F-Type Project 7 aero hump behind the driver is a nice homage to the Jaguar D-Type |
Best of Show
In a little bit of an upset the Ford GT wound up beating the Acura NSX for our best in show award. While the NSX was an amazingly beautiful vehicle with some amazing specs to back it up, it just lived up to the hype. When the entire automotive community has been collectively drooling for a vehicle for the better part of a decade it's tough to award this one to Acura. It was everything we were expecting and should be for an NSX, which is a good thing, but the Ford GT just came out swinging.
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| Even from our nosebleed seats of the initial rollout the Ford GT was amazing to look at. |
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| The Ford GT being unveiled at Joe Louis Arena (Image courtesy of Gary McFarland) |
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| The Ford GT being unveiled at Joe Louis Arena (Image courtesy of Gary McFarland) |
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| The Ford GT being unveiled at Joe Louis Arena (Image courtesy of Gary McFarland) |
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| And now a closer look of the Ford GT..(Image courtesy of Gary McFarland) |
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