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| Ford unveiling, Media Day, Canadian International Auto Show, Toronto, Feb. 2018 |
SOME PEOPLE MEDITATE, TAKE LONG HIKES INTO THE WILDERNESS OR PRAY. I take pictures of cars. We all have our different ways of relaxing and finding our emotional and spiritual equilibrium. Which means, I suppose, that a car show is my idea of a pilgrimage.
I thought that last year would be my last one with accreditation for media day at the big auto show here in Toronto. I was resigned to having to take in the cars in the crush of regular ticket buyers later in the week, but I took a chance and applied for accreditation as myself, author of my social media and proprietor of this blog. To my great shock my request wasn't denied.
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| Media Day, Canadian International Auto Show, Toronto, Feb. 2018 |
The great advantage of media day is that the cars are all clean and new and detailed, free from fingerprints and the wear and tear of public display. And as long as you stay away from the crowd of writers, photographers, bloggers, vloggers, presenters and video crews, they can be framed in the camera viewfinder almost human-free and lit with the best that showroom lighting tech has to offer.
As ever, it's the concept cars and halo models and racetrack thoroughbreds that catch your eye. I remain enthralled by Ford's new GT, despite its demotion from centre stage to the performance division annex. But my real satori are the vintage autos, like the 1967 Mazda Cosmo pulled from some warehouse or private collection to help launch a new car with sporty ambitions, or the sheer madness of GM's Firebird III, plucked from their Motorama show and the '50s vision of the future.
Old cars are full of these gripping details, like the exuberantly overbuilt rear end of a Cadillac Eldorado coupe, or the broad gills on an E-Type or the tidier ones on a Shelby Cobra, set just above a braided set of exhaust pipes. This is high end car porn, and a reminder that I really need to get my license one day.
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| Media Day, Canadian International Auto Show, Toronto, Feb. 2018 |
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