Breaking news! (And by breaking I mean several weeks ago) The New York International Auto Show was this past weekend as of writing this, from Mar. 29-Apr. 7. I’m Matt Barchetto, professional car guy. I went to the show April 5th, and I’m gonna tell y’all all about it.
The manufacturer’s presence was thick, everyone was there. Except Mitsubishi. Ford showed off the new Mustang and Mustang GTD, while Nissan showed off the dying GT-R, as well as the 400Z. These are all fine and dandy, but what immediately caught my eye was Subaru’s display. If I had to pick a favorite car, I’d have to say the legendary Hoonigan Subaru Family Huckster. This monster of a wagon has 862hp, and it’s a bit under 2800 pounds. That’s 3.2lbs per every horsepower. That’s absolutely insane, if you didn’t know. When I caught sight of it, I told the rest of my group to catch up, and booked it right to the Huckster. I was in awe. The square front fender exhaust was right in front of me. The window was imprinted with the name of the driver: Travis Pastrama. The thing has air brakes for pete’s sake.
My jaw firmly on the floor, I dragged it downstairs to the community corner. They had everything. JDM. GT cars. Muscle cars. Every corner of the car scene was represented. Also, so were the U.S. Marines. Wonderful.
A favorite of mine was what I like to call Civic Row. It was a row of Honda Civics, if you couldn’t tell. From time attack Civics to sleeper Civics, there were almost more Civics than there were owners. For the layman, time attack is when ultra-modified cars go around a track with huge spoilers and front splitters to get the fastest lap, and a sleeper is just a powerful car designed to look unassuming.
Another gem was the drag built Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X. Drag cars are built to go in a straight line as fast as possible, and they can do a quarter mile in seconds. This Evo was mean, It had massive drag tires, custom aerodynamic body parts, and a beefy 4-cylinder engine. The tuner scene was a lot smaller this year, mainly because the EV test track was a lot larger. Unfortunate.
Still, I got to see a section full of Toyota Supras, so that makes up for it. There was also another section with a couple lowriders, which are designed to go low, go slow, and mind blow. These machines were stunning, even the engine was decked out in engravings. These cars have hydraulic suspensions, so they can wobble in whatever direction they please. Overall, the display from both manufacturers and tuners was stunning, and it blew my mind to see all of these classics in one place.
