Every year, on the eve of the first press day at Detroit, General Motors hosts an event called GM Style - sort of a combination concert/fashion show/sneak preview of some of the cars it'll be showing the world's media over the next couple of days.
This year's show featured performances from Mary J. Blige, Maroon 5 and local boy Kid Rock - and some pretty hot cars, including an E85 ethanol powered hot rod, a single-seat Pontiac Solstice club racer and a tuner version of the new Saturn Astra.
The applause for it all was respectful, but the only car that got the crowd on its feet was the new Corvette ZR1, the 620-hp, 200-mph supercharged uber-Vette. Driven onstage by Jeff Gordon to the strains of Kid Rock ("We don't buy s**t here, we build it," he shouted), the ZR1 got a standing ovation.
None louder than from me, though I wonder how much longer the horsepower and top speed wars can continue given the fuel-economy regulations coming down the U.S. pipeline.
The ZR1 will be the first Corvette subject to the gas-guzzler tax; it may well be the last.
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