Once again the Olympic Stadium was the place of choice for the Montreal Auto Show 2001. No one so much as whispered a word about the time the show was canceled due to snow caving in the roof. It was obvious that this wasn’t a problem for the 90,000 or so people who showed up to look, compare and even buy a new vehicle.

There was a lot to see. Included in the show were Omega watches, AT&T and as I was noticing those my eyes fastened on three shoeshine boys doing brisk business. Anyone can see that it’s more than just a car shows these days. I noticed a lot of the older products that you sometimes see on the late, late infomercial shows. You know the stuff; let’s pour grease, acid, dirt and lighter fluid on this car hood, mix it in and now burn it! See the mixture bubbling? Normally you would get this stuff off of your car but with this old car hood I found in the dump, just look at that shine…etc.etc. Well, a lot of those boys were there shilling their products at a discount for car show patrons.

The usual crowd and more was there. By this I mean the lookers, those people who wanted to see what was new and cool and perhaps dream of what they couldn’t afford. There were so many of them, a living logjam was the norm whenever something cool was being shown or happening. The showcases were more crowded than in past years, it seemed, and there were more of them giving everyone something to interest them. I know CKOI’s loverly pinkish-lavender car made made me think that riding one to work would have to be the result of losing a bet, but no accounting for taste or lack there of I guess.

Ford Mustang is looking good

I stayed away from even inquiring about the Porsche or Lambourgini’s prices this year but couldn’t help but stop to see some antiques. Those antiques were worth about $1 million apiece except for one, which was worth approximately $5 million.

Speed demons can catch a glimpse of two cars. One went 432 miles per hour while the other did a mere 300 miles per hour.

By the way the 300 MPH car was a Pontiac Firebird 265. And while I wasn’t allowed to do any test driving to see if the cars could make to 300 MPH and beyond, 1 was allowed to test my speeding abilities behind the wheel of a Formula 1 simulator. I’m lucky I didn’t get to test drive the cars as a crashing fireball seemed to be the results of my speed in the simulators.

Another cool spot was the motorcycle portion of the show. Unfortunately so many people were looking at them you couldn’t get near the best ones. The only complaint I might have is that my favorite vehicles were the concept ones and some may never even make to the production line.

Landrover Discovery- a nice looking vehicle

Since there is all this controversy over Sports Utility Vehicles and how they are more dangerous than other vehicles, I asked the salesman about the Landrover.

The Nation: Why is the Landrover SUV a safe vehicle despite a government warning that they are unsafe?

Salesman: Because they have automatic traction control on the vehicle. It won’t start in a skid.

When a car is higher you definitely have more roll-overs caused by skids.

Infinity FX45- A definite favorite, it is a concept car. This futuristic prototype boasts new technology. It has an on-line GPS/ cell phone based navigation system complete with maps. In the backseat there is a connection for your laptop so you can go internet surfing or download needed material for that next meeting. The Infinity dealer told me that this vehicle was intended to be a fully functional mobile office. The inside was roomy and comfortable. The car is a mixture of a sports utility vehicle and a sports car. It has all-wheel drive and has great straight-line acceleration. That means it’ll take you to 60 MPH in about 5.5 seconds. That’s the V8 engine (383 Horsepowers under the hood). The 20” tires have a cool tread pattern. It should be available in the next years. I can hardly wait and want to volunteer to test it out in all types of Canadian conditions right now.

KIA Sportage- $21,495 A lot of the ladies liked this model. It’s close to the ground and has a lot of room inside of it. Kids were climbing all over it. I would say this was one of my picks in the show.