Breakfast with GM: The Philly show

[Camino LS6]

So I drag my sorry butt out of bed at about 4:30 this morning so I have time to get ready to go downtown for the invitation only GM get-together at the Philadelphia Auto Show. It takes quite a while to deal with the dogs in the morning so I wanted to get an early start as we had to be at the show at 7:00A.M. First order of business is to let Zora out. While he is outside I start to do my normal morning ritual which includes feeding Arkus. I want to get this done before I hop in the shower.

Well, it comes time to switch dogs and Arkus bursts through the open door with his usual lack of grace as Zora comes back in. I look down at Zora and his face is sopping wet and he is squinting his eyes looking pretty freaked out. Just as I am puzzling over this the smell hits me like WMD.

He's been skunked - badly.

The next thing I know, I'm gagging and he is rubbing his face on the rug.

OH Joy!

By now, Arkus has been outside unsupervised for way too long - he has a habit of running right through the invisible fence. I decide to risk it and leave him out there alone for a few minutes. So I grab the paper towels and try to get the worst of the mess off of Zora's face, and herd him and his food bowl into the bathroom. By this time, I know I need to rush outside to secure Arkus so I do. Thankfully he doesn't decide to take a tour of the neighborhood and I get him back inside and secured in his crate so I can let Zora out.

By now, I'm running late so I grab my suit (required for the event) and go to take a shower. When I open the bathroom door the smell hits me all over again, so I do a quick wipe down of the floor so I can shower in there.

Finally I am dressed and ready to go. I open the door and now the entire house reeks, but I have to go RIGHT NOW and I'm wearing a suit, so I was out of options. I close the door behind me and hope for the best.

Luckily, Batman GTO is waiting in the driveway and we arriive at the show with a few minutes to spare.

This is all before sunrise and I have had no coffee yet.

So we sign in and proceed to the exhibit hall, meeting GMTG74 and his wife along the way.

A buffet table of breakfast food and Coffee is set up just inside the door, but the line is long so we wander around a bit first. As we are looking at the Camaro convertible concept, I hear someone call my name. As I turn, I am very surprised to see Dave Hamburger of SLP fame standing off to the side of the Camaro.

We are having a good conversation when I feel somone grab my shoulder and say into my ear, "El Caminos Suck!". I turn to face my assailant and there is Scott Settlemire grinning at me. Got a good laugh out of that.

So we poke around the cars for a bit and eyeball the car under cover on the raised platform in the center of the Chevy area - its shape is unmistakable.

After a short time, Scott climbs the platform and gives a good talk about all that is going on in the world of GM and especially Chevrolet. He touches on the points raised in Bob Lutz' recent "thinking" speech (posted in our GM news section) and then its' time...

He gives Dave Hamburger his cue to pull the cover off of the car on the dias and there it is...

An absolutely gorgeous Magnetic Grey ZR1!

There's more to say about the ZR1, the other cars , and the show, and I did take some pics which I may wait until tomorrow to post. For now,I wanted to get this much of the story posted before the fumes from my still reeking Zora dog overcome me.

[ocnblu]

So, in order to breathe and stay unskunked, you're typing all this while wearing a wet suit and oxygen tanks? :AH-HA_wink:

Sounds fun, Camino. I think I might hit the road in the morning with my camera and head up there to the show.

[Camino LS6]

So, in order to breathe and stay unskunked, you're typing all this while wearing a wet suit and oxygen tanks? :AH-HA_wink:

Sounds fun, Camino. I think I might hit the road in the morning with my camera and head up there to the show.

I should be in full Hazmat gear. I've already treated Zora twice with this stuff called "Nature's Miracle" which is supposed to kill the stink. If it's better, I really can't tell.

The ZR1 is worth the trip.

[Robert Hall]

Hmmm...sounds like an interesting day... I've never been skunked, but I did have a cat pee all over my pillow and head once.. (smelly).

[GMTruckGuy74]

Here are some shots I took of the "hosts" of the party:

2009 Corvette ZR1:

2007 Camaro Convertible Concept:

My story starts off the same as Camino's, with me waking up at 4:30 AM also. However, that's about where our similarities end!

I had all intentions of saving some $$$ by taking the PATCO train over into the City; however, the wife wasn't as enthusiastic about such an early wake-up as I was . So we ended up driving in (very little traffic on I-295 South/US-676/Ben Franklin Bridge at 5:50 AM, so 40 mins later and we're there (we waited about 15 mins in the truck <wife's sleeping!>, since we weren't sure if they were letting in any earlier than 7AM {they were!}). We entered, made our way up the escalator and into the semi-long-but moving sign-in line. Guess who's two people behind me? Camino and BatmanGTO. Unlike them, the wife makes me wait in the equally semi-long food line, as she's now awake and hungry We walk over to the Camaro concept with our food, then she quickly finds a leftover table from the previous night's Black-Tie event. I stare at the covered ZR1 and then make my way back to Camino for a little chit-chat. Watch the unveiling and off the wife and I go to look at all the GM cars and trucks (we were instructed to stay within GM until 9AM/show opening, although many didn't). Since we're going back on the 9th with a small group of friends & family, and "grandparents" waiting for us to return to collect the "slept-over grandchildren", we left around 9:30 AM with seeing only about 30% of the show (have to save some fun for next weekend).

[ocnblu]

I'm looking forward to more photos from the Philly show. I decided not to go, but instead I now have plans to head down to Baltimore next Saturday for that show, one of those Motor Trend shows, if the weather holds.

[BatmanGTO]

The Show was excellent... the top dog for me below the ZR-1 of course was the hybrid tahoe.... same mileage as a camry.... shove that up your tailpipe toyota.

You ever notice how Toyota never has enthusiast meetings? Or any of the other car makers for that matter.....

[caddycruiser]

The Show was excellent... the top dog for me below the ZR-1 of course was the hybrid tahoe.... same mileage as a camry.... shove that up your tailpipe toyota.

You ever notice how Toyota never has enthusiast meetings? Or any of the other car makers for that matter.....

You're nuts, right? :AH-HA_wink: Camry "sticker" mileage in the city, using an expensive Hybrid system and a $50k+ pricetag...but the car still usually gets better, and really is an apples to...well...concrete comparison. Good point on the enthusiast bit, though...they may, but GM fanatics wouldn't typically know about such events.

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That said, I ALMOST made it to this event but had to back out at the last minute! Signed up, but had to go away for the weekend, and still even if I was around...there's no way I could have been there on time. One, I would have slept in and two, I was NOT taking the Caddy in to the city and there's no train that early, so oh well.

Last year, when we went on media day, it was awesome, for sure. I think I'm going to go down this week, either Friday or Saturday, hopefully with things having died down a bit.

Edited February 4, 2008 by caddycruiser

[Z-06]

The Show was excellent... the top dog for me below the ZR-1 of course was the hybrid tahoe.... same mileage as a camry.... shove that up your tailpipe toyota.

You ever notice how Toyota never has enthusiast meetings? Or any of the other car makers for that matter.....

Toyota Enthusiasts meetings will equivalent to Kenmore holding meetings for their washer and dryer series. Appliances do not need enthusiasits.

[BatmanGTO]

Toyota Enthusiasts meetings will equivalent to Kenmore holding meetings for their washer and dryer series. Appliances do not need enthusiasits.

hahaha