New York motor show: liveblog

Having escaped GM it's time to check out Ford and Shelby

Welcome to our liveblog from the 2013 New York International Auto Show. We'll be updating this page regularly from the show floor so keep checking back for updates.

Dan

The 34th floor, 1930h
So, back at the hotel, via Ford and Shelby both of which were interesting. I'd missed the Ford Mustang 50th anniversary party last night which, frankly, sounded like more fun than the Daniel Craig celeb spotting event but I managed to catch up with PR man Craig Daitch and get the lowdown on the state of fast Fords in the US.

1,200hp Mustang 'on Shelby's bucket list'

We're at an interesting juncture here too, with Ford Europe sending hot hatches across the pond to the US and, if rumours are true, the Americans planning to do the same with the next global Mustang. Craig was tight lipped on the latter but only too keen to enthuse about Fiesta and Focus STs. He describes the latter as a great litmus test for hot hatches Stateside while Ken Block's Fiesta has helped, as he puts it, fight the stigma against small fast cars in a land where you can have a V6 Mustang for not that much more money. It's a big cultural shift but one Ford is clearly excited about.

And one shared by Shelby. Seemed odd talking about tuned up Focuses standing next to a 1,200hp Mustang but the guys there are as enthusiastic as Ford proper about the potential for Americans getting switched on to hot hatches. And with the European arm's experience in the field the background work is already done.

Be interesting to see how it works the other way with the next Mustang...

GM stand (again), 1530h
So I had a chat with John Fitzpatrick, marketing manager for Camaro, SS and Corvette, not long before the Z/28 came out on stage, the fact it hadn't yet made an appearance making it tricky for him to answer all the questions directly. He was grinning throughout though, handing me a set of earplugs as the press conference and unveiling loomed and saying "get a good seat, this is going to be loud..."

Sod's law dictated I was needed elsewhere though so I actually missed the grand entrance, fighting the flow of bodies flooding into GM's giant hall to get back to the main concourse. Dammit! Back at GM and the Camaro Z/28 does look fantastic and I love the old-school approach to tuning. Which is, it seems, to make every mechanical component bigger. And/or lighter. Which is how we end up with a 7.0-litre engine and an unapologetic 'America, #&!@ yeah!' approach to fast cars. Expressed by Fitzpatrick's delight in the exposure for Camaro off the back of Transformers. You get the feeling if they could actually sell one that turned into a robot with guns on they probably would. And stomp right over to Ford to have a word with that 1,200hp supercharged Shelby Mustang.

Which, belatedly, is exactly what I'm going to do. Only not with guns. Just my notepad and camera.

GM stand, 1130h
If you think US immigration are tough just wait until you try and get into the NYIAS. Having queued for validation of credentials, been redirected for another queue to collect the credentials I'd already applied for and then, having been given them, had to queue again to validate them I finally got in. Phew.

Anyway, you don't want to hear about that. You want to hear about absurdly cheap cars with massive V8s. Ta da!

Purple enough for you? Yep, that'll be $40,000 worth of Dodge Challenger SRT Core. 470hp 6.5-litre V8. Armchairs for seats. Built to accommodate the, ah, powerfully built. Yeehaw and all that.

I wasn't meant to chat with the SRT guys until later on today but I lucked out and had a few minutes with Russ Ruedisueli, head of SRT Motorsports and Engineering as things were just getting going. Nice guy too and who'd have thought the guy who builds Vipers would happily boast of being a former MX-5 owner... He had a fun story of being shepherded into the 'design dome' two decades ago and being shown the original Viper as Bob Lutz fired it up and said 'who wants to work on this!' Russ knew there and then he did and though it took a while he's clearly chuffed to now be at SRT and managing its evolution into a standalone performance brand in the mould of AMG or BMW M. OK, so we get to see it as a badge or set of wheels on a diesel 300C at the moment but over here there's a real sense of purpose on the Chrysler stand across all the brands. Nice that Russ had seen - and enjoyed - the Time For Tea? we did on the Viper production line video.

Somewhat awkwardly I had to excuse myself from the SRT guys to hop across to the north hall and talk to chief Corvette engineer Tadge Juechter. It's the first time I've seen the Stingray up close and it looks fabulous and feels surprisingly compact and wieldy from the inside. And can you believe it'd cost you less than a new Cayman?

I liked Juechter's manifesto for driver involvement too, and his pop at Porsche with a "it's music to my ears" that Porsche is moving to PDK only for hardcore models like the GT3. "Especially as we have the best manual transmission," he went on, while acknowledging that for the mainstream the stick shift is effectively dead. Not that he cares - the Stingray is all about the fun factor, indeed he refers to the dial that configures the various driver settings as the 'fun meter', and is all about keeping the driver at the heart of the experience. All power to him on that score.

Now to explore some more of the show. I gather there's something going on atSubaru that needs further exploration...

The 34th floor, 0730h
It's a little surreal brushing your teeth and looking out over this. But this is the view from my hotel this morning as I prepare to head up to the Javits Convention Center for day one of the NYIAS.

Why the swanky accommodation? Well we're here with Jaguar Land Rover and, so far, New York has belonged to them. To say the Land Rover half of that equation has spent big on the launch of the new Range Rover Sport - rooms with views for undeserving hacks included - would be the understatement of the year.

Celebs arrive at the unveiling; we got the bus

As you'll have probably gathered last night Land Rover took over a good portion of Manhattan for a glitzy, and very noisy, unveiling. Centre stage, Daniel Craig arriving (just) in the new Sport having apparently just driven at vast speed direct from the docks. Splicing live action with some artfully pre-prepared footage, it was cleverly done and the Americans in the audience whooped and cheered suitably while the Brits present cocked an eyebrow, exchanged looks and offered polite applause. It was all very 'lifestyle' too, a chat with some of the attendees revealing an audience made up of celebs that I'd entirely failed to spot and a selection of fashion and media types sprinkled about the place to give it that gloss of the here and now.

Why are these trendy New Yorkers so excited about a new Sport though? Well, it's the biggest single metropolitan market for the outgoing car, 415,000-odd of which have been sold worldwide since it launched in 2005. So you can understand the big splash of the launch.

As close to smiling as Craig does

And you know what? The car looks great too. You may like SUVs, you may not, but taken in isolation it's rippling with confidence and character and looks superb. A half-tonne weight saving (or nearabouts) should transform the driving experience too. And after experiencing Manhattan's potholes in a bus on the way to the launch event we can see why New Yorkers are such fans; plenty of suspension travel a loud horn seem to be the two attributes that matter to local drivers. We're guessing the Sport has the latter too.

Apparently other cars are available at the show though, the Jaguar half of the equation looking a little more relaxed than their Land Rover colleagues as they revealed to us the XKR-S GT and XJR yesterday. These will get their public unveilings later on today.

We're more interested in the local produce though. Which is why we've got dates with Corvette, Ford, Dodge and others at the show. Speaking of which, it's time for me to grab my notebook and pen and head off...

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Noe

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