QOTD: Making an Entrance

Tim Healey
by Tim Healey

You may have noticed one of the pictures I added to Mr. Guy's Dodge Challenger 170 story after the car's unveiling was of the vehicle being airlifted onto the Las Vegas Motor Speedway dragstrip via helicopter.

You'd have seen the whole production if you watched the Roadkill livestream.


During last night's presentation, I turned to one of my fellow media members and said something to the effect of "well, this is the same company that once paraded cattle through the streets of Detroit." Well, OK, it's not exactly the same company -- Stellantis is different than Cerberus -- nor is the person behind that stunt still employed by that automaker, but you get the idea. Brands associated with Chrysler/DaimlerChrysler/FCA/Stellantis have been known to put on a show when unveiling a car.

So, too, have other automakers. I still reminder a New York Auto Show event for Scion (RIP) that included gymnasts, for example.

Sadly, for a variety of reasons, the over-the-top new-car launch isn't as common as it used to be. But once in a while we still get something like what happened last night, either at an auto show or a stand-alone event.

So, I ask of you, B and B -- which one over the years has been your favorite?

Sound off below.

[Image: Dodge/Stellantis, © 2023 Tim Healey/TTAC]

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Tim Healey
Tim Healey

Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.

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3 of 7 comments
  • ToolGuy ToolGuy on Mar 22, 2023

    Helicopters suck (Generally. Useful in *some* applications, but if you need a helicopter, chances are 54.879% that someone screwed up somewhere along the line.)

    Drones are useful. (So we won't pick on all 'rotary wing' aircraft.)

    • GT Ross GT Ross on Mar 26, 2023

      Helicopters suck. What a ridiculous statement. There isn't a "drone" made (yet) than can do what a Kayman K-Max can do. (that's the heli in the pic).


  • 95_SC 95_SC on Mar 23, 2023

    Long line precision placement. I used to watch contract birds drop containers on the mark in this manner because a convention sling load would bring the bird too close to the ground and the rotor wash would blow the FOB away. Took skill. It was mostly pilots that had worked for logging companies I always heard

  • Kjhkjlhkjhkljh kljhjkhjklhkjh Let me get this straight .. they made the app BETTER TO STARE AT WHILE DRIVING... when you are NOT supposed to be staring at a 10 inch screen glued to your dashboard for any length of time?Might as well make cyanide taste like Kool-Aid
  • MrIcky I bet these will sell ok- as fleet vehicles. They will take on in town pick up duties for power companies when an hd with tool boxes aren't required, they will show up on any company that wants to push a 'green image' but still needs to haul ladders and such like solar and roofing. It will be a strange truck in a strange market but I bet it doesn't do too bad
  • 2ACL If your driving and/or maintenance regimen wrecked the valves, what other horrors await me? A maintained 2.slow can be decent basic transportation, though many of the models carrying it are old enough to have age-related problems. This is impending heartbreak for anyone not intent on getting their hands dirty.
  • Theflyersfan If cutting costs (which usually means cheaper parts and materials) is their plan of attack, all the while dealing with millions of cars recalled and with serious quality issues, I think staying away from Ford is the best thing possible. When you hack and slash away like that, it tends to be a race to the bottom. (See: Nissan and Mitsubishi. )How about, instead, focusing on what is breaking and forcing expensive recalls and emergency service bulletins because it always costs more to fix it after the fact. And then the reputation can be improved and you can charge $100,000 for a pickup without a guilty conscience.
  • EBFlex Translation: “We want to lower quality even more”How about stop with the EVs that nobody wants and is a dead end road and invest that into making quality vehicles?
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