The Car Enthusiast (Detroit Motor Show, Jan 2000)

Story by Shane O' Donoghue : 12th January 2000

As if the Greater Los Angeles Auto Show was not enough this month along comes the all-conquering Detroit Auto International to show every show that has gone before how it should be done. I'm afraid that we will not have the time to tell you about every one of the exciting concept cars on display, not forgetting the less exciting but no less important new production cars. Where do I begin? I know, the sexsational new Jaguar concept car - the F-type. WOW! There she is on the right in all her splendour, waiting to pounce on any unsuspecting Porsche Boxster. This is the logical evolution of the XK180 concept from last year. The F-type will reach production, according to a Ford insider.

Jaguar F-type concept. Photograph by Jaguar.

Next up is the Mitsubishi SSS concept car. It does look more like a toy than a car, but continues Mitsubishi's line of "Geo-Mechanical" style concept cars. Indeed, the latest Eclipse incorporates some of these features. The SSS is a pretty futuristic-looking family saloon, maybe for a world after the holocaust... It is certainly worth a look.

I think I am glad that I was not in Detroit this week as I would have felt like a spoilt child at Christmas with too many toys to choose from. Some were worthwhile, others may make production while a few more were concepts for the sake of being concepts - one of my personal favourites! Take a peek at the Chrysler Panel Cruiser concept, based on the PT Cruiser. It certainly looks the part. Even if Chrysler do not produce this, you can be sure that somebody in America will. The PT Cruiser was shown in its "ultimate" form as the PT Cruiser GT - nice, but is it just an alloys and shocks job?.

The logical evolution of the Viper was shown by Dodge - tagged the Viper GTSR, this is nothing more than a fancy looking road version of the successful racer - niiiice! Back in the Chrysler circle was a potentially interesting concept car - the Chrysler 300 Hemi C concept. The name harks back to the enlightened '70s, but the design and execution of the concept were a little unimaginative. It could easily make production though.

Dodge took the truck=car concept a little further this year with the Dodge Maxxcab concept. This is the "World's First �Passenger Priority� Truck" apparently.... Still, the American population prefer trucks to cars, so why not make them more practical?! The off-road arm of DaimlerChrysler showed the Jeep Varsity concept - who do you think they are aiming at? Jeep should have made the Ecco concept of a zillion years ago and get on with it - they badly need a small SUV in the line-up.