auto show

This year’s New York International Auto Show was quiet, a confab for a shrinking industry. Sales have been tanking steadily for nearly every manufacturer. The corners of the showroom floor occupied by potentially doomed brands, like Hummer, felt a little like mausoleums. Still, plenty of automakers fought through the pain and unveiled interesting cars, which you can check out here.

Things are a teensy bit weird here in Detroit. It's a cross between Wacky Wednesday and Alice in Wonderland: Nothing is as it should be, and some things are downright trippy. Aside from the weather, which veered from drearily lukewarm and rainy to all snow and freezing wind, the true delirium began when you stepped inside. Within the main halls at Cobo Conference/Exhibition Center, guarded by a 15-foot-tall statue of boxing champ Joe Louis, things have taken a turn for the surreal. Consider:

One look at the Jeep Hurricane, unveiled at this year’s North American
International Auto Show in Detroit, and you’ll be rubbing your chin-and then
drooling. It has twin 5.7-liter Hemi V8 engines, one in front of the passenger
compartment and one behind it, and a turning radius of zero. The Hemis´ combined
output amounts to a whopping 670 horsepower and 740 pound-feet of torque;
fortunately, their multi-displacement systems can each shut down four
cylinders-or an entire engine-when less than maximum grunt is required. Two