Car Show Coverage: 2012 Dub Car Show: New York

Why does Dub Magazine always drop the ball in New York? The Tri-State area have plenty of customized cars, but before I blame Dub, I bet that the Javits Convention Center only provides them a tiny, tiny space. Anyhow, Dub released photos from their car show that was tucked away within the New York International Auto Show. Check it out...








(I had a feeling to compensate for the closet space that Dub had to work with for a car show, they brought two people that the public wouldn't mind getting autographs from.)

(My FORMER rapper crush. It pained me to say this, but I had to move on from him.)



























(Long Island in the house!!!)

(Hey, I saw this Escalade at SEMA. Glad to know that it made it home safely)



(I have to check out NYCmotoring.com)

















For more photos, check out Dub Magazine's Flickr Page. There's not much more, except a bunch of crowd shots and people posing with the UFC fighter and Juelz Santana. I'm still wondering why Dub stopped coming to Englishtown.

What happened at the 2012 New York Auto Show?

First and foremost... I know I talked a good game about attending this car show, but financially I couldn't attend. Yes, New York is my hometown and I'm typing from Atlanta, GA. But I do have financial common sense- meaning I wasn't going to piss away my money to pay my mortgage to attend an auto show where I knew that Auto Blog (the top automotive blog out- which means they hire photographers who know the difference betweeen manual and automatic) This year, I'm being a bit smarter with the shows I attend, meaning I won't attend smaller shows or auto shows. I rather put money towards attending bigger car shows and automotive rallies where you have to search hell and high water to get the photos. And unlike blogs that have automotive sponsors but can't write an original automotive post to save their lives (Think of a certain DJ that has sponsorship from Ford), I won't plagerize Auto Blog's words. Paraphrase- yes. Plagerize- no. You might ask what's the difference- plagerizing is a glorified word meaning "stealing". Paraphrase means to borrow aspects from the original source, and giving them credit.

The famous Auto Show tour made it's stop in one of the most important cities. Besides the fact that I'm from New York, New York is one of the most important cities because the manufacturers do have special unveilings at this stop, and every manufacturer shows up to New York, even if they're based out of the country, and even if they don't have anything new to show.

The 2012 New York Auto Show fell a little short this year. Every car that was shown either had minor enhancements or the major enhancements has been shown previously this year at another auto show (except Atlanta's auto show).

(If you're wondering- the guy kissing the vehicle is the reason why the Viper is back. His name is Ralph Gilles, President of SRT and obviously a great salesman)

The biggest debut of the entire show was Dodge bringing back the Viper and it will be available later this year. It has 640 horsepower with a V10 engine. Autoblog says that it is not as powerful as the Bugatti Veyron and Ferrari F12, however it is more powerful than the Lamborghini Aventador. The previous two statements summed up everything that you need to know about the Dodge Viper. The MSRP will be announced soon, but until then, just drool over the photo.

Honerable mentions include...

New Yorkers got to see what their new yellow taxis will look like

Porsche unveiled the Cayenne Diesel. It was originally available overseas, and this is the first time it arrived in the United States. Auto Blog says the turbocharged 3.0-liter V6, rated at 240 horsepower and 406 pound-feet of torque. Mated to a standard eight-speed automatic transmission, the automaker says it will run to 60 mph in 7.2 seconds and on to a top speed of 135 mph. The Cayenne Diesel is rated to tow a segment-leading 7,716 pounds and boasts a highway range of 740 miles thanks to its 28 mpg highway rating.

Fisker showed off their Fisker Atlantic- a more affordable version of the Fisker Karma. Fisker thinks the Atlantic is a more family friendly car. This isn't the type of vehicle where you'll allow your four year old to drop juice in.

Chevrolet made the Impala attractive again, by borrowing the looks of the Camaro and applying it to the once drab midsize sedan. Great move of Chevy's part, and that would definitely increase sales, especially if they still offer the Impala in the SS trim level.

Hyundai released TWO editions of their popular Santa Fe CUV, and it looks sooo much better. The sport edition can fit 5 people and the Hyundai Santa Fe LWB can fit 7 people. It's like when GMC released the Envoy and the Envoy XL.

Jeep presented the Altitude trim level for the Grand Cherokee, the Compass and the Patriot. The Altitude trim level is a blacked out trim level. Black exterior, black interior, with black wheels. Purrrrfect.


But the most important unveiling from the entire auto show...

Shelby presented the most powerful production car ever to come out of Carroll Shelby's mind- the 1000. The muscle coupe comes in two options – the 950 horsepower street version and the track-only 1100+ horsepower S/C. Shelby is only willing to produce 100, each of them at the MSRP close to $200,000. Some say that this is too much power for a Mustang- but you have to remember- the Shelby edition has been around as long as the Ford Mustang, although Shelby took that 37 year hiatus, folks are still buying them. Ford Mustang fans are as hardcore as New York Yankee fans, Dallas Cowboy fans, and Los Angeles Lakers fans. It's not for everyone to understand but Shebly fans and Mustang Fans will understand.

New York Auto Show will have a new home... In Queens.

(Photo found on NYPI.net and this is the nicest I've ever seen the Javits Center)

According to the New York Times, the beloved Jacob Javits Convention Center has hit the end of the road. Governor Andrew Cuomo recently announced that New York's Main convention center is on the chopping block. Well, what does this have to do with automotives? The Jacob Javits Convention Center has been the home of the New York International Auto Show since 1988.

The Javits Convention Center has been problematic for over a decade. First New York wanted to expand it, then they wanted to remodel it, now they're giving up on it. The best quote to describe the Convention Center is: “It’s just such an awful building that the only reason to keep it would be as a monument to stupidity,” by Mark Wigley, the dean of Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation.

(Photo from gobbidesign.com)

I'm going to be honest, it's an ugly building. However, you can't beat the location, especially for all of the conventions that New York hosts. It's up the street from Bentley of Manhattan, Chelsea Piers, Meatpacking District, a few blocks over from Whino Central (Port Authority), not far from Penn Station, and a hop, skip, and a jump away from Times Square. It's ideal for tourists/those in NY for business because if you stay in midtown or in Times Square, you're literally RIGHT THERE. You could walk (Midtown Manhattan is very safe, and I'm not being sarcastic.) or take a short cab ride.

So the question is: Where will NYIAS be held? Get this: Governor Cuomo also announced the arrival of a new convention center along with commercial and residental property... at the Aqueduct Racetrack in Ozone Park, Queens. I've lived in New York for many years. The only reason why New York City has money is because of the tourists, and NYIAS and other conventions do bring out of state traffic into the city. Why build Javits Center replacement in a part of Queens that's not easily accessible? Granted Ozone Park isn't far from JFK airport, but trust me when I say that staying in Queens or Brooklyn isn't ideal for a tourist- unless if you have $500 a week for taxi fare.

New York needs to take a page from Los Angeles and carefully plan the events that take place in Madison Square Garden. The Staples Center houses every single sports team in Los Angeles as well as Car Shows, Auto Shows, Conventions, AND Concerts. The Staples Center is practically open 365 days, and MSG doesn't hold nearly as many events.

The last part of this post is very opinionated, and feel free to send this to Andrew Cuomo. The only perk to going to Ozone Park is that it's a Mafia-influenced area, if you're into that sort of thing.

Recapping Episode Seven of Funkmaster Flex's Full Throttle (The New York Auto Show)

Last Sunday's episode of Full Throttle, Flex decided to leave the comfort of his garage in the Bronx and traveled to midtown Manhattan to the New York Auto Show (yes, the same show I was suppose to attend).

At the show, Flex caught up with "next on deck" rappers: Tinie Tempah, Joell Ortiz and Big Sean, newcomers who are making a lot of noise (in a good way) and getting a lot of attention. Tinie's car choice was the Audi R8 where he continued to say that the car is extremely popular in his native country of England. Tinie continued to shine light on how they do things across the pond- when people have enough money to spend on a high end car, they don't customize it in any way, they leave it stock. No wheels, no grills, no tint. The ONLY customization that's acceptable to a high end car is to custom paint it with a matte paint. I see it's the complete opposite in the US. Also Tinie mentioned how he can't ride in a convertible because he's too recognizable in Britain.


Brooklyn rapper Joell Ortiz had realistic and obtainable dreams and went towards the Chevy area where he had his eye on the Convertible Camaro. At this point, it turned into a battle of the muscle cars: Camaro vs. Mustang (Joell vs. Flex). Joell described the burnt orange Convertible Camaro as scary... cause of the orange color reminded him of Halloween. He hops in, giving us a mental picture of how to act in a Convertible Camaro in his neighborhood in BK: drive real slow so everyone can see, especially those who are envious.

The final rapper Flex caught up with was Big Sean, who likes the stereotypical cars that most rappers go for. He went on and hopped into a Rolls Royce Ghost, and then talked about how he aspired to get a Bentley Flying Spur. Flex asked the question "What kind of car would people wouldn't expect you to like." Sean said an old school Impala: ironically he picked a staple in the Hip-Hop culture. Next Question: Camaro, Charger, or Mustang. Surprisingly Sean went with the Charger, and they made their way to the Dodge section and looked at the Charger from the Fast Five movie.

Out of the Tinie, Joell, and Sean's interview, I liked Tinie's the most. Simply because his had the most automotive insight. Joell and Sean's interviews were too typical.

This episode was extremely reminiscent of Flex's past TV Shows, where he would go to shows and actually converse about cars and nothing but cars. Back when he took Lil' Kim to a chop shop and she bought parts for an old school car. Ahhh, memories.

Here's the entire episode. But I hate the commercial breaks.

Funk Flex Full Throttle - MTV Shows

Bonus Clip: Joell and Flex attempted to talk about old school Buicks and was interrupted.

Funk Flex Full Throttle

Most truthful line of this entire episode: "As we all know, New York is the capital of the world"- Funkmaster Flex.