The picture show starts with a summer visit to Wilmington. Three test mules were out in the parking lot, close enough to get these first few pix. I went back later to watch production, I have a couple of shots of a test driver that stopped to talk to me, but thought it best to leave them out. He said things are cooking along - and there were over 200 cars (of EVERY color) in the lot to back him up. But even the telephoto shots were disappointing so I left them out. By the way, the pix are about a megabyte each, I constrained them so they'll pop up the right size for a browser, but if you right-click and save them you'll get the full photo file.

The shot of the 2 cars racing was from my second visit. It was a tie. One of these drivers was the guy that stopped to speak to me, he assured me that the cars were tip-top and worth waiting for. (Another driver was turning reverse donuts in the back lot, couldn't get a picture, though.) By the way, while I was there only black cars came off the assembly line (or out the door, at any rate). They came out every 20 minutes or so.

Next you can see the two display models that GM put out in their atrium the night before our event. The red one made me wish I'd ordered red, but my logical mind reminds me that I'd probably regret it. The light silver model looked a little less impressive, but a coat of wax would probably do wonders. The finish on these two models was less than perfect, but still pretty nice. The ad is up in the center of downtown. By the way, Detroit is a little scary, just a block away from GM headquarters is an entire wreck of a neighborhood, it looks like it's being torn down, and I kind of hope it is. They are also rebuilding almost EVERY road, that got to be a pain as I was tooling around in my rental.

Next comes the cars, lined up before our one-o'clock event. The green in particular looks far better than the color samples and any photo would suggest, the blue is so dark to be mistaken for black. The green made me wish I'd ordered green, and there weren't any SLY or white. Later a SLY popped up, it did not seem to be that much darker than the COOL, perhaps my eyes were playing tricks on me. There were a few models on the plaza across the street for anyone to sit in and play with. I tried the top, it lifts pretty easily. The trunk space is plenty for a weekend trip, if you pack your soft luggage.

Finally we get to the presentation of the keys. I was right behind the lucky couple (hi, guys) and got some pretty good pix. I don't know if any of the other photographers actually got the unveiling. Eventually Bob sat in the car with my best new friends and I snapped these pix. Then he signed the inside of the hood. Then the test drives began. Everyone was in a festive mood, including me. We posed, drove, posed, and GM provided some snacks at a nice place in the building. I met the director of marketing and he finally admitted the "First 1000" concept was his, and yes, it was difficult to convince people of the merit, and, yes, it was difficult to get the first 1000 VIN's to come off sequentially. He said they intend to continue numbering the cars sequentially.

The last two shots are from the Henry Ford museum, one of Detroit's (and the world's) first traffic lights, and the Oscar Mayer WEINERMOBILE. As I walked around the museum I had to giggle - they had hundreds of cars, including the very strange original Mustang, BUT THEY DIDN'T HAVE A SOLSTICE! And I do!

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