MEDIA ADVISORY — Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head To Visit Chicago Auto Show

Courtesy Of Bridgestone Americas, Inc.

This Saturday, the first 400 attendees to the 2009 Chicago Auto Show will have the opportunity to have their photo taken with Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head, stars of Bridgestone Americas highly acclaimed 2009 Super Bowl commercials. Chicago Auto Show visitors may also register to win a Mr. or Mrs. Potato Head during periodic drawings to be held at the Bridgestone Americas Booth (NH3).

WHO: Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head, acclaimed stars of Bridgestone America's 2009 Super Bowl Commercials

WHAT: Photo opportunity with Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head for the first 400 guests to the Bridgestone Americas booth beginning at 11 am. Tickets for a free Mr. or Mrs. Potato Head will be given away at the information desk in the Bridgestone Americas booth. A drawing* will be held every thirty minutes from 11:30 am – 3 pm.

WHEN: Saturday, Feb. 21
11 am – 3 pm

WHERE: Bridgestone Americas, Inc. Exhibit (Booth NH3)

* Note – ticket holders must be present to win.

###

We've done a list of the ten best post-apocalyptic survival vehicles in the past, but after seeing the vehicles at the Chicago Auto Show, we just had to put together this shopping list for vehicles for the end of days.

Especially because of the variety of vehicles available in Chi-town, it's perfect for days like these where it feels the Apocalypse could come in so many shapes and sizes. Will it be a comet collision? Overpowering waves of radiation following a devastating solar flare? Zombies? Financiapocalypse? The Chicago Auto Show has such a wide variety of vehicles available to choose from, it's your one-stop shop for survivability. As such we've put together an incredibly varied list of the top twelve cars perfect for whatever annihilation comes your way.

Renntech Mercedes GLK	New Scope Ford F-650 XUV	Suzuki Makai Concept	International Navistar MaxxPro
1936 Auburn Speedster	Cheap Trick Chevy Avalanche	Ford Transit Connect	Xbox Jeep Wrangler
Jeep Kid Zone	Mitsubishi Racing Lancer	Supercharged Hot Rod	Chevrolet Stingray Concept

Although we already showed you how Chevy put together the big Bumblebee statue, we wanted to get a chance to satisfy my robogasmic desires (destroying some of our commentariat's hopes to never see another word written about this movie) with a few shots of the new-and-slightly-more-Mad-Max-ish Bumblebee II Camaro from Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen. Sure, we've already given you the new "Sideswipe" Stingray Corvette Concept, but no love's yet been given to one of our most valued commenters. So, voila, below are our shots of this yellow bowtied Camaro-Transformers tie-in love.

Below that, we've also re-run the "How To Build Bumblebee" shots. In case you missed them.

We are, of course, joking about the awkward appearance of bodies in the back of the new Transit Connect picture above. There's a good explanation for it and, as we all know, the bodies get dumped in Mercury products where no one will ever find them.

The four commercial versions of the vehicles were created as part of the "Connect With Connect" contest, which hooked up the little vans with actual businesses. There's a van for a child-proofing company called Boo Boo Busters. There's a wagon for a maid service in urban areas. Not surprisingly, there's the trying-to-be-hip kayaking company (we kid, it's actually the best looking of the vans).

Our personal favorite has to be the Dummies On The Run van from Ann Arbor, Michigan. The company specializes in CPR and First Aid training and thus has a need for a place to store CPR dummies. We hear those things get expensive so it makes sense to have a secure vehicle to store them in. You wouldn't want this happening:

(h/t to Straightline for the idea!)

To be perfectly fair, we've never successfully used an automatic parallel parking system. On a lark once, we tried out the Lexus GS system and never actually got it to parallel park. We got frustrated somewhere in the middle of the process and gave up, parallel parking in manual mode, which means with our hands and eyes.
We strolled down to the McCormick South parking garage, hopped into the awaiting MKS, and after a very brief bout of instruction from Ford chassis engineer Ali Jammoul we were off to the races. To engage the system you press the park button in the center console; as you drive past a line of parked cars the system uses a long range ultrasonic sensor to measure empty spaces and decide if the car will fit. When it has found a suitable space the driver information center dings to let you know it has one. It then directs you to pull forward until it's happy with the car's position, then directs you to stop and shift into reverse. At this point it's an entirely hands-off affair - press the gas and the car turns the steering wheel itself, providing seamless, parking-professional-level steering. The backup sensors pick up the proximity of the car behind and you brake to a stop, shift into drive and the car tucks you into the spot.

Admittedly, the space here is enormous, estimated at vehicle length plus 60%, but Jammoul assured us the car would easily navigate a space only 20% longer than the car. However, the whole process is so simple and effective as to be almost creepy. This is something which will cause a driver's parallel parking skills to atrophy. Even though it's a gadget we don't particularly want in a car, it's still very impressive.

The 4.6 liter Tau V8 offered in the Hyundai Genesis Sedan normally cranks out 380 HP, but this prototype engine gets a screw-type supercharger with a novel clutched pulley, a water-to-air intercooler, and cylinder deactivation. This results in 460 HP and 435 lb-ft of torque while returning 8% better fuel economy.

The flow path is rather unique as well, with the supercharger intake at the rear, charged air going down into the intercooler and then back up into a split plenum which feeds the throttle at the rear of the engine. There aren't any formal plans to introduce this engine to any product at the moment, but it exists, which means there's a gleam in someone's eye. Perhaps sooner or later we'll get to run the Hyundai Genesis R-Spec Sedan versus the Chrysler 300C SRT8.

The Gold Coast Concept doesn't get much in the way of go fast parts, with 280 HP mated to a six speed DSG. It does get some serious whoa parts though, sporting giant ceramic brakes under those gorgeous wheels. Volkswagen, make this car so.