Here Are the Strangest Things You’ve Heard at a Car Show

“In 2002, Subaru began selling the WRX in the USA. This was a really big deal at the time, since Subaru had resisted importing the WRX for a very long time. The punchy turbocharged engine was an especially big draw. I saw one at the annual auto show and distinctly remember some bros opening the hood and pointing to the alternator: damn bro, there’s the turbo!”

An alternator converts chemical energy into electrical energy to keep your car’s battery charged up. A turbocharger compresses the air as it heads to your engine, boosting the force you get from each ignition.

Suggested by: stephen-macarthur

“Around 2017 or so, at a display for a Pagani Huayra, there was a guy who was providing security for the car who was offering (only) young women the opportunity to sit in ‘his car’ and take selfies.

“The reason I was pretty sure he was only security was first, the ‘security’ printed on the back of his t-shirt and then that he referred to it multiple times as ‘my Lambo’. I may have found the original ‘pretty sure it’s a Lambo’ guy.”

Pointy and Italian, that makes it a Lamborghini, right?

Suggested by: elgordo47

“‘It’s nice but it’s got nothing on my ‘Vette.’

“The car in question, a Lamborghini Aventador SVJ. The guy’s ‘Vette, a bone stock, automatic, base model C7. And the guy was dead serious.”

One is a hunk of American engineering that kicks out 455 hp from a 6.2-liter V8, and the other hits a top speed of 217mph thanks to its 6.5-liter V12. Spot the difference.

Suggested by: Nick Dixon (Facebook)

“If it weren’t for my horse, I wouldn’t have spent that year in college.”

I have so many questions. How long were they on the horse for? What happened to the horse? How did a horse get them into college?

Suggested by: bunkythemelon

“Was at an auto show when the new Infiniti Q45 came out, 2002 I believe. The ‘gatling gun’ headlights really stood out and it was an impressive looking flagship.

“The guy from a local dealer was hovering over it and was eager to tell my friends and I all the specs for the car. For some reason were were a touch skeptical when he told us it will accelerate to 60 mph in ‘under two seconds’.”

Surprisingly, this 4,000-lb sedan couldn’t quite make it to 60mph in less than two seconds. Instead, it managed it in more like seven.

Suggested by: kcyclone

“‘Somebody stole my dipstick!’ Later to find out that it had rusted or broken and the handle was gone but the stick remained in the tube.”

Behold, the great dipstick mystery of 1999!

Suggested by: David Ferrell (Facebook)

“Not sure if this counts, but about 16 years ago I watched some nerdy, balding tech venture capitalist in an ill-fitting suit talk about how the vaguely Lotus Elise-looking roadster next to him could go 0-60 in 4 seconds, travel over 200 miles on a charge and was 100% electric.

“At the time, to this car guy who’d previously worked on lead-acid powered EV projects with barely 80 miles per charge and 0-60 times which ranged from ‘lol no’ to ‘maybe, if you find a long enough hill’... the numbers sounded outrageously far-fetched. Like just another pipe dreaming bench racer at a car show making outlandish claims they could/would never back up.

“Of course, with the benefit of hindsight, I realize now how wrong I was (about Tesla).”

The first Tesla Roadsters were delivered to customers in 2008 and the firm went on to shift almost 2,500 convertible EVs. But these days, the firm is nowhere near delivering the first of its second generation Roadster cars.

Suggested by: oldmanmckenna

“At the UK Motor Show some years ago I asked to see the interior of the then new Maserati Quattroporte. The nice man said yes and so I opened the door and sat in the driving seat. Playing very very quietly on the CD player was the sound track album from the film ‘Mary Poppins’. I was so flummoxed that I didn’t ask.

“To this day I have no idea why, but whenever I see a big Maserati I still get a very annoying earworm!”

Nothing exudes Italian luxury quite like the soundtrack to a ‘60s film about a fancy nanny.

Suggested by: nic

“Land Rovers are the most reliable vehicles.”

Who told you that? I’m not sure you could even get a Land Rover executive to make a claim like this.

Suggested by: Matt Hurlburt (Facebook)

“I was looking at one of these at a car show when I overheard a guy next to me telling his friend all about it at great length, how it was built in France in the 1930s and was a rare and expensive luxury coupe.

“Except I’d already taken a closer look at both the registration label and peeked in through the side bonnet vents and realized it had a modern engine (it’s a Devaux, built in Australia in small quantities in the early 2000s). So I told his friend to go around the other side and read the registration label – when he did, and then looked up at his friend, the expression on his face was priceless!”

If you say something with enough confidence, people will believe you. Well, unless your claims are contradicted by a nearby label, badge or clever person.

Suggested by: morgangt

“‘They don’t make them like they used to!’

“Uh yeah. For a multitude of good reasons.”

Correct, they no longer make them like they used to.

Suggested by: wasgtithengtothennovathengtinowa4

“At a Cars ‘n’ Coffee, Some eight-ish YO kid upon seeing a Delorean, exclaimed ‘Omg, the car from the ‘Thrift Shop’ video’.”

We all have different touch points for the cars we see around. If yours is Thrift Shop rather than Back to the Future, that’s fine. But maybe one day sit down and enjoy the 1985 classic.

Suggested by: Josh Blenx (Facebook)

“Lady looks at my golden retriever, confidently says the following: ‘That is a very well behaved husky.’

“Lady walks away without giving me a chance to correct her.”

New person unlocked, meet ‘pretty sure it’s a golden retriever’ lady.

Suggested by: welltal89

“Flying cars are only two years away, dude.”

I promise flying cars will really happen this year. Definitely, probably, maybe, possibly.

Suggested by: skeffles

“‘So I told him, if he buys another Ferrari, I’m getting another horse!’

“...Must be nice to have the kind of money to make that sort of revenge purchase!”

I guess it’s only fair that if they can buy a prancing horse you should be allowed to add a galloping horse to the stables.

Suggested by: Eric Miller (Facebook)

“I walked up to a guy (late-20s or maybe early-30s, dressed in fatigues) sitting in a folding chair next to his very early drab green Jeep. After I spotted an air-cooled 911 sitting next to him I casually joked: ‘I think there is a World War II joke here, but I can’t quite figure out how to word it’.

“His response: ‘Actually this is older than WWII, it’s from the Korean War’.

“I smiled an walked away. History was clearly not his best subject in school.”

There’s just the five year gap between the end of the second world war and the start of the Korean War.

Suggested by: reversesynchromesh

“I was at a car show and overheard someone remark, ‘Man, I hope what I am saying is never a slide in a slideshow on Jalopnik’.”

Sorry, not sorry.

Suggested by: modusoperandi0