There’s more to the 2016 New York auto show than impressive luxury cars and attention-getting debuts under $35,000 — keep reading for the best gems we found after scouring the show’s basement and concourse halls.
Overland Cruiser: Toyota TRD Land Cruiser
The most expensive Toyota in this country is the Land Cruiser SUV. It’s super capable—except perhaps by comparison with Land Cruisers sold today in third-world markets. Well, this TRD dials up the off-road-extreme quotient of the mighty Cruiser with a giant snorkel air intake, a 2-inch lift for the front suspension only, TRD remote-reservoir coil-over shocks all around, a full suite of skidplates and brush bars, bronze TRD 10-by-20-inch wheels, a cargo box, and a fancied-up, embroidered interior. It’s a concept, but most of the bits are available via TRD.
Bad-Boy Wrangler: AfterFX Concepts Jeep Wrangler Unlimited
Stamford, Connecticut-based AfterFX Customs has built show cars for Scion (including 2014’s xSlayer Mobile AMP tC, which is back on the show floor at this year’s NYIAS), and this year’s show car headlining the company’s own display in the basement was this riff on the Jeep Wrangler Unlimited. Finished just hours before shipping it to the show floor, it’s powered by a 426-cubic-inch racing Hemi V-8 that’s blown to 800 hp. All of that thrust gets routed through a beefed-up Ram truck transmission and sent to a Dana 60 front axle with Warn hub locks and a Dana 80 rear axle. The suspension gets an 8-inch lift with King coilover shocks, Fox stabilizer bars, and custom wheels wrapped in 40×15.5R20 LT tires. Vision X lights blast the roadway with daylight while Wet Sounds speakers blast it with sound. A 9,500-pound Warn winch rounds out the $200,000 package.
Whitewalls Return!: Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe
Don’t look now, but the once-ubiquitous whitewall tire may be poised for a long-overdue comeback. Spotted in the uber-lux row of Rolls and Bentley cars was this soon-to-be-discontinued Phantom DHC in black paint with a white interior wearing subtle 1-inch whites. Then again, maybe it’s just a new Rolls bespoke option to match the tire striping to the interior hide color.
Permanent Baby Seat: Volvo XC90 Excellence
The display version of Volvo’s new range-topping four-throne SUV is also highlighting a new concept baby seat that places progeny up front facing rearward where Mom or Dad can keep a watchful eye on them. It reclines, slides fore and aft (with storage underneath), and swivels to simplify seating the baby from the open door. Obviously the passenger airbag is disabled. It seems a strange idea to have a built-in car feature your kids will outgrow—unless of course you can cadence your family’s births to keep that seat filled for the useful life of the car. Don’t get your hopes up too high, as the idea may run afoul of some state laws prohibiting infants in the front seat area.
Forever Plaid: Porsche 911 R
We love those plaid seats in the GTI and lament their limited availability on only the lower-spec variants. Well, if you’ve been disappointed at not being able to spend more money on plaid seats, your problems are solved with this new 911 R. Behold these gorgeous optional brown tartan plaid seat inserts.
Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang
Tony Garofalo attended the premiere of the 1968 Dick Van Dyke film “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” at Radio City Music Hall when he was 4 years old, and it made quite an impression. All these years later, Garofalo has made a name for himself as a professional musician. (He was cast as John Lennon in the touring company of Beatlemania and continues to perform with a tribute band.) He’s also the foremost authority on the car star of his favorite boyhood film, and he has recreated it using a 1914 Overland Model 79 as its basis. More than 90 percent of the finished product (which includes wings that deploy from the running boards) was custom made and built by hand by Garofalo. The engine is from a 1928 Ford Model A—the engine that provided the Foley effect sounds of the original. She’s fully registered and legal to drive at speeds up to 65 mph.
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