If you were able to catch the Nov. 4 Country Music Association (CMA) Awards, it was truly a show for the ages. With all of the glitz and glamour on display in Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena, something even more substantial was taking place across the street. In cooperation with our local dealers, we were assembling our booth for the Nashville International Auto Show.
First to arrive were the Roush Mustangs from Ford of Murfreesboro. The white Stage 2 had a manual transmission and a muscular exhaust note, but the real treat were a pair of Stage 3 models. The gray one was automatic and the white was manual, and both had incredible supercharged power. Their exhausts sounded like open catalytic converters and completely overpowered the audio systems. A trio of trucks rolled in with customized versions of Ford’s 2016 F150, F250 and a wild dually F350.
McLaren of Philadelphia arrived with a prototype of the new 570S, and it was wild to see an almost production-ready version of their new model. The most practical McLaren yet, it has conventional door sills and a more user-friendly infotainment system. As always, we needed a mobile office with plush amenities, so Airstream arrived with their Mercedes Sprinter based Interstate model.
If you need an exotic car, Velocity Motorcars has an inventory that rivals anyone in the business. They provided us with a classic 1979 Lamborghini Countach that shows only 4 digits of actual mileage. Next in was a sparkling Ferrari 458 Speciale Aperta. To our knowledge, this was the only one built with this brilliant paint scheme. A pristine 2004 Lamborghini Murcielago, 2010 Porsche GT3 RS and 2008 Viper ACR made for a well-rounded display.
Music City MotorCars is Nashville’s home for new exotics, and they allowed us to showcase a new Rolls-Royce Wraith, Aston Martin V12 Vantage Roadster and a sinister black Lamborghini Huracan. Porsche and Audi arrived together with almost their entire model lineups. BMW was electrifying with both the i8 and i3, along with a new M4 convertible. Mercedes-Benz was well represented by an S500, CLA45 AMG and two other sedans.
For the weekend racer, two heavily modified Porsches from Track One Motorsports were ready to decimate their competition. The white 911 is a true cup car owned by veteran racer Denny Long. He set many track records in the ’70s and raced alongside Don Yenko and Sam Posey in the heyday of Trans Am and IMSA.
By far, the biggest bang for your buck was on display thanks to our friends at Barrett. Their .50 caliber semi-automatic M107 is accurate to over 2,000 yards, and it was only fitting to have Darth Vader trade in his lightsaber for one.
A big thanks to all of our Nashville friends for making this year’s auto show the best one to date. See you next year!
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