Detroit 2008: Mach 5, our N.A. Car of the Year
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It’s a supercharged, 5,000-horsepower, all-wheel-drive, bulletproof, underwater-capable convertible with special buzzsaws for cutting through heavily wooded areas. It’s the Mach 5, and it’s our 2008 North American Car of the Year. Starring in the upcoming, endless-nightmare-of-the-multiplex ‘Speed Racer,’ the Mach 5 -- actually, a static model of same (Mock 5?) -- is on display in the Michigan Hall of Cobo Center, here on the first day of the Detroit show.
The film, starring Emile Hirsch as a teenager half his age, is another special-effects set piece by the brothers Wachowski of ‘Matrix’ fame. They’re all here: Pops, Trixie, Racer X, that damn monkey. Basically, it’s the proto-anime cartoon by Tatsuo Yoshida, only without the po-mo irony and stoner-friendly non sequiturs.
God protect me from any film described as ‘live action, high octane family entertainment.’
In the same hall, the mandarins of the press are honoring the Chevy Tahoe hybrid as a nominee for Truck of the Year. That’s the 5,800-pound full-size SUV that gets, like, 20 mpg. Well, fine, but I have to think the Mach 5 is just as realistic, and will have precisely the same effect on the atmospheric carbon blanket. And, come on, it can see in the dark, for heaven’s sake.
-- Dan Neil