As I mentioned in my live blog, after some funky cover music from a conveniently-named band called “The Rays,” Kia unveiled their Ray plug-in hybrid concept car at the 2010 Chicago Auto Show. But the story doesn’t end there. I’ve been to enough press conferences to know that generally they follow the same formula: a company executive comes on stage to wax poetic about the brand, then pull a cord from the ceiling to light fireworks and POOF! a car appears on stage for all to see. Kia decided to get a little bit more creative this time around. Follow me after the jump to find out how.

Continue reading Kia’s Press Conference for the Ray concept from the 2010 Chicago Auto Show »

Sometimes you’re just in the right place, at the right moment, and you see an event unfolding right before your eyes. It’s very surreal, and there’s this sense of awe that first wants to bubble up from inside you. If you let it come to the surface, it will already be too late, and that moment will be gone. The only thing to do is not think, shove the camera against your face and pull the trigger as fast as possible. After it is over, the sensation of “did that just happen” will return, and even more so if you’ve captured it on film.

Hit the jump to see the crash frame by frame as I did. I know there are lots of people out there who like seeing this sort of thing and think that it is cool, but I don’t want to downplay a serious situation. This was no small mishap, and Tony admitted in interviews afterwords that while he was able to get out of the car and walk away, he was pretty beat up. The fuel does catch fire in the last shot, but don’t worry, it only lasted a few seconds and did not enter the cockpit. Meira had it much worse later on…

Continue reading Tony Kanaan’s Crash At Indy »