HOT SHOW, COOL CARs AUTO TIME IN DETROIT, PAGES 2-6.

HOT SHOW,
COOL CARs
Issue 852
Thursday, January 23, 2014
AUTO TIME IN DETROIT, PAGES 2-6.
METEOR MAGIC, PAGE 7.
Supported by readers of the Detroit Free Press and The Detroit News
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Thursday, January 23, 2014
MICHIGAN K.I.D.S. | WWW.DNIE.COM
Yak chat
January is full of chills –
and thrills.
This month, the weather’s
been on a roller coaster from
sub-zero record-breaking
temperatures to rain and
foggy thawing.
We take a break from
the wild weather and head
inside. First stop, a trip to
Cobo Center to see Detroit’s
biggest stars – the cars.
Learn about the trends
and catch the show’s final
weekend. Our Yakking About
the News is about cars and
also features a talented
student artist who was
awarded the grand prize for
her auto show poster. It’s all
on Pages 2 to 6.
Meteors are amazing. The
Yak heads to the Cranbrook
Institute of Science to learn
more about what falls from
space, Page 7.
Also Inside:
• My Kid Scoop, Page 8.
On the cover:
The 2015 Corvette Z06 is one of the
autos making its debut at the North
American International Show.
Photo by Marty Westman
Printed by: The Detroit Media Partnership
Sterling Heights, Michigan, Winter 2014.
Photos by Marty Westman
Ford’s new F-150 truck is making headlines because the pickup has an aluminum body, lighter by about 700 pounds.
IF YOU GO TO THE AUTO SHOW:
About the Show: It’s the 25th year for the North
American International Auto Show. Yes, there was the Detroit
show for years, but it was 25 years ago when the show added
“international” to its name and grew snazzier and jazzier.
Big: 550 vehicles on display with 50 debut, or new, vehicles
to be shown. Show Vice Chairman Scott LaRiche says he’d
suggest you go more than one day to take in all the cars.
Special for Kids: WXYZ-TV hosts Family Day
activities on Friday, beginning at noon until 9 p.m. Special
guests include Sesame Street Live, and Radio Disney.
Times: Runs through Sunday. 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. through
Saturday, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday (no admittance after
6 p.m. Sunday).
Tickets: $13 per person, children 7-12 years old, $7.
6 and younger free if with adult.
Thursday, January 23, 2014
MICHIGAN K.I.D.S. | WWW.DNIE.COM
KIDS MAKING NEWS
Picture Perfect Winner
Detroit’s big auto show is our cover story,
but before you read about the hot cars, we
want you to meet the winner of a cool contest.
Lindsey Simon, a senior at Romeo Engineering
and Technology Center in Washington Township,
is the grand prizewinner of the 2014 North
American International Auto Show Poster
Contest.
The contest, now in it’s 26th year, celebrates
the talent and creativity of students from across
the state. This year, nearly 1,000 students from
73 high schools submitted entries. Lindsey won
the Chairmen’s Award of $1,000, which was
selected by NAIAS 2014 Chairman Bob Shuman,
and her artwork is printed in the official NAIAS
program.
Lindsey, who is 17, created her winning entry
as part of a class assignment. She says her art
classes are “hands down” her favorite courses
and have been throughout her high school years.
In fact, Lindsey has been drawn to art for most
of her life. “When I was little, I really liked to color
and draw — probably more than your average
kid — but I didn’t really get serious about it, and
Photo by Andrew Simon
NAIAS 2014 Poster Contest winner Lindsey Simon
loves art and horses. She shows her pony Mickey
Blue Eyes on the Michigan Hunter-Jumper
Association circuit.
MORE WINNERS
The 2014 NAIAS Poster
Contest is an opportunity for
high school artists across the
state to be recognized for their
creativity and talent. This year,
16 students, including Lindsey
Simon, were awarded cash prizes.
Congratulations to all the student
winners:
realize my potential, until my freshman year of
high school.”
Besides art, Lindsey’s other big love is horses.
She has two horses – her show pony, Mickey
Blue Eyes, or Micks for short, and Lina, a horse
she’s currently training. “Horses have always
been a huge part of my life and a big passion
of mine,” says Lindsey, who has been riding
for about 13 years. She shows Mickey on the
Michigan Hunter-Jumper Association circuit.
Lindsey is also an auto show fan. She’s been
attending the show for the past few years with
her big brother, Andrew. She says they are both
car enthusiasts. “We definitely enjoy them.” This
year, she plans to attend the show with her whole
family.
Right now, Lindsey is still making college
plans, but knows she wants to study advertising
and marketing along with art and graphic design.
She says she hopes to have an advertising or
marketing career where she can use her art skills
in her job. “I’d love to wake up every morning
and say ‘Wow, I love my job,’ and be able to
apply both of them (art and business) to an
actual career.”
Her winning entry should certainly steer
her ahead on the road to college and a future
creative career.
By Janis Campbell
• Angelica Paparizos, Henry Ford
High School, Sterling Heights
• Derrick Wayne Willis Bowie,
Kalamazoo Central High School,
Kalamazoo
• Haley Touchette, Grand Blanc
High School, Grand Blanc
• Katelyn Galant, Lakeview High
School, St. Clair Shores
• Zoë Wilson, Careerline Technical
Center, Holland
• Jennifer Tigani, William D. Ford
Career Technical Center, Westland
• Jefferson Braybrook, Careerline
Technical Center, Holland
• Teada Ngin, Careerline Technical
Center, Holland
• Tiffany Teng, Novi High School,
Novi
• Mujo Hrnjica, Hamtramck High
School, Hamtramck
• Veronica Peterson, William
D. Ford Career Technical Center,
Westland
• Jennifer Tigani, William D. Ford
Career Technical Center, Westland
• Claire Beresford, Bloomfield
High School, Bloomfield Hills
• Paris Leek, Careerline Technical
Center, Holland
• Ronald Malmsten, William D.
Ford Career Technical Center,
Westland
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4 Thursday, January 23, 2014
MICHIGAN K.I.D.S. | WWW.DNIE.COM
NO BRAKES
on the Fun at Cobo
T
here is some serious fun going on at
this year’s North American International
Auto Show (NAIAS), which continues
through Sunday at Cobo Center.
Serious because it is a HUGE event that
has a big impact on Detroit area business,
as well as consumers – that’s your family –
in making decisions on the cars and trucks
they plan to buy.
Fun because this year’s show seems to
have more light and bright spots, filled with
dream cars, concept, or idea cars of the
future and big-screen displays that make you
feel like you’re in the driver’s seat, even if
you’re 10 years old! About the light? NAIAS
Vice Chairman Scott LaRiche told us “this
show has more LED lights than any other
show.” He stressed that he remembers going
to Detroit’s show as a kid and even though
he spent plenty of time in showrooms (with
his family’s dealership business), going to
the show was “like going to Disneyland.” He
also reminded us of the serious
business: $9.7 billion impact
over the last 25 years.
That’s a good
description. With
huge big-screen
films near many
displays (You’ll see
Anchorman Ron Burgundy (Will Ferrell) by
the Dodge Durango, for example), it’s really
like walking around a big-screen movie set.
Here are highlights from the Yak’s
notebook.
Award Winners: It’s like the Most
Valuable Player award in sports. Auto writers
each year pick the North American Car and
Truck of the Year. This year’s honors went
to the Chevrolet Corvette Stingray and the
Chevrolet Silverado truck. Jeffrey Luke, GM’s
executive chief engineer for global full size
and mid-size trucks, demonstrated to us
what he’s proud of in the Silverado that you
also might like. He showed us all the
smaller details that go into such a
big truck – like a step to make
it easier to step up into the
truck. And if this is for your
family ride, they’ve made
the new Silverado doors
both open the same way
– easier to get in and out.
There’s also lots of room
in the Silverado if your
family chooses the option
with more legroom and it’s
just the place for the backseat passengers to be watching
favorite DVDs during the trips.
The Disneyland Corner:
It’s not anything to do with the park, but the
Ford display had more games and interactivity, big and small, to make you linger, wait
in line (there will be lines!) and, yes, look at
cars and trucks. Dueling “simulators” let you
and mom or dad see who races the fastest.
But even better is seeing the assembly of the
Ford F-150. Scott told us that even though
he’s a “Chevrolet guy” through and through,
he tells us that every kid will want to see the
assembly – a two-story display where you
will see the F-150 built.
COOLEST CONCEPTS
Photos by Marty Westman
Executive Chief Engineer Jeffrey Luke’s passion for the award-winning Silverado is clear when he
demonstrates to us some of the features, like the small step making it easier to get into the back
of the truck.
Concept, or idea, cars, are the ones that
designers test out. These are dream cars,
but often end up in production. These are
MICHIGAN K.I.D.S. | WWW.DNIE.COM
Ford’s dueling simulators let visitors race each other.
the cars you might be driving since it takes a couple of years to
refine or develop them. And even if some never reach the roads,
they give you inspiration for the future. Toyota’s tops for us this
year: The FT-1 (FT as in Future Toyota) sports car. The good news
for kids? You will be able to drive this car – digitally at least, as a
car to download in Playtation3’s Gran Turismo 6 simulator.
Also at Toyota is the dazzling blue Fuel Cell Concept. The
Yak won’t try to explain Fuel Cell in this space, but check out the
amazing display nearby where Toyota breaks down the fuel cell
elements – with chemistry tables and then a graphic next to a
model of the fuel cell car to show how it works. (Hint, study up on
a periodic table of elements.) “I encourage every young person to
see the concepts, and make sure at nearby kiosk you fill out (the
information) on what you think,’’ says Scott. “That gives you a
chance to make a difference.”
Thursday, January 23 2014
A real assembly of Ford’s F-150 truck takes center stage.
Toyota’s cool FT-1 Concept sports car revs up the imagination.
Dream Cars: We like seeing the future, the fuel-saving
cars and the tough trucks, but you are allowed to dream a bit when
you check out the super sports cars everywhere. Reporters call
it “reveal,” when a new vehicle debuts here. One of those reveals
is the sporty 2015 Mustang and another is the Porsche 911 Targa
4. Speaking of Porsche, one special car with a room of its own is
the Porsche 918 Spyder. We had to ask the spokesperson, “How
much?” “It’s $845,000 base price,” she told us. Wow! (That is the
most expensive car at the show.)
You don’t have to bring a notebook, but you can still get up close
and check out every display for the big things and the small (look at
some of the detailing like the Super Bee logo in the Dodge display.)
“Don’t be afraid to ask questions,” says Scott.
By Cathy Collison
Porsche’s 918 Spyder is so special it has a glassed-in room of its own.
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MICHIGAN K.I.D.S. | WWW.DNIE.COM
Photos by Marty Westman
The Chrysler Jeep display has a huge big screen film with
grand scenes.
VW’s Beetle Dune concept is
inspired by the dune buggy.
Be sure to look for the
small details in the big
display, like the “Super
Bee” symbol in the Dodge
display, which also has a
great history exhibit.
Honda’s FCEV sports concept car looks ready to fly! Maybe you’ll be driving one
of these in the future.
You’ll get chemistry lessons with a cool graphic, left, to show you how Toyota’s fuel-cell concept car works.
MICHIGAN K.I.D.S. | WWW.DNIE.COM
Field trip
Thursday, January 23, 2014
Meteorite magic opens eyes to the skies
“The spaces of the universe
swallow me up like a speck; but
I, by the power of thought, may
comprehend the universe.”
– Blaise Pascal (1623-1662),
French philosopher,
physicist, and mathematician
I
t’s a brand new year and new beginnings
always put us in a thoughtful frame of
mind. So we paid a visit to the Cranbrook
Institute of Science to contemplate (CONtem-plate), or think about, the vast,
wondrous universe. Like Pascal, we wanted
to better comprehend (com-preh-HEND), or
to understand it.
The museum is its own universe – way too
big to comprehend in a single exploration.
So we headed to one of its small “solar
systems,” the display on meteorites just
beyond the Mineral Study Gallery. We
especially wanted to see some meteorites
on loan from the Vatican Observatory, in
Rome, Italy. One was a fragment of the
Thunderstone, a 300-pound meteorite
that fell to Earth on Nov. 16, 1492
– the same year Columbus
discovered America. It landed in
France.
Every meteorite has a story.
One is believed to have come from
Mars – and the display explains
how. A lava flow on Mars formed
basalt, a common volcanic rock. Then
an asteroid hit the fourth planet from
the Sun and blasted the basalt into
space. The rock landed on Earth, in
the Sahara Desert, 1,000 years ago. A
piece of it was acquired by the
About 50,000 years ago, a huge asteroid
fell to Earth, blasting a mile-wide crater
in Arizona. The crash produced 30 tons
of meteorites like this one at the Cranbrook Institute of Science.
Vatican Observatory, which loaned it to
Cranbrook.
It’s a small world, as they say – and
sometimes even a small universe! By the
way, meteorites are “solid bits of asteroids,
comets, the moon and Mars that have
survived the fiery journey through our
atmosphere to land on Earth,” the display
explains. We really liked the “fiery journey”
part.
Don’t miss the “The Queen of the Irons”
specimen. The meteorite was part of a
fireball that streaked across the sky in
Siberia on Feb. 12, 1947. “Over 70 tons of
iron meteorites and shrapnel (iron debris) fell
from the sky, making it the largest observed
fall in historical times.” (A male African
elephant weighs about 15,000 pounds, or
about 7 tons. So how many elephants would
it take to equal 70 tons? See answer below.)
Photos Courtesy of Cranbrook Institute of Science
Remember the asteroid that exploded last year
over Siberia, killing 1,500 people? It broke into
meteorites and Cranbrook Institute of Science
has two of them in this new display case.
Fast forward to Siberia on Feb. 15, 2013.
That day, an asteroid 20 meters in diameter
(about 66 feet across) exploded over the
Chilyabinsk region, injuring 1,500
people, shattering windows, and
damaging buildings. The asteroid
broke into meteorites that were
strewn over a field 60 kilometers by
100 kilometers. (How many miles
wide and long is such an area? See
answer below.) Cranbrook acquired
two specimens. To see them,
backtrack to the entrance of the
Mineral Study Gallery. For more, go
to science.cranbrook.edu.
By Patricia Chargot
Answers: The 1947 Siberian
meteorites together weighed as
much as 10 elephants. The 2013
Siberian meteorites were scattered
across an area 37 miles wide by
62 miles long.
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8 Thursday, January 23, 2014
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




   
   
   
    
    
   

   
   
    
    
   
  

      
 
  


    
    
   
    
   
   


  
  
   
   
    
   
   
   
   
 


  
   
   
   
   
  


    
   
   
     
   
    
   


    
   
    
     
    
    
    
    
   
    



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