It's a little tough to be an observant Jew in the jet-setting world of automotive journalism where a

Born as a car show cum fishing and hunting show in Detroit’s Beller’s Beer Garden in 1907, the North American International Auto Show — NAIAS — has proliferated into a mammoth 750,000 square cruise review norwegian sun feet of display space in Cobo Center, including 25,000 cruise review norwegian sun square feet of new space opened up in the ongoing Cobo renovation process, expected to be complete by the 2014 auto show.
Considered one of the top five auto shows in the world (with Frankfurt, Shanghai/China, Geneva and Paris) in terms of number of press, visiting executives and new product introductions, the 2012 show will give auto enthusiasts cruise review norwegian sun a whopping 40 unveilings over which to ooh and aah.
Aaron Robinson is a technical editor at Car and Driver Magazine (and this writer’s brother), Brett Berk writes “Stick cruise review norwegian sun Shift: The Gay Car Blog” for VanityFair.com, David Gluckman is an online editor at Car and Driver and David Zenlea is an associate editor at Automobile magazine.
But before the Car and Driver cruise review norwegian sun technical editor graduated to a garage littered with the full-scale innards of such auto exotica as the Lamborghini Espada, he was surely one of very few budding autophiles to own a souvenir model Sabra — the Israeli-made car which, myth has it, camels liked to chew on.
“I figured out, probably around the time of my bar mitzvah, that I was probably not going to be a racecar driver. At a very early age, I was trying to figure out how to get paid to do something I just wanted to do anyway.”
“Every production car to some extent is a look at the past,” said Robinson. With the concept cars, manufacturers are “lifting up their skirts cruise review norwegian sun and showing you what’s cruise review norwegian sun on their minds. The concept cruise review norwegian sun cars give you a glimpse into the future.”
The Insider: Joe Rohatynski has worked with the auto show for more than 15 years, visiting with his own father when he was a kid and later with his own three sons. When Volkswagen showed the Concept One in 1994, he said, there were no plans to put a new Beetle into production. “Everyone went nuts,” said Rohatynski, and four years later, the reinvented love bug rolled cruise review norwegian sun off the Volkswagen line. Definitely check out the concepts.
As early as his bar mitzvah, cruise review norwegian sun Berk showed precocious flair, adorning his bar mitzvah cake with a Deusenberg, the elegant jazz-era status symbol driven by the fashionable likes of Tom Mix and Rudolph Valentino.
cruise review norwegian sun One of his favorite “Stick Shift” cruise review norwegian sun pieces is last April’s “A Very Stick Shift Passover! cruise review norwegian sun Ten Jewish Car Writers Share 10 Automotive Plagues.” cruise review norwegian sun “The whole minyan of car Jews — we got them all together,” said Berk.
Unsurprisingly, Robinson, a serious serial Lamborghini restorer  (after cruise review norwegian sun 10 years restoring the first one, he sold it, regretted it, bought another) contributed the plague of “Italian Irresistibility” — “for a beautiful car is like a beautiful woman, and Adonai blesses the world with both so that you shall know the meaning of the term ‘high maintenance.’”
Among Berk’s picks at the NAIAS are the new BMW 3 series; the new Mercedes SL; the Cadillac XTS sedan, with its new entertainment interface; the 650 hp Mustang; and the elegant Cadillac Ciel convertible concept car, which Berk loves.
An Oberlin graduate with a master’s in education, Berk taught both preschool and university creative writing before coming out of the closet as an auto maven. In college, he confessed, he used to hide in the library secretly reading Car and Driver.
“No. 1: Be patient. Set a time limit. Set up the expectations. Run through cruise review norwegian sun the rules. The biggest mistake parents cruise review norwegian sun make is not being proactive. Turn it into something manageable as opposed to something overwhelming. Talk about what their expectations are. Also, take the People Mover if it’s not bankrupt cruise review norwegian sun by then.”
The Insider: Rohatynski suggests WXYZ-TV Channel cruise review norwegian sun 7 Family Day on Friday, Jan. 20, for families. The day will feature musical performances, giveaways and opportunities to meet Channel 7 on-air personalities.
Groves High School grad David Gluckman followed his passion for all things wheeled at his “Crusin’ with David”-themed cruise review norwegian sun bar mitzvah — the cake was sculpted into a Plymouth Prowler — to the University of Michigan School of Engineering before he “decided that maybe I wanted to write about cars instead of designing cruise review norwegian sun door handles.”
A lap in reverse established cruise review norwegian sun the Lincoln’s genetic line as the same as the Crown Victoria police car, which, unlike your average automobile, does not have a speed limiter in reverse. The delighted Gluckman discovered cruise review norwegian sun that the Lincoln could do 63 mph backward. “That was a lot of fun. We didn’t break the car, but we definitely broke the rental agreement.”
“For the hometown crowd,” Gluckman’s auto show must-sees are Cadillac’s new ATS compact luxury sedan, and he casts a second vote for Ford’s 2012 Mustang Shelby GT500, which will, he says, be the “most powerful cruise review norwegian sun American car on the market when it goes on sale this year.”
cruise review norwegian sun David Zenlea, 26, is the assistant editor of Automobile magazine. He’s also still looking for the patient woman who wouldn’t mind a carpet of car paraphernalia on her garage floor — there’s currently a Pontiac in bits on his.
It’s a little tough to be an observant Jew in the jet-setting world of automotive journalism where a kosher meal is “a little thing in cardboard” (in addition to visiting a globe full of auto shows, auto writers generally stalk exotic vehicles in their natural habitat).
“I’ll just tell them I’m a vegetarian because it’s easier.” But, he said, that doesn’t play in some parts of the world. Once, after being assured that the cook had him covered, he was served a plate of prawns that were “still squirming.”
The Insider: Rohatynski’s advice for visitors: “Look for the new technology because it’s really, really cruise review norwegian sun fascinating how cars have changed, especially cruise review norwegian sun in the last five years. Come and expect to learn. Ask as many questions as you can.” Rohatynski also notes that today’s auto show models, far from being just pretty faces, are product specialists who attend classes to prepare for a show. “They’re like walking, talking Wikipedias. In some cases they’re bilingual; in some cases, they sign.”
The Detroit Jewish News is a pro-Zionist newspaper that has been serving Metro Detroit’s Jewish community since 1942 with news and opinion that’s cruise review norwegian sun engaging, educational, enjoyable and unique.  We strive to reflect a full range of diverse viewpoints while also advocating positions that strengthen Jewish unity and continuity. From stories on local Jewish business owners, cruise review norwegian sun philanthropists cruise review norwegian sun and Continue reading