Straightline

Hello? Is there anybody in there? (add echo effect here)

Award for the strangest (and quietest) auto show stand goes this year to Aston Martin. Well, we say "stand," but it's really nothing of the sort. With no PR folks schmoozing, no rotund journalists feeding, no scrum for a press kit, no blaring, bass-heavy music, we're forced to come up with a different description for Aston's space. We've decided on diorama. You remember those things you made in elementary school using an old shoe box and some little, green army men to depict the Continental Congress? Like that. The soon-to-be-former Ford luxury brand has brought two of its gorgeous V8 Vantage convertibles, set them on a floor of black sand, threw some big rocks in the corner, hung a backdrop of a decidedly desolate wilderness on the wall behind, and closed the whole thing off with a short glass wall and walked away. You can hear a pin drop over there. The company apparently forgot to grab one of those orange "For Sale" signs from the hardware store to post on the wall. -- Daniel Pund