Autoblog

If you live in South Florida, or can manage to get there, you may want to mark off the last weekend in January on your calendar. West Palm Beach is hosting what's being billed as the largest supercar show in the world, taking place along the waterfront from January 24-27, 2008.

The fouth annual Supercar Weekend invites collectors to showcase their own modern sportscars and classics along with a very Floridian array of mega-yachts docked along Flagler Drive in West Palm.

In previous years, the show included Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Porsches and Aston Martins by the dozen. Organizers expect this year's to be highlighted by a Bugatti Veyron, Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe, a 1971 Lamborghini Miura and a 1967 Ford GT40 J6 racer, along with such personalities as well-known collector Jim Glickenhaus (father of the Pininfarina P4/5) and designer Henrik Fisker. Given the exotic wheels you can see running down South Florida's boulevards and highways on any ordinary day, the Palm Beach Supercar Weekend ought to be a real Woodstock for gearheads.

Follow the jump for the press release and a promotional video of the event.

[Source: Supercar Weekend]

Quebec is probably the last place in North America where some businesses are still forbidden to open on weekends. Although the practice has long since dissipated in other retail sectors, car dealerships in Montreal still adhere to an archaic 35-year-old policy that dates back to when the Catholic church still had a strong hold on French Canadian society.

One dealership in this writer's home town is departing from that policy, and he's facing tough opposition. Pie IX Dodge Chrysler (pronounced pee nuf, on the street named after Pope Pius the 9th) is a dealership on the island's predominantly French east end, next to the Olympic stadium that once hosted the Montreal auto salon before it moved to the convention center downtown. They decided to open on weekends, selling cars on Saturday and Sunday, a move opposed by other area dealerships and their association (which also organizes the annual car show). Pie IX's sales have gone up, despite the protests outside. The demonstrators include salesmen from other dealerships (which remain closed on the weekend) and from nearby used car lots (which are open on the weekend). If new car dealerships were to open on weekends, the association says the salesmen will be overworked, while the used car lots will lose business. One protestor even went so far as to hit the manager at Pie IX Dodge Chrysler in the head with a block of ice and was arrested for assault. Demonstrators were also thought to have jammed the dealership's phone lines.

Despite the opposition, and with support from DaimlerChrysler, owner Claude Leclair says he plans to keep his dealership open on weekends, quoting sales figures of over a dozen cars each weekend, while competing dealerships are suspected to be operating in the red. Kinda gives new meaning to the old Quebec separatist slogan "Vive la Quebec Libre" – long live a free Quebec.

[Source: The Montreal Gazette via Jalopnik]