Stephen Beatty knew it was not going to be just another ordinary day.

Toyota Canada’s managing director had arrived hours ahead of his scheduled product reveal at the Canadian International Auto Show and already national TV news crews were staking out space for their cameras and lighting.

The Ford Taurus SHO doesn't make much visual fuss about its twin-turbo engine, high performance goodies and ultra high-tech gadgets. Of course, enthusiasts who manage to spot the subtle differences often crowd the car in parking lots with questions for its driver.

It’s not often that you hear “handles well and Harley Davidson” all in one sentence, but yes it has happened. I recently had the chance to test Harley’s new Fat Bob, a real nice surprise in the world of big bikes.

As I moved from display to display with the throng of journalists at the Canadian International AutoShow, I was impressed with the sheer number of individuals, note pads and cameras in hand hanging on every word delivered by auto company CEOs and senior marketing types.

Driving south on I-95 on a hot and humid day in south Florida and heading to Miami to meet up with Will Castro of Unique Autosports was interesting.  You see, a couple of lanes in either direction, north and south, have recently become express toll lanes and require a transponder – there are no cash tolls.  It’s all automated. Somehow, the gremlins inside my GPS are aware of this and keep trying to get me off the freeway to take an alternate route. There was no need.  There are still several lanes available to take you south without incurring additional charges.  Combine my nagging Garmin with unfamiliar roads and interchanges in and around one of the busiest international airports in North America and me, a Canadian who has not driven in this city for more years than I care to remember, and we almost have a recipe for disaster. A headache may be imminent; I can feel its familiar throb in my right temple.

Recently at the Canadian International AutoShow I had the pleasure of interviewing the CEOs of Subaru, Nissan, Chrysler and the External Affairs Director for Toyota to find out the state of affairs of the Canadian automotive industry. To my surprise things here in Canada are quite different than you might have been led to believe by other sources in the media.

Most folks know that a turbocharger adds a “power boost: to a vehicle’s engine, and that they’re commonly found in sporty imports and exotic supercars. That’s why these types of vehicles are so popular with performance buffs in both the new and used car markets – though some folks actually avoid them due to unfamiliarity or worries about long-term reliability.

An extensive European study conducted in 1991 determined that just one second, an instant of critical reaction time, could make the difference between crashing your vehicle or just sweaty palms. That dramatic conclusion: “one extra second of advanced warning” became my mantra when asked to develop and deliver driver training programs all across Canada.

Ever thought of your car as a computer on wheels?

You should. There’s more digital technology in your car than the average cell phone. From onboard GPS to get you where you’re going to ABS brakes, posi-traction and more, your car is a computer network on wheels.

If you’ve ever thumbed through European magazines, you’ll most likely have seen images of people driving their gorgeous Mercedes and Porsche sports cars on snow covered roads. Unlike Ontario, which dumps tons of salt on the roads in cold weather, Europe doesn’t so Europeans drive their rare, expensive and vintage cars straight through the winter.

The New Year has kicked off and it’s proven to be a hectic time for the FAZZT Race Team.  We’ve been extremely busy getting ready to run our inaugural season in the IZOD IndyCar Series.  We took delivery of our race cars in late November and the crew had to start working double time to get them ready for our first test on January 6th on the oval at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

While on a recent assignment for The Driver in South Florida in late January, I had many opportunities to note some things about people and their driving habits.  Before any readers commence to smirk, I have, to be fair, also including examples of idiosyncratic acts observed north of the Mason-Dixon Line, too.