autos

In Photos: My First Auto Show and Favorite Karma Ride


Like many of the cars and trucks out on the stands, I made my world debut at the 2019 Los Angeles Auto Show. My star shone brightly behind a few planetary obstacles, however, since I spent most of the day in the (less than stellar, windowless) press room quarterbacking Automobile content from behind a laptop screen. Surviving in the crowded pen full of journalists proved no easy feat, but the bottomless cups of coffee and free Perrier certainly helped. Welcome to my first-ever auto show.

After maintaining a low profile behind a computer screen for most of the day, I was finally able to jet out for a brief self-guided tour of the show floor. With no plan of action as to where to begin my show car consumption, I went into full tunnel vision mode and walked toward the Concourse Hall of the L.A. Convention Center, where an ensemble of futuristic and elegantly designed cars brought my feet to a halt. My tour took a pit stop at the Karma exhibit, where among the mere four cars on display, one of them left so potent an impression on me that I’d drive away from that spot, if only I could: The Karma SC2 concept. Its long front end, incognito side mirrors, and scissor doors captivated me, so I decided to flag someone down from Karma who could tell me more.

Making its debut in L.A., the tech-heavy Karma SC2 concept (SC for Southern California), is a fully electric hypercar with four motors, a 120 kW-hr battery pack, and a claimed 350-mile range. Touted by Todd M. George, Karma’s vice president of platform engineering, as a car that will be an “an absolute delight” for the driving enthusiast, word is the SC2 will be able to crack the 2 second barrier to 60 mph. Yeah, I think that would be absolutely delightful.

One super cool tech feature of the SC2 is its high definition camera under the windshield that can capture a 360 view of the car in motion and record your entire driving experience: Everything from acceleration, turns, braking, to sounds—even your music playlist—all in real-time. Say, for example, you’re cruising down Las Vegas Boulevard on Friday night with your favorite mixtape thumping on the speakers, hit one button and you’re good to go.

The public’s reaction to the SC2, with its truly insane power numbers of 1,100-hp and 10,500 lb-ft of “wheel” torque, is said to be unanimously positive, and Karma is considering putting this bad boy into production. And with that, I had to go and see the rest of the L.A. show—and be more judicious with my time at each booth. My first stop had eaten valuable time from my escape from the press room, but I managed to grab a glimpse of the displays beyond Karma’s. So, take a look at the rest of the cars that caught my eye during my first-ever appearance at the L.A. show, to see what an overwhelming event such as this is like from the perspective of a total newcomer.



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