Pixar's cars: Studio's car show is one of the best and most exclusive

True, there have been company car shows before, but there has never been a company quite like Pixar. Not that we would ever leave the worker's paradise that is AW, but if we did (which we are not--ever), we would work there. Trouble is, you need to have talent. Which we don't, sad to say.

But even if you don't work there, you can still watch all the Pixar movies you want. And you probably have. Even if you don't have kids in the coveted two- to nine-year-old demographic, chances are pretty good that you have seen almost every Pixar movie ever made. If you do have kids, you have probably seen a select few of the Pixar stories about 400 times each on DVD (ask us about any scene in Cars, go ahead, any scene) yet you still like them every time. And so do your kids. The movies have cross-generational appeal. That's because we see the best and worst of ourselves not only as we are but as we would like to be in every carefully crafted character Pixar has ever piqued.

In addition to illuminating the human spirit through digital animation, Pixar makes money, trunkloads of money. Through the end of Up, Pixar films had earned $5.5 billion in ticket sales alone. That's not counting all the radio-controlled Lightning McQueens, plastic Tow Mater desk lamps and Radiator Springs beach towels you have purchased for your two- to nine-year-olds.

So when Pixar holds a car show, you can expect something great. Last weekend was the 10th anniversary of what has come to be known as the Pixar Motorama. It is a company-only show; if you don't work there or aren't related to someone who does, you can't get past the huge iron gates on Park Avenue in Emeryville, Calif. Luckily for us we have friends at Pixar, so we were invited to go check it out.

Better yet, we got to take a car to enter. Like many car manufacturers, Mercedes-Benz wanted to be a part of the show. It can't hurt to ingratiate yourself with Pixar, given the massive return on investment if your model becomes a character in Cars 2 (coming summer 2011). So on July 9, we drove under the big PIXAR arch in a sleek new SLS, were directed to a prestige spot by show organizer Jay Ward and got out to take a look around.

"It started when I first started researching for the movie Cars," Pixar's chief creative officer John Lasseter said as he strolled among the entries. "I wanted to look at every aspect of the automotive world. I grew up in Los Angeles; my dad was a parts manager at a Chevrolet dealership in Whittier. I worked there summers and weekends and I just loved cars. It was after Toy Story 2 and people started cashing in some Pixar stock and buying some pretty cool cars. So I thought, 'Hey, let's do a car show for Pixar employees.' "

"Each year more manufacturers heard about it," said Ward, the chief car guy behind Cars. "By 2005, when Cars was deep into production, manufacturers said, 'Hey, we'd love to send a car out.' All of a sudden, General Motors was sending real Motorama show cars, Porsche was sending a Carerra GT, so the level of cars kind of kept perking up."

This year saw the Cadillac Converj, the Corvette Stingray and the Jeep JT concept cars. Carmakers brought their best, with a Bentley Continental, a Ford Shelby GT500 Mustang, an Audi R8 Spyder, two new Aston Martins--a Rapide and a V12 Vantage--the Honda FCX and Insight and our own SLS, the latter displayed wings up all day.

Bruce Canepa sent the ex-John Surtees Lola T70. Jay Leno sent his perfectly hot-rodded 1955 Buick Roadmaster ("Leno's First Love," AW, March 1, 2001). Ford was again represented by the coral-colored Thunderbird driven by Halle Berry in Die Another Day. A classic-car dealership next door to Pixar, Fantasy Junction, drove over a '61 Aston Martin DB4 and a 1939 Alfa 6C.

Pixar employees brought all the rest, including Ducati, BMW and Indian motorcycles, a fun-looking Fiat 124, a perfectly restored Chevy panel van, Ward's own Ford roadster and Lasseter's own Jaguar XK120. There was even the very "Doc"-looking 1951 Hudson Hornet on which the Paul Newman character was based.

What a mix of concept cars, supercars, simple and inexpensive fun cars, and a few in between.

Said Bob Pauley, who worked on the original Cars, "It's the coolest day of the year at Pixar."

Now that's saying a lot.

Watch video of Pixar's Motorama:

By Mark Vaughn