The KC Auto Show’s most tantalizing moments — and a dose of reality

John O’Hara of Shawnee has just lifted himself off the floor at the Kansas City Auto Show in Bartle Hall Saturday.

Yes, the 42-year-old man had splayed himself out at the foot of a certain sports car, trying to capture the moment with a memorable selfie photo.

He can explain, he says, upright again.

There’s a Hot Wheel toy car in his childhood — he remembers it as the same color as this Acura NSX sports car he’d just paid homage to — a Hot Wheel so beloved he kept it by his bed at night just so he could keep looking at it.

“It was the same color,” O’Hara said, trying to describe the sight before him at now. “That deep red, cherry, pearl…”

This real-life Hot Wheel would cost him $206,000, and goes by the official color of Valencia red, gleaming on its low-slung, futuristic shape.

For most everyone circulating through the giant showroom, the auto show — which continues through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. — is an exercise in dreaming.

Nate and Allison Burghart of Lawrence, took a moment to absorb the sight of the brilliantly yellow Porsche Turbo S — and peak at its credentials.

“In case I need to get to 60 mph in 2.8 seconds, that’s the car,” Nate said.

This beauty is going for $211,315. The Burgharts both are lawyers. Maybe they could swing it?

“Some lawyers might,” he said. “Not these two.”

It is remarkable what cars and trucks can do these days, and the costs, said 74-year-old Jim Gfeller of Olathe.

In 1973, he said, he bought an entire house — three bedrooms and a full basement — for $19,500. And 20 years ago he got a nice Toyota Tacoma pick-up truck for the same cost.

“Those pick-ups here,” he said, nodding at the array of powerful specimens on the Bartle Hall floor, “are going for $70,000.”

The view, while tantalizing, is also daunting in a different way for 24-year-old Dylan Sauer of Raytown, here with University of Missouri-Kansas City student Heather Simon, 20.

He’s an auto mechanic, he said, “and I’m seeing the next things I’ve got to work on.”

The operations of cars are packed more and more into intricate modules — “the radio, the seats, the transmission — everything,” Sauer said.

Everything new in the cars that are touted in these new models “is something we’re going to have to figure how to fix,” he said.

In all, 500 vehicles are on display, including new waves of hybrid vehicles, a collection of classic cars, and luxury cars among the SUVs, coups and sedans.

Many urgings can lure people to the show.

For 48-year-old Wylon Harper of Overland Park, he grew up in Detroit, he said, so “it’s in my blood.”

He’d take home the $96,510 Lexus LC500h if he could.

For Olathe South High School student Ashley Xayyasaeng, she blames the “Fast and Furious” movie franchise for her infatuation.

“I love the ‘modded’ cars,” she said.

She favors the black Nissan GTR — especially its doubled-barreled arsenal of headlights.

All comes included in its $115,980 sticker price.

This story was originally published March 11, 2017 at 3:52 PM with the headline "The KC Auto Show’s most tantalizing moments — and a dose of reality."