The cars themselves were great, beautiful, worthy of art museum treatment. But the really interesting part came in talking to Don Urquhart, who was in charge of the logistics of bringing in some of the largest, heaviest passenger cars ever built. Also some of the most rare and expensive vehicles on the planet. No pressure.

I got to report this story in the way I like best. I did preliminary research and interviews to make sure I knew what I was talking about, then hung out at the museum for something like seven hours the day the first eight or nine cars were moved in. I watched Steve McQueen’s racing Jag drip oil onto the cardboard placed on the museum floor and heard the Le Mans-winning Ferrari get fired up. I watched a guy’s hand get pinched between an expensive outdoor statue and a more expensive 70-year-old tank of a car. I heard his friend make fun of him.

I had written a draft with 400 words too many the week before; when I got home that night, I had to add the precise details I had witnessed that day and cut lots of extraneous bits. I turned it in that night (only 200 words over my assigned count), it was on my editor’s desk in New York the next morning, and it was online — along with a gorgeous slide show by Leah Nash — by Friday.

The L.A. Auto Show is one of those events where I am guaranteed to run into a lot of people I know — mostly West Coasters — who then introduce me to people I want to know (hello, Lotus PR guy!). For example, fellow About guide Jeff Zurschmeide gave me the contacts to get into the swanky FIAT party, where I saw fellow NWAPA members and MSN Autos editors Perry Stern and Mike Meredith.

At that same party, I met up with Doug Newcomb, technology writer for Edmunds.com and also living in Oregon. It turns out our birthdays are only days apart, and we both wanted to visit Cole’s the oldest restaurant in downtown L.A. Whiskey and French dips, my friends. The necessary antidote to a day spent at a glitzy auto show.

At the Lotus booth, I ran into another About.com guide, Aaron Gold, who worked his networking magic on the Lotus people for me, and there was yet another guide at the Mercedes-Benz press conference, Basem Wasef, who helped me out with a picture of a Lamborghini reveal that I missed.

Thanks to all these folks, I didn’t have to spend a single evening alone in L.A. watching Cake Boss reruns on TV. Which was nice, since the Cake Boss brought a giant FIAT 500-shaped cake to the party. Tasty.

After taking a walk around downtown L.A., I returned to the Biltmore lobby for the lighting of the Christmas tree. There were carolers, cookies, and hot apple cider. I happened to stand next to a man who works in Texas governor Rick Perry’s office on automotive issues, among other things. We chatted for quite a while. Poor guy. If you ask me questions about new automotive technology, I’m going to tell you what I know. It takes longer than you’d think.

A couple hours later, I had an awful dinner of two oversized shrimp with the shells still on, feet and all. There was a yummy tomato sauce drizzled over the shrimp, but I defy you to get the meat out of the shells without making a tomato-sauce mess. Luckily, the bottle of Kirin was pint-plus sized, so that was really my dinner. Also luckily, the media breakfast at the show this morning was a full breakfast, with bacon and blintzes and the like. So it made up for my two big shrimp.

Bob Lutz just took his turn at the podium to open the show. He was a last-minute replacement for Fritz Henderson, who was head of GM until yesterday afternoon. It was an incredibly boring speech. Also, Ferrari, Maserati, Lamborghini, and Bentley pulled out of this year’s show, so I have a lot of time to myself this morning. I’ll go take pictures while everyone else is at the Chevy, VW, and Toyota conferences.

It was sunny and 71 degrees for the entire 175-mile drive. I brought my Maserati hat to keep the sun off my nose. It’s my favorite hat, and yes, I do realize that wearing a Maser hat while driving an Aston puts me in full d-bag territory. Whatever.

You can see pics of the car taken by yours truly at my About.com Exotic Cars site. I’ve got a review to write this week, too, but that’s proving more of a structural challenge. Ah, the life of the automotive journalist.

So, thanks to Twitter, I had my first experience being interviewed for my auto analysis skills. Here’s the clip, in case you’re interested.

VW also sees clean diesel and refinements to gasoline engines as the most practical solution for the near future, Jacoby said, with fuel economy raised by as much as 50% and emissions reduced significantly. That said, VW isn’t complettely counting out fuel cell technology, second-gen biofuels, and some kind of battery-electric vehicle. But for now, it’s sticking with what it knows for mass-market vehicles.

Speaking of which, VW brought a Euro-spec 6-speed manual Golf TDI for short test drives in hilly Seattle traffic. It was only a few miles, but I really liked the feel of the car while I was at the wheel. Until, that is, I got stopped at a light on a 45-degree incline. Luckily fellow auto journalist Doug Newcomb of Edmunds.com was in the passenger seat to teach me a trick with the emergency brake that kept me from rolling backward and hitting the road-test Touareg behind me. At least I didn’t curb the wheel in front of the hotel (I’m looking at you, Bruce).

At the same time, I met Bob Simpson, an electrical engineer and EV enthusiast who’s working to convert a 2003 BMW 325i to lithium-ion power — and beat John Wayland and White Zombie. A key supplier for the conversion reneged on a deal, so the project has stalled. Simpson won’t be able to take on White Zombie at this summer’s Wayland Invitational, but he’ll be there to watch the other Teslas, bikes, and conversions attempt to set records at Portland International Raceway July 24-25.

We got to take the Fusion hybrid for short test drives, and the LCD instrument panel is super geeky hi-tech. Apparently, the engineers’ first attempt was too much like a video game, and drivers in the simulation watched the gas-saving graphics more than the road. Much to the team’s dismay, that version was scrapped for the cool-but-not-too-cool production version.

Ms. Gioia also gave me an interview after lunch (sandwiches and cupcakes) for an article for HowStuffWorks.com on whether owners can recoup the hybrid premium. The article will be up on the site two weeks from tomorrow, I think. Her answer matches my math — you can definitely maybe make up that cash in incentives and hypermiling. But probably not. But maybe.