“Kenzie’s Korner!” shouts CBC actor Jonny Harris.

The Murdoch Mysteries co-star is already on his way over from beside a red 1903 Ford. His cardboard doppelganger, dressed in character, surveys the dim room full of classic and antique cars. Drawn and serious just a moment ago for the benefit of a 20-something female interviewer, Harris’s face breaks into an excited grin.

The mania-inducing new Ford Mustang, on display at the show

Everyone at the Canadian International auto show seems to know Jim Kenzie—more impressively, Kenzie seems to know everyone at the Auto Show.

Known by most for his role in the show Motoring TV or the many publications that print his articles, Kenzie is one of Canada’s top automotive journalists. It should come as no surprise that he has an extensive racing resume, or that he helped create the Targa Newfoundland rally, but few would guess that 43 years ago he was teaching data processing and systems design at Ryerson University.

Kenzie has a longstanding interest in cars, beginning with racing. In 1969, still doing computer systems analysis at Procter & Gamble, Kenzie expressed his interest in racing to a friend from summer camp, Terry Fitzgerald. He bought a used Mini and he and Fitzgerald began racing.

“Terry was an experienced driver, so he raced the car in the regular races and I raced it in novice races,” recalls Kenzie.

This was the first of many cars Kenzie would race, and the first of two Minis he would crash. Eight years later, in 1977, a neighbour asked him to write an article for a local paper, the Milton Weekly Tribune, putting his passion for driving into print. In May 1983, “by an amazing series of flukes,” Kenzie began writing for the Toronto Star, where he is now the chief automotive reviewer.

At the auto show, the breadth of Kenzie’s career is spread among the many cavernous rooms and halls. The show feels like the Kenzie’s rolodex manifested under one roof. As the people flip past, some exchange a brief hello, while others stop to talk.

Jen Horsey, an auto journalist steeped in motorsport, PR and broadcasting, is one such acquaintance. She stops to talk with Kenzie for about 15 minutes while Infinity design director Alfonso Albaisa explains how the Q80 Inspiration concept is like a black swan, and a Mercedes executive rattles off yearly figures to a crowd now eagerly awaiting the catered lunch.

“You couldn’t have picked a better person to come here with,” says Horsey, 39. “Jim is one of the top guys. He’s done it all.”

While the Chevrolet news conference begins in the background, Kenzie sits down to talk with Mark Richardson, former editor of Toronto Star Wheels. Leaning over, Richardson’s tone is saved from pedantry by its bluntness.

“You know this isn’t journalism.”

To clarify, the 48-year-old explains that the worlds of automotive PR and media entertain a “cozy” relationship with which journalists of other industries do not have to contend.

Testing supercars is an expensive business that is easier in the mountains of L.A. than the crumbling, snowy streets of Toronto. For this reason, most media outlets rely on the deep pockets of the carmakers who provide trips, test cars and more.

Even though the automotive review industry is in many ways funded by the carmakers, Kenzie says he speaks his mind about the cars he drives.

“I made a reputation early on that I’m going to say what the car is like,” says Kenzie. “People understand that.”

”We’ve always had this conflict of interest when we’re being wined and dined by the car companies, but I honestly believe the biggest problem we have with young journalists being too easy on cars is that they don’t know enough about how to drive the cars to properly criticize them.”

The gap between the middle-aged journalists who dominate the show and the few reporters in their 20s and 30s is evident, as though they exist on two separate planes. The older journalists take notes but spend most of their time talking to each other, having heard the recycled advertising jargon enough to know the drill.

“Drives like a truck with its run-flat tires,” mutters Kenzie, as the BMW spokespeople show off the latest X6, “and it’s 1,000 pounds too heavy.”

Meanwhile, the younger journalists bounce from car to car, peppering the front rows of the media conferences and heading up the horde of journalists—“the crocodile,” as it is colloquially known—as it sweeps from one presentation to the next.

The end of the day finds the Kenzie at the Auto Exotica display—a room filled with some of the most desirable and costly supercars on the market. At one end of the room, three McLarens sit across the aisle from a Pagani Huayra. Kenzie stops in front of the Ferrari display.

“If I could choose any car I want—sky’s the limit—I’d get one of these,” says Kenzie, having walked past the California and the F12 Berlinetta, to the 458 Italia.

“I’d get it in white and I’d go for the drop-top, because who really cares about the extra couple pounds.”

A Ferrari might not be in the offing, but Kenzie jests with Christian Meunier, president of Nissan Canada, about an alternative. If only the automaker could be swayed, Kenzie would replace the drivetrain of the Juke that Nissan gave him for Targa Newfoundland with the innards of their supercar, the GT-R.

Get out of the left lane!