Current members of the Buffalo Bandits, former stars of the Buffalo Sabres, superheroes and larger-than-life characters are all scheduled to appear at the 2017 Buffalo Auto Show! Western New York’s premier new vehicle automotive event, the Auto Show will celebrate its annual return to the Buffalo Niagara Convention Center Feb. 9-12.

Three members of the Buffalo Bandits — Ryan Benesch, Dhane Smith and David Brock — will appear at the Auto Show from 6 to 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 9, to sign autographs and have photos taken with their fans. 

On Saturday, Feb. 11, former Buffalo Sabres superstars Danny Gare, Don Luce and Craig Ramsay will reunite to sign autographs from 5 to 6:30 p.m. Guests will be entitled to one free autograph per player.

The Niagara Frontier Automobile Dealers Association and Erie Community College will host the 2017 NFADA Ron Smith Memorial AutoTech Competition on Saturday, Jan. 14. The competition features teams of two high school automotive seniors who will go through a series of diagnostic, workstation and performance tests to measure their automotive technical skills and abilities. Ford Motor Company is the vehicle sponsor and will be providing six 2017 Ford Explorers for the students to compete on.

Also during the event, high school juniors will compete in a Tire Changing Rodeo. They will race against time in an Olympic-style format to dismount and mount tires using a tire-changing machine.

By Peter Gold

Entering or exiting a vehicle by opening a vehicle door and not having another driver see you in the path of traffic has resulted in an estimated one million deaths since the inception of the motor vehicle. We are all guilty of being exposed. In memory of those one million who have died and the 100 men, woman and children who will die tonight, I beg every vehicle owner and every vehicle manufacturer to apply what I have invented to help prevent the needless loss of life.