SANTA MONICA, CA - The Detroit auto show is the city’s biggest event of the year and, thanks to the Internet, car lovers and car shoppers around the world can closely follow the unveilings and other developments that take place there. As a result, Edmunds’ InsideLine.com, an automotive Web site, enjoyed a 74% bump in traffic that week.

The analysts at Edmunds.com, an online resource for automotive information, have tracked Edmunds.com and InsideLine.com traffic to determine which new models received the most online attention and reached the following conclusions:

The 2011 Audi A8 received 14.9% more site traffic the week before its reveal at the auto show than it did the week the car was on display, suggesting that the anticipation may have been more compelling than the actual car.

The Buick Regal GS Concept stimulated new appeal for the model, driving Regal site traffic up 46% compared with the previous week.

The 2012 Ford Focus generated quite a bit of buzz – evidenced by a 72% jump in site traffic – as one of the major introductions of the show.

The Ford Transit Connect was hardly known before winning North American Truck of the Year, so it was the subject of much online research this week; its pages were viewed over 400% more after the award was announced at the auto show.

The 2011 Honda CR-Z was a hot topic of conversation among the tuner crowd; it garnered 63% more site traffic than in the past week.

”The show's comparative scarcity of high-impact concept and production vehicles didn't stem the avalanche of opinion on the most notable vehicles there,” wrote Edmunds’ AutoObserver.com Senior Editor Bill Visnic in his round-up of the Detroit auto show