Nice. Is that the shader from the Maya Rendering book? Cos thats a good car shader!!!

As for rendering, Mental Ray? Final Gather? GI? or just a good 3 light set up? They are all good, just whatever you prefer really.

Myself, I'd go for a 3 light on this cos you could get some nice backlight on the car and really show off the lines with a good hilite come off that paint job

Jango