I guess woodworkers are mad that welders have all the fun with the sparks, fire and loud noises so they decided to build a car. From wood. A sports car. A big, wooden, sports car. What I find cool is the use of many kinds of wood “technology” like CNC machines wooden and metal wheels. The Pilot Sports on them is a nice touch.
Steam pressed plywood, Eames style monocoque substructure is also very impressive. In fact, wood adds some unique and positive traits to cars with its flexibility. It’s just that whole rotting, flamable, termite food thing that makes it hard to see it as a daily driver. Or even something that can live anywhere but indoors.
Cars are part of some of my fondest moments. They’re also part of some scary and downright dumb moments. For example, a new 91 Miata in a full sideways WRC-style slide down a rather small street, trying to find the speed governor in a Euro-spec Audi V8 and climbing a 45 degree grade in a new Pathfinder. The Miata lived, as did I. The Audi never divulged it’s top speed but it was faster than I was willing to go and the Pathfinder is no wimp.
As an *ahem* adult, I take my need for speed to the track or the monthly autocross which lets me be perfectly happy puttering around town like an old person. But, every once in a while, there is a moment when you see another driver on the frontage road or on-ramp area, in a competitive car and there’s this immediate “we will now battle for dominance” acknowledgment. For the most part, these are as harmless as a quick sprint to highway-speed plus about 10 mph for good measure, nothing dangerous.
Yesterday, there was such an incident. There I was, minding my own business, and suddenly an E63 Mercedes, rippling with it’s 507 HP appeared right in front of me, dad in front, 2 8-10 year old boys in back. The head movements in the E63 told me everything that was happening in the car and what was about to occur. This is what transpired:
“Dad, there’s a Porsche behind us. Is that faster than this car?”
“Oh no son, not a chance, this car has 200 more horsepower than that little Porsche”
“Are you sure dad? it looks fast”
“Ok kids, sit down in your seat and I’ll show you”
[Loud noises as the E63 hurls itself forward onto the Interstate]
“Dad, he’s still right behind us. Are you sure you’re pressing the pedal all the way?”
Silence, other than the roar of the V8
I happen to like the AMG Mercedes cars and would happily have a CLK63 or even an older CLK55. Nothing wrong with them, fast as stink and the interior is just gorgeous. It’s just not a sports car, its a sporty GT or sedan, which is not better or worse, it’s just different. It’s not meant to launch to triple digits like a scalded chimp, it’s meant to pull hard and cruise on the highway at 140 without complaining about crosswinds, road quality or ride quality. My car will happily complain about everything while giving you a frighteningly fun ride.
Having lived in LA for a long time I found that the bigger the car (SUV) +
more gizmos = distracted & bad drivers. It’s bad here too and I HATE to be
that guy but. people used to drive better before all those gadgets.
Full disclosure, I contributed to an O’reilly book on how to install a
complete PC in your dashboard and even had a touch-screen with windows XP in
the dash of my 04 Yukon. And you know what, it was completely distracting.
Particularly when the good parts of a movie were playing while on my morning
commute. Nothing like Ronin in the morning. I can’t imagine the cacophony of
a fully loaded media-laden minivan filled with squealing kids and SpongeBob.
It’s no wonder more people don’t wreck.
Since trading in the Yukon (which I truly loved and I still miss) I find
great pleasure in my noisy Carrera where it’s far too loud to be on the
phone and the car has (as most 911s do) few if any “convenience” features
(does PSM count?). My wife picked up a new A3 Sportback in October and it’s
just as bare as a 911 which is so nice. Audi does simple very well. The idea
of some silly I-Drive, NAV screen, dash-o-buttons is so repellant to me. And
I’m a full-bore gadget freak. It’s just that in the car there are some
priorities (for me at least); awareness of my surroundings, safety and the
sound of an engine barking behind me. IMHO, that should be enough, right?
People love to beat up the Hummer. I have no real opinion either way. They get low MPG but no less than a Yukon, so if the big GM super-SUV is bad, they all are. I think it’s more to do with the look what draws the ire.
I actually like the design but the interior is a bit cheap looking for what you pay. In what seems like an ironic branding exercise, I found mention of a Hummer scooter. Since the scooter is the ultimate economical motor-transit, it’s funny to see one dressed as a hummer.
Assume, for a moment, it got the same MPG as a Vespa. Would it still be evil? I don’t know, but it looks like fun. As long as no one I know saw me on it.
Oh man, I remember icy roads. I spun my mom’s brand new Audi Quatro V8 on a wicked iced over road in Santa Fe back in the early 90s. I don’t know how I didn’t hit anything other than soft snow… They show the top speed as 250KM (155MPH) but I know for a fact it goes faster than that.
You have to feel for the driver here. You they have no idea how to stop. Actually, I dont think they could DO anything at all to stop it. What I find sad is that this ended up more like a big pinball game and no one left unscathed. It was 73 degrees a few days ago here in Austin. 73. Yeah.
I’ve liven in a few communities with and without homeowners associations. I think people don’t take the “severity” of their prospective HOA into account when buying a home and they should. If you’re a whiny old person who likes to call the police if you hear the neighbors talking outside at 10:01PM, then you might like where I used to live in Shady Hollow. If you left your trash can out more than a few hours after the pickup, a woman in a minivan will be patrolling the neighborhood, taking photos of “offenders” which then get sent to you. It happened to me a few times. I used language that made them stop. It was not nice language.
I’ve also lived in places where you can do just about anything and no one can say a word unless it’s a federal crime. That has downsides too. A neighbor across the street never mowed her lawn and piled up logs, bikes, bricks and other detritus in her yard. It was terrible to look at. Some neighbors got together and waited for her to go out of town and completely leveled her yard so it looked somewhat presentable. She got home and completely lost her mind in the street, sheriking at the top of her lungh acusing the neighborhood of being against her. The cops came. It was a scene.
So, there is a balance if you want one. You have to figure out where you want to live based on what the HOA will restrict and if that meets your needs. If you want to live like a slob and never mow, then live where that’s normal. Or, Arizona where there is no grass.
This guy, well, I assume the cops nor the HOA must care much because although I live in a pretty permissive ‘hood, this would NOT fly. Yes, I’d love to own one buy I’d truly feel bad for the neighbors if I fired this thing up at dinner time. I mean, it’s not a fly-in community…
A few years back something happened with Cadillac. I guess they finally looked at those reports on who their customers were and realized that their average consumer was older than the average bucket-kicking age. They needed to turn it around ant appeal to an audience ab out 3 or 4 decades younger without blowing off pappy.
The CTS always looked cool and when they came out with the CTS-V AND actually used it in real racing series, I was impressed. Not only did they keep their base audience, people my age didn’t see them anymore as staging coaches for impending hearse rides.
The New 09 CTS-V looks to be a nice ride and with some 500+ HP, it’s quite a little hammer. I don’t fit in them due to my height and this bizarre American fascination with standard sunroofs and high seats. So, unless they could take a special order for a manual seat and no sunroof (HAHAHAHA ROFL, like they actually do that anymore…), I’ll not be panting too much over it.
So, I’ll keep my panting for the Pontiac GXP-R which in the Grand-Am series was spanking the Porsche 997 from Sebring to Road Atlanta. So I’ll give it the respect it deserves.
Wow, cars from GM I like, that’s usually a very short list.
Drag racing is a simple formula. Reaction time, power, traction in one (hopefully) direction. I’ve done it, I liked it but it’s not compelling enough to build a dedicated car. I like curves, sue me.
Then you take Top Gear, arguably the best car show EVER, and they decide to drag a car, it’s, well, special. How special? Veyron vs. RAF Eurofighter Jet. The results are surprising and Top Gear always delivers the goods with stunning cinematography. I don’t know who does their cinematography but they’re worthy of any Hollywood epic movie. It’s just a pleasure to watch.
I’m a huge car nerd. Not a nerd for huge cars, you know, I like cars a lot and could (and would) bore you to tears with the minutia of car details. To be clear, I like particular cars and particular kinds of cars and to go into detail would be boring (see above) but suffice it to say, I like interesting performance cars.
“Ah” you say, I like sports cars. Well, yes and no. What I consider a sports car has more to do with actual performance than pure horsepower, torque, 0-60 times or lateral Gs. I’m about aesthetic and dynamics. Two cars that you might not think go together are the Miata and the Elise. Both cars with a decent set of tires will tear up a track* (road course, not those silly ovals) better than your off-the-shelf fakers like the Mustang GT. Sure, it sounds like a fast car, and at a red light it will make smoke and noise, but it’s not a sports car. In fact, it’s name gives you a hint about what it’s actually about, it’s a GT (Grand Tourer) but without any of the Grand or Touring part. A real GT would be an Audi S5, Mercedes CLK63 and possibly an M6. And yes I do like those although the M6 has lost the plot between the silly BMW design language and it’s massive weight.
When it comes down to what I think a real sports car is, I’ll always point to the 911 with some love for the M3, Ferrari F430 as well as the VW R32 which is fast as stink. So, yes, I’m a bit all over the place and I could go on and on.
But, since this is a passion of mine, I’ll go into the weeds even more. When it comes to owning a sports car you can fall into a number of areas. Most people just buy the car for status or that they actually know a little about the car but that’s it. They just drive it around. Groceries and all* (I lug groceries in my car…). Then there are the enthusiasts who will modify the car a bit and get a little sideways on the weekends. Moving into more serious territory you get people who actually race their cars and attend track days and DE events. These people know off hand their tire pressures (for each tire) as well as treadwear ratings, spring rates, sway bar thickness and surely, wheel horsepower since they just dyno’d the car.
That’s me and I got there like most people do, a little at a time. You do get to a point where your daily driver starts to complain a bit and you feel bad beating up on it over a good season of autocrosses, DEs and track days. You also have to drive this car to work so your eyes wander a bit “I should have a car just for this stuff”. See, you can’t call it a race car because then you have to be that guy (or girl) who wants their own race car which could come off as silly. But it’s not.
The rub is, you tend to want a race car that is of the marque you like so in my case, a Porsche 911 race car, and yes, I feel silly saying to people that I want to keep my car in good nick so I’m getting another one to play with. But it’s true. I do need another one. And a trailer to carry it. And a truck to pull it. Oh lord, this is starting to sound expensive. Oh, wait, it is.
Still, I can dream, and plan, and dream some more. But I will, in the not too too too distant future have a 911 race car. That doesn’t stop me from shopping. The problem is, I love all race cars* (road race cars, not that silly NASCAR stuff) so I get all misty when i see one on sale. But every once in a while someone has one for sale that when you see it, it’s lust. A scary, maniacal, tortured lust that is the most depraved of coveting. Today I felt that.
This particular 963 is a Carrera 4, built in Weissach as an RS. Porsche does not use the RS name lightly. If it’s an RS, it’s a proper track car and this is a special, rare, proper race car in stunning condition and pretty much ready to drop off trackside. I think it needs a set of R-compounds…
Some people dream of Lamborghini Gallardos, Bentleys, even Ferraris. I dream of 15 year old 911s with stripped interiors. The funny thing is, I couldn’t leave this in the garage and only take it out for track time. I’d throw some street tires on it and take it grocery shopping.
What I find amusing and somewhat settling is that it’s not getting many bids. There is hope for humanity. That said, if you’re the kind of 70′s muscle car degenerate that likes this kind of garbage, there are bonus goodies that come with a winning bid:
The winner of this auction will receive the following items:
• The Travolta Fever Firebird (with Clear California Title)
• www.travoltafever.com website (includes domain name)
• Revell’s Firebird Fever Scale Model Kit (Still in the Box & Signed by Barris)
• 1983 Auction Program & Poster from the George Barris Collection Sale (Signed by Barris)
• B&W Photo of John Travolta standing with the Travolta Fever Car (Signed by Barris)
• Photo Library of Car (Recent Magazine shoot plus other photos on 2 CD’s)
• Barris TV & Movie Cars book (by George Barris & David Fetherston, Signed by Barris)
• Travolta Fever album (deluxe 2 record set)
• Pontiac Enthusiast Magazine (Nov/Dec 2007 Issue Featuring Travolta Fever)
Rules on car customizing:
1. Rainbows are reserved for Benneton themed VWs
2. Pot leaves are NOT decorative even if you’re the editor of High Times
3. Other than contrasting stitching, no other stitching other than that to keep seats held together are needed
It’s not possible for my wife or I to keep a car for more than 2 years. I’ve had a lot of cars since first getting my license (and one or two before I had it) and no matter how much I loved a car, in about 24 months it was being wheeled into the dealership for something new and quite often, completely different.
In the last month or so Wifey has been growing weary of the FX35 that graced our garage. It was a spectacular little beast that had gobs of power and blingy 20″ rims but she had shaken the SUV bug and wanted to go back to her European roots. She’s a bit of a fledgling car nerd so the option pool had already been thinned out to just a few possible car makers.
The requirements:
No sedans, they look too ‘boring’. The more interesting ones are expensive and still have a silly trunk
Must seat 4, so no coupes, not even a sweet Grand Tourer (I wanted a CLK in the garage)
No more SUVs
Oh, it has to be sporty
Where everyone sat:
Go USA!… No, all US cars got an immediate veto for the usual reasons
Asia? No Nissans or Toyotas (their dealerships are CRAP here). I suggested the Toyota FJ but she’s over the SUVs. She’s not down with the Subies or the Mitsus. The Infinities are great but the G35 is a touch snug for me (I DO have to ride in it). The only close contender is the Lexus IS350 which is… a sedan.
Europe:
Porsche: Cayenne is too big, Roxter is still unannounced, and we already have a coupe so 2 911s would be great but not useful for hauling more than a few sacks of groceries.
BMW: No, she hates Bangle’s design language as much as I do, possibly more.
VW: Cool but a little too university for her
Volvo: No, just no
Jaguar: She’s pretty hot on the XJR after seeing it on Top Gear. I voted yes on this one.
Land Rover: We have both had them and they make great 5th cars.
Mini: Too small, cute and the interior is horrid
Saab: I hate the way they look in spite of her liking them. The agreement is, we both have to like it.
So, with every other brand or continent completely dismissed, we were looking at Mercedes and Audi
Mercedes: The new C Class is a sedan but it’s looks trumped the sedan rule. Still, the car is a bit expensive and optioned with the sport options we’d like it ended up being close to 40K.
Audi was always on the top of the list but, we do have a process, one where we eliminate everything else and get down to options. In this case there was only one, the A3. We flirted with it on-line for a few weeks and yesterday headed down there with an empty FX35, all it’s keys and accessories, ready for a goodbye and hello.
What transpired was one part luch and one part experience gleaned from purchasing and selling dozens of cars.
The FX was a dealer demo so we got a rocking deal on it 2 years ago.
It held it’s value and is not up for a re-design this model year
We kept it in perfect condition
It was a flawless trade-in as a very sellable car that no dealer could possibly complain about.
Wifey and I strolled around the lot and once we homed in on an A3 she latched onto it with all tentacles. It was true love, on the spot. We did discuss that no matter how much either of us liked a car we’d be completely blase about the whole thing or we’d lose some negotiating power.
She wanted a red one so it eliminated all but 3 cars on the lot. The salesman brought us over to a red 06 dealer demo with a nearly perfect option selection:
Manual seats (lighter and more legroom / headroom)
NO SUNROOF – I’m 6’5″ sunroofs are my enemy and they add 50lbs of steel to the roof which is BAD for handling
Black interior which is cool
Sport package – nice wheels, 160 treadwear W rated tires, stiff springs, roof spoiler and general hotness
We would have liked the NAV / Bluetooth and the conveneince package but all those things add 3-4K to the final price of a car and while it’s nice and all, its not important to us.
The test drive was better than I had imagined. She could hardly (and didnt) contain herself. There was no turning back.
It was time to wheel and deal. I was a little surprised by how they pretty much gave us KBB ‘Good’ value for the trade, no negotiating needed there. They knocked $1000 off the Audi and threw in new floormats (Hey, thats $130). The whole thing took about 30 minutes and it only took so long because he was trying to get his manager’s attention away from 3 other sales people who were also closing deals.
Since we were in a good position on the trade and the dealer demo was about 6K under sticker, we ended up getting a $500 CREDIT. Imagine that, they gave us money and we just refinanced the Infinity loan which was lower and now the payment is lower by $100 a month.
The car is called Moe. He was named for being a bad MoFo. So, since it’s hard to tell her parents the car is called MoFo and going to the dealer “Hey, I’m here to drop this Mofo off for service” might get us kicked out (or void the warrantee) he’s just Moe.
Moe gets tint, Sirius and a proper detail next week.
Blaupunkt is known for making good head units. Not overly flashy (fast and furious) like other popular brands where if you just want functionality you have to deal with silly graphics. Blau, they’re more staid. I like that but they also didn’t make anything very progressive. Until now.
I’ve seen a few head units with USB support which is cool but the SD card is the de-facto standard for more mobile file use. I end up making CDs from MP3s (kind of backwards…) so i can play them in my car. I don’t have anywhere I can put my ipod in the car so it ends up sitting there docked on my desk for eternity. If only I could make use of those SD cards…
It also includes an iPod & USB port. Pure genius. What more could I ask for? Eh, not sure on that. Since I could use my 160GB USB drive with this, it’s effectively able to hold my whole MP3 collection.
What blows me away is it’s $150. I’d want to see how it handles scrolling through names and titles but for as cheap as it is, you cant be all too dissapointed even if the UI is lacking. Not that I’m saying it is.
I always liked the Cayenne in spite of purist cries about blasphemy and brand deviation blah blah blah. The Cayenne is a cool car and people like it. I think it’s a little tall in stance and like the custom ones where the suspension is kicked down. People in Stuttgart are listening.
The new 2008 GTS model is a serious nod to making their SUV more sporty. Sure, it’s lower but using PASM and the steel springs like on the 911, they might be serious here. Oh, wait, a manual transmission is standard with tiptronic as an option? And it uses the turbo body styling without having to pay 60K more for the actual turbo (which is not all that necessary, truth be told)? I love these guys.
I’m also happy about the color. The titanium edition of the Cayenne was the only real red one they were making and then they ended that line. Bummer. But, the GTS, it’s one of those cars that we all want them to make and they decide not to. But then they did. I love Porsche debuts, they rarely leave me wanting.
Oh VW bus, you bastion of stoner culture, you can’t seem to escape your past. There isn’t anyone among us who didn’t go to high school with at least one of those guys who had the van, the tie-dye and the smoke cloud in his wake. It’s the eternal symbol of all things stoner and granola. Good, bad or indifferent, that’s simply the way it is.
Ok people, do I have to say this AGAIN? Drifting is NOT a sport, it’s the automotive version of figure skating and as such should not be discussed in any “competitive” context. The very nature of competition in motorsports NEVER has anything to do with a judge’s decision of who raced prettier. Judges make rulings on cones, contact, equipment etc, not who wins based on colored smoke from tires.
Instead of spending th money on building a factory Grand American car for the Rolex Series, Mopar builds a drift car? Then makes a commercial out of it?
I guess I’m not overly surprised, BF Goodrich tires are involved (which I have had and don’t like) and tire companies LOVE drifting events, it’s pretty much $800 in tires per person per day. What’s not to love other than the green aspect of those events. Hey, tire smoke is toxic… And therefore, so is drifting.
Although it’s an artists rendering, this doesn’t look too far fetched for what a P-car hatch might be like. Should Porsche build it? There are a few camps. One camp is of the mind that if it’s not an air-cooled flat six, it’s not a Porsche and therefore no Porsches have been made since 1998. I’m of the other camp. I think that the Porsche soul can be put in a number of body styles and if you want a Panamera, Roxter, 997, Cayenne or Cayman, why not. Even a hot hatch. I’ll draw the line at a pickup truck. No Porsche pickup trucks. Or lawn equipment.
I admin, I’m hard on NASCAR. All these years I’ve derided it as a boring motorsport that had very little to do with strategy or even driving for that matter. That going left, then left and left again was not all that interesting for fans or drivers. On top of that I’ve criticized the sport for their use of antique engine technology and of course the restrictor plate.
There is something in the design community that dictates “anything “green” must look like something from a Japanese cartoon”. [VIA: Jalopnik]
I had read that the Honda Accord Hybrid that had the same engine / mpg as the Prius didn’t sell as well. 2 possibilities: 1. The Prius is a green status symbol 2. People actually like them.
Lovers of P-cars know that the GT-x versions of their beloved 911 are the pure embodiment of what a performance car is. Well, to be perfectly clear, the RS and RSR Cup Cars are even more so, but most of them never see a license plate. So, we’ll live out our fantasies of Rolex Series victories (or just not being flat last) in a street legal version. While the GT (or GT1) was a true exotic and ended up as a 400K+ garage queen for the billionaire set, the GT2 and GT3 (more so the GT3) have always been the “real” track and street cars. People who baby their GT3′s should be beaten with a stick, it’s MEANT to wear Hoosiers on Sunday.
It’s been a while since the last 996 version of the GT2 has been on the radar, freaking us out with it’s scary HP numbers and scarier price tag. But recently there was a grumble and then, like that, it’s here. Or, at least the brochure which is as close as most of us will get to a GT2. At an estimated street price of $200K, these may not fly out of the showrooms by pre-sale like the Mercedes CLK Black Edition or the 997 GT3-RS which sells on eBay for 50K more than sticker.
Is it worth it? These cars are for 2 kinds of people, Porsche fools (like me but with money) and race teams and I think most teams will work directly with Weissach to get their race cars.
This will be the first true 911 sold to the public that is set up to go, in the right conditions, over the 200 mph mark. I guess the Veryon made 200 boring so now Porsche doesn’t feel like it’s trying to compete since 250 is the new 200…
When it comes down to it, 911′s aren’t intended for flat-out speed records, that’s not the purpose of the vehicle. They were meant to be sports cars that perform well on road courses and twisty country roads. Is the 204 number impressive? Yes, but, it’s not actually important in any way. Although it might sound like blasphemy, going 200 is kind of dumb. It’s a simple way to push a car to the limit while going fast enough that there is zero chance you’d survive if something went wrong and the car went out of control. There is plenty of fun to be had under 120 and the GT2 will be far more impressive doing it’s thing at those speeds rather than fighting the wind at the top of 6th gear.
Today is the day I give up on Detroit. In a world with hoards of bright, smart, creative industrial designers who would give their left hand to help design cars, this is what we get?!
Did we not learn the lesson about saying yes to bad design from the Aztec? How about the new Malibu? The ass on the new BMWs ( or their whole new crappy design language), lets go back for some history, the Mustang II, the Pinto, Astrovan, Probe, must I go on? Must you spend money on shiny piles of drek like this? How about showing up at a car show without a car and just declare “we will no longer use cheap plastic in our cars, we’re going to make interiors that are more like the European cars”. Stock would go through the roof. People would run into the street, it would be a 3 day party. No. We get designers who sniff their own farts and give us this.
What I find apalling here is that Airstream had shown very good ID and their new Mercedes based campers are very cool and have far better styling inside and out. I see this car and I think it should go in a film about how creepy men in creepy vans, even 30 years from now, will offer candy to little kids. That, or 3 white-latex clad vixens should jump out with Uzi’s and mow down a bunch of zombies. In the future, of course.
Why is there no filter for design that sucks. How does stuff like this get so far along before someone calls shenanigans on it? With design tools available now that make rendering cars in 3d so simple, how is this happening? I’m just speechless. That is until the next car show when Ford, Chrysler or GM makes another crappy concept car that distracted them from designing nice REAL cars that could compete.
That said the Pontiac GXP-R and Corvette C6-R are kicking ass on the tracks against 911s, RX-8s etc. That GXP-R is OUTSTANDING. Now, Pontiac, SELL IT TO THE PUBLIC and don’t dumb it down.
Here we are, the 30 somethings who were to young to appreciate or enjoy 30 Something on TV. That was for the previous, unwired generation. a decade and half out of college we’re getting out of debt and trying to live like “adults” while not ever selling off those GI Joes on eBay. Ok, we sold them. But… the game has changed and those iconic 80s movies we watched on HBO or VHS over and over again (when there was only one HBO, and we suffered through the blinking 12:00) are still showing up on TV and we’re still watching them. But, in an eBay / Google / get-records-on-anyone-and-everything-for-19.95 world, some people are taking their love for youthful kitch to a new level.
It wasn’t about possibly finding Tom Cruises pre-Scientology pocket lint in a deep crevice of the car or using it as some sort of hokey marketing ploy, this guy just loves the movie and loves Porsches. I get the latter but while it was a good film and I could stand to sit through it, it was just a good film. That said, the sex scene in the train was pretty hot.
No more than a few months later another automotive icon of my youth has been hunted down like a mob-informant in the witness protection program. The Camaro from Better Off Dead. Another good one where Cusak spoke to the camera (Also see High Fidelity some 20 years later, still camera talking), and where a car had a personality of sorts in the film. Not like Herby, but everyone knows what car was in it decades later.
Is this a trend? I actually think it is. I am sure that there have been more like this and that all of the iconic cars of the past will be dug up from their surely dilapidated states to be brought back to life by Gen Xers wanting to go back to a tie before 9-11, both Bush presidents, $3 gas, impending social security implosion and being IM’d on 3 devices at a time. This is a desperate grasp for a simpler time through the honesty of vehicles that identified that time in our lives. Or, people wanted cool cars they remember.
So, here’s the list of cars I see being found:
The red Bentley from Caddyshack
Possibly the black 911 from same film (yes, the barf one)
Magnum’s Ferrari 308 GTSi qv
Some Cheech and Chong low-rider
The beater abandoned at the curb before they joined the army in Stripes
Edie Murphy’s car from Beverly Hills Cop
The Ferrari from Ferris Bueller’s Day off
The green beetle from Bullet (not the 80′s but worthy)
That alien car from Wraith (that had a Chrysler emblem on the hood)
People who cant find the a-list cars will have to do with the also-seen cars like the BMW 635 in Breakfast Club that Claire gets into at the end.
I’m sure I missed a bunch, leave a comment and I’ll revise the list.
What will the next generation dig up? Well, I’m sure the cars from XXX and fast and furious aren’t going to be sold off into the ether but who knows what treasures and barn-finds await todays teens down the road? Some lame car from Grays Anatomy? I hope it’s better than that.
There has always been a facination with Lombard street in San Francisco. It’s steep winding route is pretty unique among roads in the US and many people have performed “stunts” on it but I dont believe I remember hearing of any actual race being held there.
UNTIL NOW! It takes a real genius to look at that road and come up with “this is where we will hold a grand big wheel rally”. That’s big stuff.
Had I run, I may have gone with some Kart tires in back and a 20″ BMX vert-ramp slick up front although with the moisture on the track street, a bit of tread depth might be good… I wonder if my local bike shop has a tire shaver… Hey, its is a race after all…
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