Recently, I attended the Carlisle Import and Kit Nationals show at the Carlisle Fairgrounds in Pennsylvania. Held every May, this show features a vast array of meticulously maintained classic British, European and Japanese cars, exemplary examples of their more modern kin, as well as a beautiful collection of kit cars.  As far as sheer variety in makes, models and years, hands down, this show can’t be beat.

This has become something of an annual treat for me as I can think of few better ways to spend a weekend than by gazing at a gleaming sea of jaw-droppingly stunning automobiles, many of which I guarantee you won’t find at other shows. Plus, participation is open to anyone with an import or a kit car – all you have to do is register, make your car pretty and show up. It’s a great opportunity to display your cherished ride and meet other aficionados of your favorite marques.

I used to come down to show my Saab and hang out with the Saab contingent that makes it out every year. But even though I have a Subaru now, it’s just so much fun that I continue to make the trip to Carlisle (my WRX was parked over by the lone DeLorean, if you happened to be there). Volvo, BMW and Audi clubs also traditionally have a large showing so the weekend is packed with the cars you love, cars you haven’t seen before, your friends from the forums, barbeques – it’s a good time for everyone.  So, if you’re not too far out from Pennsylvania, I definitely recommend heading out there next May to check out the Carlisle Import and Kit Nationals. To tide you over, provided for your viewing pleasure are some of my favorite cars of the weekend. Enjoy!

Lancia Scorpion

Matte black Volvo V70R

Opel GT and Opel Kadett Coupe

Volvo P1800S

Saab 9-3 Viggens

Ferrari 360 Modena and 328GTS

Citroën 2CV and Smart Roadster Coupe

Gorgeous Audi Quattro

Fiat 124 Spider Abarth

Twin-charged Audi A1

Volvo S60Rs

Saab 99 Turbo

Badass Volvos: PV544 and 142

DKW Junior de Luxe - DKW/Dampf-Kraft-Wagen became one of the four companies that comprised the "Audi NSU Auto Union AG" (now known as Audi AG).

Triumph TR8 and TR6s

Saab 96 V4 convertible - must have been a custom job.

Bimmer Beauties

Datsun 280ZX 10th Anniversary Edition

Citroën H Van and DS

Audi A7

Honda Z600 / 600 Coupe

Saab Sonetts

Datsun SPL311 Roadster

Opel GT

The Mini E, likely to benefit from the new joint venture. Image: © BMW AG

The BMW Group and PSA Peugeot Citroën have signed an agreement to establish a joint venture aimed at developing hybrid drive technologies. The company, to be called BMW Peugeot Citroën Electrification, will develop and build components for hybrid systems, including battery packs, generators, chargers, controllers and software. By sharing R&D, purchasing and production, the partner companies feel that they’ll be able to develop and build hybrid vehicles more economically than their competitors.

Ultimately, the goal of the group is to create an open platform to benefit the EU automotive industry and push the development of hybrid vehicles. The group is clear that this is a commercial venture, and any technology or products developed will likely be available for licensing from competitors. Management and workers will be drawn from the respective partner companies, and the joint venture is expected to launch by the third quarter of 2011. If all goes as planned, expect to see results from the group as soon as the 2014 model year.

Source: BMW Group

2010 was a good year. The venerable Lancia Stratos came back from the grave. Jaguar built a car with two jet engines in it. The Mustang shaved its mullet and proved itself as a more-than-capable sports tourer. Chevy’s long-awaited Volt turned out to be pretty good. And Cadillac made the most bitchin’ station wagon ever. But my favorite cars this year didn’t make the glossy magazines. They won’t end up in posters plastered to 15-year-olds’ walls. They won’t be featured in Forza or GT5. They are, however, spectacular in every way imaginable. Here they are, in no particular order.

The GLCOAT (Greatest LeMons Car of All Time)

The man who built this eight-wheeled monster never finished and sadly didn’t live to see it achieve Internet fame. It’s the GLCOAT, or Greatest LeMons Car of All Time. I like to call it the Octo-Rod, but that’s just me. It was discovered on eBay by curious car buffs, for sale as part of the builder’s estate. It has eight wheels, two Mazda rotaries, and more gumption than Calamity Jane. It was purchased by 24 Hours of LeMons veteran Speedycop, who plans to race it. How could it not be on my list?

Octo-Rod

University of British Columbia eBeetle

Student engineers from UBC built this electric beetle and drove it clear across Canada. It’s powered by an A/C motor and a lithium-ion-phosphate battery. It’s range is more than 200 miles at 42 miles per hour. It can hit 85, which is batty in a VW Beetle. I love the ingenuity of this thing, the sheer tenacity of the engineering team. And it’s a Beetle, which just makes makes me smile.

UCB eBeetle

Miura Replica

That is a Fiero. It’s a painstaking replicar built to exacting specifications. It rocks a Corvette V8, custom-fabricated interior, and a fiberglass body. And you’d be hard pressed to identify its domestic underpinnings. It’s a work of art, every builder’s dream. It was first featured on Buildthreads.com and is now a legend.

Miura Replica

Air Prance Citroën DS

In my mind, this car represents the greatest achievement of the 21st century. It’s a 1971 (or ’72?) Citroën DS and it ran, successfully, in several 24 Hours of LeMons races. With its hydraulic suspension system intact. It was ran by Team Prance and it’s still running. In fact, it recently made a trip across the country to run in another race. Brilliant.

Air Prance Citroën

Rx-2

Bob Maywell built this 1970-ish Mazda RX-2 for racing. It’s a good thing, too, because he works at Thunderhill Speedway in California. It’s powered by a turbocharged 12A rotary and has a full race cage. The RX-2 is a rare bird in the states, but it’s one sexy little coupe. It’s on my short list of dream cars.

Mazda RX-2

Honda N360 Electric

The guys at Hector’s Chop Shop in Santa Rosa, Ca., are building an electric, rear-drive ’69 Honda N360. The N360 was a Lilliputian Kei car, a 1,100-pound front-wheel-drive hatch with a 30-hoursepower 600cc twin. The thing was barely 10 feet from nose to hatch and only four feet wide. Forrest Koogle  and the crew at Hector’s scored a pair of the tiny cars, sold one, and decided to convert the other to an all-electric driver/racer. They picked up a massive 60-horsepower D/C motor with ungodly amounts of torque and, well, things got crazy from there. The build is still not finished, but it’s one of my all-time favorites.

Electric N360

Smyth G3F

Go green, go fast. It’s Smyth Performance founder Mark Smith’s motto and it means you can have a hyper-efficient car that won’t lull you into a state of suspended animation—and you can build it yourself. Smith is developing a fuel-efficient diesel kit car called the G3F, a true hoon’s alternative to the legions of vapid big-name hybrids. The first prototype is nearly finished now and Smyth is ready to deliver a few kits to brave beta testers early next year. I love the idea behind this car and it looks great, too. If I were to ever build a kit, it would be a G3F.

Mark Smith’s G3F

Slammed Previa

I used to make fun of the egg-shaped Previa. Now I dream of owning a Previa All-Trac with a modified supercharger and a swapped-in manual transmission. A Stanceworks.com forum member who goes by the handle “shawnthemonster” pimped out his Previa. He slammed the thing within an inch of its life, gave it independent rear suspension to get adjustable camber in the rear, and slathered the whole thing in red and black paint. I love it. It’s the perfect family van and damn sexy.

Slammed Previa

Manstretta MXT

The Mastretta MXT is a 1,980-pound powerhouse, a mid-engine coupe with a 240-horsepower turbocharged 2.0 liter inline four. The lightweight sports car will be the first car designed, engineered, and manufactured in Mexico. According to Mastretta, the first production units should roll off the assembly line in 2011. It’s one hot little number. And it helps that my favorite color is orange. Hopefully they’ll import the cuddly little thing to the US so I’ll have a chance to drive it.

Manstretta MXT

Dymaxion Recreation

Buckminster Fuller built the Dymaxion Car way back in the ’30s. It was extremely ahead of its time, a aerodynamically slippery minivan with supreme maneuverability and excellent fuel efficiency. But it was horribly unstable due to it’s single rear-wheel-steering setup. Still, its quite possibly the most spectacular car ever built. British architect Norman Foster had a Dymaxion built from scratch. Dymaxion #4 was built based on analysis of the only remaining Dymaxion Car and Fuller’s drawings. Race car restorers Crosthwaite & Gardiner put it together using Fuller’s original specs: Rear-mounted Ford flathead V-8 driving the front wheels, single rear-wheel steering.

Dymaxion Recreation

Mazda 5

I only wrote one car review last year, and it was of a rented Mazda5. I loved it. The sporty little five-passenger vehicle (okay, minivan) won my heart. So much so, in fact, that I bought a 2011 model with a five-speed manual transmission. It’s a great family hauler and road trip car and, to be honest, the nicest car I’ve ever owned.

Mazda5

For those of you who have never watch the webisodes of Fast Lane Daily let me just say that you’re missing out. The purpose of FLD is simple, bring the viewers a little insight as to what is going on inside the automotive world in short 8-10 minute bursts. Basically it’s the same thing we do here, except they’re in video format and we sit here and type all day for you guys. Fast Lane Daily is hosted by Derek DeAngelis and truth be told the lad does a pretty good job. For their 1000 episode the boys at FLD sent Derek on a dream trip to the famed Nurburgring. The catch… do the entire trip on $1000, something that thankfully he was able to pull off. So, to the members and cast of Fast Lane Daily – thanks for the 1000 episodes that have helped so many of us get through our day.

Source: FastLandDaily

Citroën is moving into China in a big way. A really big way. The fabulous French automaker is building the long and low super luxo barge Metropolis concept for the ever economically expanding nation. It’s fitting, because the Metropolis was designed by the new Citroën Shanghai design team. The car will be called the C9 and will be powered by a gasoline-hybrid drive train—expect a smooth V6 mated to a torquey electric motor and a seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox.

As you can see, the thing is positively gargantuan. The cruiser carries the same design DNA as the famous Citroën GT concept, sporting and angry visage and long sweeping hood. The C9 will likely be built in the new joint-venture facility announced last July with Changan Automobile Group.

(Photo courtesy of RallyAmerica)

19 year old Finnish driver, Toomas “Topi” Heikkinen, took the honors in the AWD A Main race at the last U.S. RallyCross championship event of the year in Millville, NJ.  Heikkinen piloted an Eklund Motorsport-sponsored 600 hp 2010 Saab 9-3 Aero Sport Sedan to victory over the increasingly European competition, which included the 2009 and 2010 FIA European Rallycross champion, Sverre Isachsen of Norway.

Note to Saab enthusiasts – Heikkinen drives for the team of renowned Swedish rally and rallycross champion, Per Eklund – a man who has driven many hockey stick Swedes to victory, from 96 V4s to 9-3 Viggens, over the past four decades.  In fact, Eklund himself had been planning to compete, but fortuitously, it appears, Heikkinen took his place.

Following in second place in AWD A Main was American Tanner Foust in his Rockstar Ford Fiesta, with British Rallycrosser Liam Doran taking third in his 550 hp Citroen C4. Foust was the AWD winner of U.S. RallyCross events #1 and #2.

Video of the AWD A Main Action

Quite stupendously, the winner of 2WD A Main, Matthew Johnson, a U.S. rally champ and a competitor in the 2008 and 2009 X Games, triumphed in an extremely modified 1978 Ford Fairmont station wagon. Johnson, the 2WD winner at the last U.S. RallyCross, bested Josh Wimpey, who came in second place in his VW GTI.  Wyatt Knox finished in third behind the wheel of a MazdaSpeed 3.

I have to admit, I am a bit struck by the news – in a good way.  As some of you may have realized, I have a fondness for Swedish cars, and it just isn’t often that I see Saabs competing in professional motorsports.  I hope this is a sign of more to come, and that Per Eklund’s European rallycross experience will bring him success and deserved popularity among the growing number of fans of the sport on this side of the pond.

Matthew Johnson burning rubber for the fans on Sunday in his Ford Fairmont (Photo courtesy of Sam Feinstein)

As for the Fairmont, that car is a total hoot.  I had a boyfriend way back in high school who drove an abused Fairmont wagon, and from my memories of that car, I just can’t picture anyone winning a rallycross with it.  I remember a desperate attempt to jump the Fairmont, which ended up turning the neighborhood into a scrap yard.

But clearly these are two extremely different cars as Johnson was definitely not driving an ordinary grocery getter.  The rallycross Fairmont is an insanely modified 1985 Ford LTD wagon with a Fairmont nose and a 347 cubic inch V8.  According to Dave Blum, its owner and creator, the Ford is street legal but was “built to annoy Porsches and BMWs at open track events and NASA’s American Iron series.”  The details of his car’s build can be found here.

Below is a video from the 2nd U.S. RallyCross event where you can see the Ford fiend in action and hear commentary from Matthew Johnson himself.

Results:

AWD A Main:
1. Toomas Heikkinen (SAAB 93 Aero Sport Sedan) 3:15.5
2. Tanner Foust (Ford Fiesta) 3:17.2
3. Liam Doran (Citroen C4) 3:19.2
4. Travis Pastrana (Subaru Impreza STi) 3:22.4
5. Rhys Millen (Hyundai Accent) 3:25.8
6. Dave Mirra (Subaru Impreza STi) 3:27.2
DNF – Jussi Pinomaki (Ford Fiesta)

2WD A Main:
1. Matthew Johnson (Ford Fairmont) 3:53.1
2. Josh Wimpey (Volkswagen GTI) 3:54.2
3. Wyatt Knox (Mazda Speed 3) 3:59.3
4. Jordan Guitar (Honda Civic Si) 4:07.3
5. John Tancredi (Mazda MX5) 4:12.2
DNF – John Hall (Nissan 240SX)

Sources:  Rally America, Sam Feinstein, SaabsUnited, YouTube

Fabulous French automaker Citroën recently revealed its new saucy little five door, the DS4. The little hot hauler will make its real-world debut at the Paris Auto Show in a few weeks. Citroën hopes to revive its quirky-chic image with the DS3 and DS4, recalling the iconic and ultra-super-spectacular DS cars of yon. It’s a strange marketing ploy considering the company’s current C6 is more the descendent of the Goddess (DS sounds like déesse, which means “goddess” in French).

DS4 shoppers will have two diesel mills and three gas engines to choose from. The top DS4 will rock a 200-horsepower inline four. All engines will be available with six-speed manual or automatic transmissions.

As I sat on my couch the other day filling my head with boob-tube nourishment I came upon a channel that was showcasing rally cars of the past, specifically the Group-B rally cars that were produced from 1982-1986. These cars were some of the fastest and most powerful rally cars ever created and because of this (and a few deaths) there were outlawed after only four years. Formed in 1982 Group-B cars had very few restrictions placed on them and were in a sense, a designers wet dream. They could be as light and as fast as you could make them and with no restriction on horsepower levels these cars would push the boundaries of both man and machine. Below is a video showcase of what most consider to be the top 10 Group-B rally cars ever produced.

1. Audi Sport Quattro

4WD / 500 + HP / 0-60 in 3.1 sec. / Weight: 2,403 lbs.

2. Lancia 037

RWD / 325 HP / 0-60 in 4.0 sec. / Weight: 2116 lbs.

3. Renault R5 Turbo

RWD / 360 HP / 0-60: NA / Weight: 2160 lbs.

4. Peugeot 205 T16

4WD / 450 HP / 0-60: 4.5 sec. / Weight: 2006 lbs.

5. Toyota Celica Group-B

RWD / 370 HP / 0-60: NA / Weight: 2425 lbs.

6. Austin Rover Metro 6R4

4WD / 410 HP / 0-60: 3.2 sec. / Weight: 2266 lbs.

7. Ford RS200

4WD / 550 HP / 0-60: 3.07 sec. / Weight: 2601 lbs.

8. Lancia Delta S4

AWD / 480 HP / 0-60: NA / Weight: 2138 lbs.

9. Citroen BX 4TC

4WD / 380 HP / 0-60: 5.5 sec. / Weight: 2821 lbs.

10. Opel Manta 400

RWD / 340 HP / 0-60: 5.0 sec. / Weight: 2112 lbs.

The most significant automotive news of this century seems to have slipped under the radar. A ratty, busted-to-hell Citroën completed the 24 Hours of LeMons this weekend. Complex hydraulic system and all. As the venerable Murilee Martin said, “It is impossible to overstate the magnitude of this achievement.”

Team Air Prance Schitroën essentially dug the ’72 ID out of the trash. It had been sitting for 20 years and wasn’t running until the Friday before the race. They literally revived it hours before they hit the track. And it finished without exploding into a cloud of unobtainable French parts or spraying the track with Citroën hydraulic fluid. The feat is on par with firing up the Large Hadron Collider. Somebody should make this day a holiday.

Most manufacturers were too busy greenwashing their lineups this year to come up with something truly astonishing for Geneva. But the French, ah the French, remembered that car shows—and especially Geneva—are all about insanely gorgeous and futuristic concept cars. Gaze in wonder at the Citroën Survolt, the ultimate show car at Geneva 2010. What powers this magnificent creation? How fast is it? What’s its ‘ring time? Citroën scoffs at your petty questions! Ce n’est pas important! The Survolt is pure beauty and futurism. That is all.