Photo: CEN
I’ll bet you didn’t know the answer to that one, did you? If I had to venture a guess, it would have been far below 100 miles per hour. And no, we’re not talking about the terminal velocity of a Trabant dropped out of an airplane at 20,000 feet over the Nevada desert.
Photo: Sports Car Gallery
I have it bad for the first generation Datsun Z cars, particularly the original 240Z. The first generation cars made no apologies for being affordable sports cars, and unmolested examples get harder and harder to find each year. Datsun Zs began their evolution to GT cars with the introduction of the Datsun 260Z in 1974. In the U.S. market, the 260Z was sold in 1974 only, and new emission regulations made early import cars less powerful (by 11 horsepower) than the outgoing 240Z. The 280Z made its US debut in 1975, and things went downhill quickly after that.
This past weekend I had the opportunity to attend the Monterey Historics at Leguna Seca Raceway in California. We witnessed vintage Formula One cars, Trans-Am cars and even a race that contained one of the largest collection of vintage Bugatti’s ever assembled. It was a true treat and something that I will not soon forget. The best part about watching these vintage machines flat out on the race track though is that you simply never know what is going to happen. Take this vintage Jaguar for example, the driver came into the corner way to hot, thus overshooting it and running up and threw the gravel trap. I give the guy full props for the save, but I have a feeling that he might have left some skid marks in a place other than the raceway after pulling this maneuver.
Source: Youtube.com
Shin Yoshikawa is a man of many talents. He’s a photojournalist, he’s a car collector and he plays the piano rather well, too. Perhaps his most remarkable skill, however, is his ability to see beneath the skin of a car and reproduce, by hand, pen and ink artwork of classic and modern cars. Yoshikawa has quite a body of work, and has drawn both street and racing cars from over 20 different manufacturers. His art appears at the Petersen Museum in Los Angeles and the Blackhawk Museum in Danville, and Yoshikawa regularly attends art exhibitions from coast to coast.
Vauxhall, a GM brand in the UK, has introduced a “lifetime” warranty for the original owner of any Vauxhall vehicle registered after August 1, 2010. What’s the catch? Vauxhall defines the “lifetime” of the car as 100,000 miles. At first glance, that would make their warranty coverage comparable to coverage offered by Hyundai and Kia (10 years, 100,000 mile powertrain warranty) or even by GM divisions (5 years, 100,000 mile powertrain warranty) in the United States.
In The Jungle Book, Bagheera was sleek and serious, Mowgli’s mentor in the savage jungle. In the automotive world, the Bagheera was the bastard offspring of Chrysler-owned French car company Simca, French engineering firm Matra, and Greek designer Antonis Volanis. The sporty hatchback sat three across, had a mid-mounted four banger, and was made of polyester (the body panels). The little mongrel was capable of 110 miles per hour and was reportedly fun to drive. In the late ’70s, the mad French engineers developed a U8 for the car. Not a typo. The U engine was made by welding two straight fours together side by side, then linking their two crankshafts with a chain. Unfortunately, the U8 never went into production. The Bagheera was plagued by horrible reliability and atrocious build quality and Chrysler killed the car in 1980. Almost 48,000 Bagheers were made between ’73 and ’80. Few survive today in one piece. The car’s polyester body panels were nearly impervious to the ravages of weather and time, but its steel chassis was completely unprotected and prone to oxidative disintegration.
Photo: The Auto Collections
Despite all the big hair, bad music and worse cars, the 1980s were a fun time to be alive. First, we were still in the midst of the Cold War, so at least you knew which country had their nukes aimed at you. Cell phones and e-mail weren’t in common use, so people actually had lives outside of work. Speaking of work, you could still believe the illusion of job security back in the 80s. On the down side, the Yugo GV was introduced to these shores, and quickly illustrated why real cars cost more than a bachelor party at a local strip club.
Looking to capitalize on the popularity of BMW’s Frozen Gray finish, Dieter hoped his one-of-a kind “Iron Oxide” finish would produce a quick sale.
Source: That Will Buff Out
e46 Fanatic, I thought you were joking when you said this was a trend. Apparently not, judging from the pics below…
It’s easy to overlook how good we have it these days. Even with the global recession, most of us are working and putting food on the table. Car ownership, once an unattainable dream for the vast majority of the world’s population, is now commonplace for citizens in all but the poorest countries. The Cold War, for better or for worse, is over: the final score was Capitalism 1, Communism 0.
Things weren’t always this simple, and the 1981 Wartburg 353 found on Hemmings brings back a lot of memories for me. In 1981, I was an exchange student in Germany and had a chance to see Berlin, both West and East, before the collapse of East Germany. West Berlin was a thriving, world class city with a vibrant economy and an unbelievable arts scene. East Berlin, on the other hand, was ruled by the iron fist of Communism and populated by shy, distrustful residents who spent their lives looking over their shoulders. The paranoia was so thick you could cut it with a knife.
WORLD FASTEST S2000 new record 8.2@159mph
There are things in life you just don’t do, like using a torque wrench to break frozen lug nuts or keeping a pet tiger in your backyard. Even if there aren’t laws against these things, there should be. Especially misusing a torque wrench, since at least a backyard tiger would keep the squirrel population in check. To me, taking the sublime-handling S2000 and damning it to an existence of going fast in straight lines only, 1/4 mile at a time, falls into the “thou shalt not” category.
