Motoring Con Brio

Snow day!

•January 13, 2011 • 3 Comments

Our philosophy? Never let a good snow storm go to waste— this is the stuff that winter driving is made of 🙂 Decent snowfall is rare enough around these parts (more common to get a dusting – “flurries” – every now and then) that we try to make the most out of each one. And we already missed the first storm on account of travel two weeks back— we were determined not to miss the second.

Unfortunately, at one point we also badly misjudged a turn, sending the car plowing fender deep into a snowbank (not the first time, probably not the last). It was a mighty struggle, extricating ourselves from powder packed deep into the orifices of the car. It was at that moment we found ourselves wishing we had something a little more.. shall we say suitable?— for the occasion. An Audi allroad riding tall on stock suspension, say. Or an F-350 Crew Cab. Sure, we would have still misjudged the turn, but we probably wouldn’t have had to break out the shovel afterward. Thank god it was a soft landing at least.

We also made a mental note to pack a bigger shovel next time, seeing as how we’ll probably need it.

Posted in Hoon, Motoring con brio, Still images
Tags: golf, gti, mk5, mkv, volkswagen, vw, winter

Cars get more interesting the further west you go

•January 12, 2011 • 3 Comments

Obvious? Perhaps. But still neat when you actually see it. We spent some time in Denver recently, and saw a number of cars we’d almost never see out east. Why is that?

Well for starters, rust is not quite the same enemy to old cars that it is in the Northeast, we suspect. True, it’s Denver – not exactly Florida or Arizona – but this city (rightfully) likes to trump its 300 days of sunshine in a year, as well as its short-lived winter storms and rapidly disappearing snow. The stuff just does not pile up and linger (for days or even weeks on end) like heaps of dirty laundry the way it does in the Northeast (where remnants of a two week-old storm still remain). Encountering slush and salt spray on the roads is an enviably rare occurrence, and ice on the roads is noticeably short-lived.

One of the end results, we figure, is that interesting old cars are kept on the road for longer. But we’re sure there are other reasons as well – more than meet the eye – and we’d be happy to hear what you think they might be.

Here’s an abbreviated (very abbreviated— we’re sure we left some out) look at some of the more noteworthy cars we saw (not photos of the actual cars, by the way).

Volkswagen Type 2 (T3) Syncro Westfalia Vanagon (on studded winter tires— a nice touch):

Land Rover Defender 110:

Volkswagen Mk1 Golf Cabriolet (3 of ’em):

First generation Honda Civic (a car we wouldn’t mind having, believe it or not):

Audi RS6 (C5):

And that’s just Colorado— i.e., with about a thousand miles further west to go.

It’s been ages since we’ve been out to California – too long to even remember – but from everything we can tell, we really do expect it to be the car guy or gal’s ultimate paradise as far as the United States goes, with interesting cars of every stripe represented out on the road. We’ll get back there someday, if even just to take in some of its world class driving roads.

(Syncro photo by honemastert)

Posted in Still images
Tags: audi, honda, land rover, volkswagen, vw

Sideways Six

•January 12, 2011 • Comments Off

Image by Stephen Hall

Posted in Hoon, Still images
Tags: 6-series, 635csi, 6er, bmw, e24, m 635csi, m635csi, sideways

A blast from our past

•January 11, 2011 • 5 Comments

Whoa, this takes us back— those were the days. Crazy nose dive under braking, though.

Still wouldn’t mind having either one of these now, although we suspect finding an unmodified example will be nigh impossible.

If you like this, then this should be of interest.

Posted in Moving images
Tags: gmc, jimmy, motorweek, sonoma, syclone, typhoon

Could this be any more perfect?

•January 11, 2011 • 2 Comments

The IEDEI blog has posted up a spectacular example of a classic 911, and it’s just too good not to swoop in and sloppy-second. While we don’t need a rare and fully-documented race car with a skull-numbing six-figure price tag four times over, we *do* need a street version of this car (a plain, well-sorted driver that won’t require one’s firstborn child as a deposit would do quite nicely)— with that stance! The interior is equally droolworthy— we can’t remember ever meeting a Momo Prototipo we didn’t like, and those oh-so-perfect bucket seats beckon like a siren song. We want to crawl into them and live there.

No object of our desire consumes us in quite the same way as a classic long-nose 911, and these photographs do nothing but reaffirm that fact.

Finally, a quibble: those tailpipes hang awfully low for our taste. But maybe that’s where they’re supposed to hang (unsure of this). Also, we prefer two simple, unadorned tailpipes to the ornate “waffle” pattern pipes shown on this car.

Symbolic International via IEDEI

Posted in Still images
Tags: 1968, 911, 911L, aircooled, camber, classic, fia, group 2, long hood, long nose, p0rn, race car, stance

2011 SCCA World Challenge GT CTS-V Coupe

•January 10, 2011 • 3 Comments

Whoever thought the day would come where we’d be admiring a Cadillac race car? Given the lumbering, hulking warships of our youth – Caddies that look about as rewarding to drive as an oil tanker, with shudder-inducing names like Seville, Fleetwood, Brougham, and Eldorado – it boggles the mind. It’s absolute insanity.

Cadillac, you’ve come a long way, baby. Words do not even begin to describe.

The press release:

Cadillac today released the first photographs of the CTS-V Coupe race car, which will debut at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit on Monday, Jan. 10. Cadillac announced last month it was re-entering the Sports Car Club of America World Challenge GT racing series for the 2011 season, which begins March 25-27 in St. Petersburg, Fla. Johnny O’Connell, a three-time GT1 champion in the America Le Mans Series, and Andy Pilgrim, who won the 2005 SCCA World Challenge GT class in a Cadillac, will be behind the wheel of the CTS-V racecars. The first on-track tests will be conducted in late January at Sebring International Raceway. (1/6/2010) (United States)

Posted in Still images
Tags: 2011, cadillac, cts-v, race car, scca, world challenge gt

Assorted grab bag of stuff we like

•January 10, 2011 • 3 Comments

Getting on with it!

Posted in Grab bag, Still images
Tags: abarth, alfa romeo, aston martin, audi, bmw, de tomaso, ferrari, fiat, ford, jaguar, lancia, lotus, mitsubishi, porsche, subaru, volkswagen, vw

Motoring Con Brio recommends..

•January 9, 2011 • 2 Comments

[Not car related content within]

Took the recent winter holiday to knock off a couple of volumes of nonfiction— thought they were worthy enough to pass on here.

Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand

It doesn’t take a history buff to tell you that the Pacific side of the Second World War had been woefully amiss from the public consciousness and dialogue for much of the twentieth century. Actually, it might, since a good percentage of the American public (our guess, anyway) will well not even know or remember that that side of the war had even been fought. It just doesn’t occupy the public’s imagination in the way that the European front does. Unbroken attempts to help remedy that unfortunate reality by bringing history to life in rich, exquisite detail. But above all, it’s a human story (and a thoroughly and unexpectedly modern one at that) as much as it is a war story, one that is by turns heartbreaking, uplifting, gripping, and humorous— and an effortless page turner. (The other title to the author’s name is Seabiscuit. We have not seen the movie, nor do we have any immediate plans to, but we’ll probably pick up the book on the basis of Unbroken alone.)

Media types have come up with some cutesy made-for-television name for men who served and came of age in the crucible of this war: the Greatest Generation. We simply prefer to think of them as Real Men (albeit men displaying superhuman courage and perseverence amidst the grave and incomprehensibly cruel circumstances produced by the hell that is war). And in doing so we probably could not be paying that illustrious group a higher compliment.

Life by Keith Richards

If you love the Stones, if you love the Chicago Blues on which they cut their musical teeth— heck, if you have even a passing interest in the music, counterculture movement, or monumental societal changes incubated and brought to a head in the 1960s and ’70s, then by all means, read this book. Richards is a born storyteller with a spare and infectious prose, an astute observer of all that was happening around him, and a surprisingly lucid and insightful social commentator. His recollections and vignettes – intra-Stones as well as far beyond – are fascinating to read, particularly the years immediately before and immediately after they became, y’know, the Rolling f——g Stones. If James Brown was the Hardest Working Man in Show Business, then the Stones – in their formative years – might have been the Hardest Working Band. An entertaining read on one of our absolute favorite bands ever.

Posted in Not car related
Tags: keith richards, laura hillenbrand, life, rolling stones, stones, unbroken

Guest contributor: Leigh D. on her road trip to Maine’s Acadia National Park

•January 7, 2011 • Comments Off

At the end of September, I began to get antsy for a long drive. Late nights at work during the week meant that my car was being neglected, and I could practically feel an angry glare whenever I walked past it in the darkness on my way home. I had also been spending far too much time indoors under the glow of fluorescent bulbs and was beginning to get a bit shaky. This alarmed me as I knew this was the onset of a serious condition – turbo deficiency. It was imperative that I immediately hit the road lest I become insane!

Posted in Guest contributor, Roads, Still images
Tags: acadia national park, fall, foliage, impreza, maine, mount washington auto road, new england, new hampshire, road trip, subaru, white mountains, wrx

TG in NYC, i.e., what the hubbub earlier this year was all about..

•January 6, 2011 • 3 Comments

..in case, like us, you missed Season 16’s premiere over the holidays. In particular, we found the footage of Clarkson and May doing jackrabbit starts off some of America’s busiest pedestrian intersections to be priceless.

So, given that they weren’t allowed to take the West Side Highway, what would we have done? Easy— Tenth Avenue. Game, set, match. But then it wouldn’t have been much of a TV show.