It’s only been called one of the greatest driving roads in the world. And the Elise may be one of the most perfect instruments with which to dissect it.
Photo credit: Jason Liddell
Weekend Youtube finds.
•December 14, 2009 • Comments Off on Weekend Youtube finds.1. Vintage Nurburgring footage:
2. Nice documentary show called Victory by Design, with shows dedicated to legendary marques like Porsche, Ferrari, Alfa Romeo, etc:
Each program features exceptional racing and street cars from the marque. Generally, the cars are presented in chronological order of their production dates. For each car, [host and former racing driver Alain] de Cadenet describes the historical background and impetus for its design. Important mechanical aspects of the car are also pinpointed and described by de Cadenet. The cars are then filmed as de Cadenet enters the cockpit, straps himself in, starts the engine, and test drives them.
As de Cadenet describes in a “making of” documentary, each car is presented in a setting that suits the nature of the car, and they are driven in the way they were meant to be driven. The film captures de Cadenet driving extremely expensive or even priceless vehicles enthusiastically through twisty mountain roads and over dedicated road courses. The same “making of” documentary also points out the fact that the engine sounds of the featured automobiles are faithfully recorded from the driver’s position, and never overdubbed by music or pre-recorded engine sounds. The video footage is presented as raw as possible with minimal editing.
The New York Times described the series as “car pornography”, and it has resonated strongly with enthusiasts.
Sounds good to us. Here’s part one of the Porsche series:
Catch parts two through eight here (via PorscheFanClub).
3. “Cosmic Girl,” a 1996 release by British acid jazz group Jamiroquai.
While we don’t love them (alright, “Canned Heat” was great in Napoleon Dynamite), frontman Jay Kay is a known motorhead petrolhead, and here his indulgence takes the form of a Ferrari F355, Ferrari F40, and Lamborghini Diablo in the “Cosmic Girl” music video.
We admit, we enjoyed the cars more than the music.
The video shows three famous supercars driving and racing each other through several highways and mountain roads across a desert landscape from clear day-light to dawn. The cars on the video are a black Ferrari F355 Berlinetta, a purple Lamborghini Diablo SE30 and a red Ferrari F40. Jay Kay appears to be driving the purple Lamborghini with Stuart Zender on the co-pilot seat, but the drivers of the other cars are not shown in detail.
Before filming, Jay’s Diablo had to be shipped overseas for the video shoot. Apparently, the company which was hired to transport the car had a driver that was keen to drive the car. Jay let the guy drive the car, but he was involved in an accident which wrecked the car, rendering the $239,000 car completely unusable. The car that appears in the video was rented from a local collector. The F40 was provided by the Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason, who drove in the video as well.
While filming, the driver’s side window in Jay Kay’s Lamborghini was accidentally smashed. Due to the tight timescales involved, the video was still shot, but with the window removed. This is why Jay Kay appears to be driving around the desert late at night with his windows down.
Jay Kay mentioned in an interview that the Lamborghini had its windscreen removed to aid with the filming, due to space limitations inside, and the windscreen angle from outside. The missing windscreen can be seen when the Lamborghini overtakes the black Ferrari on an uphill shot.
The video was filmed at the Cabo de Gata, in Spain (source).
Photography we like: Subway by Bruce Davidson
•December 13, 2009 • 2 Comments
Of course, anyone who lives in New York or has visited in the recent past knows that it’s nothing like this now. Oh sure, panhandling, rundown stations, and random acts of violence still exist, but nothing remotely on this order of magnitude- a sort of twentieth century reimagining of Dante’s Inferno.
On the other hand, the city writ large had gotten a little too sanitized in recent years, a little too… safe. It’s almost like the “Gotham” part has been scrubbed clean out of Gotham City. Looking at these photos, one almost wishes for a bit of that lawless New York of old. Almost.
More here.
The automotive photography of Langé
•December 11, 2009 • Comments Off on The automotive photography of LangéFor your weekend viewing pleasure.
Colorful, soulful, gritty, evocative- it’s all here.
Enjoy.
Photo credit: Langé
Eye candy: Nikon F
•December 11, 2009 • Comments Off on Eye candy: Nikon FBeautiful shots, beautiful camera.
Credit: Geoff Powell
The Porsche 944 and 968
•December 10, 2009 • 3 Comments
Say hello to our latest obsession, a car we would trip over ourselves to buy: the Porsche 944 and 968. While we have always loved these front engine, four cylinder cars – which are known to be wonderfully balanced drivers with tactile steering feel – we seem to have been bitten by the bug particularly hard all over again, thanks in large part to this wonderful review we recently came across. What’s more, the cost of admission ( ~ <$15K) would be lower than entry into the 911 club.
As with our 964 or 993 conundrum, the question remains: 944 (S2, please) or 968? We prefer the 944’s front end styling but the 968’s rear, which doesn’t look as dated.
Oodles of pictures after the jump.
Deserted NYC
•December 10, 2009 • Comments Off on Deserted NYCContinuing on this meme: Caterham 7 SV in midtown Manhattan on a 3am morning.
Wonderful back story and additional photos by David can be found here.
The Caterham Seven (or Caterham 7) is a small sports car produced by Caterham Cars in the United Kingdom. It is based on the Lotus Seven, a lightweight sports car sold in kit and pre-built form by Lotus Cars, from the late 1950s to the early 1970s. After Lotus ended production of the Lotus Seven, in 1972, Caterham bought the rights to the design, and today make both kits and fully assembled cars. 2007 marked the 50th year of production of the Lotus/Caterham 7.
The Caterham Seven is a small, lightweight, two-seater sports car renowned for its performance and handling. Various other manufacturers offer a sports car in a similar basic configuration, but Caterham owns various legal rights to the Lotus Seven design and name. The modern Seven is based on the Series 3 Lotus Seven, though Caterham have developed it to the point that no part is the same as on the original Lotus (source).
Credit: David Traver Adolphus
Eye candy: Porsche 908K
•December 10, 2009 • Comments Off on Eye candy: Porsche 908K
Deserted Paris
•December 10, 2009 • 1 CommentNot an easy thing to achieve. Anyone who lives in or has been to the City of Lights knows that there are people everywhere, all the time.
These were taken very early in the morning/very late in the evening.
Images: amaurylaparra.com
Motoring Con Brio 