Motoring Con Brio

Ohio — who knew?

•June 18, 2013 • 10 Comments

Apparently, there’s some great driving to be had in… Ohio. Initially we were skeptical, too, but one mustn’t forget that part of Ohio – the southeastern part – shares a border with West Virginia, and the driving in West Virginia is very good indeed. Not surprisingly, it’s the southeast part that comes recommended:

Hocking Hills State Park loop (374 -> 56 -> 664) — looks like a short but sweet sixteen mile drive:

Marietta to Woodsfield drive (676 -> 26 -> 145) — this one is the much more epic of the two— 120 miles and approximately 3.5 hours of what appears to be seemingly endless corners:

Anyone have experience with either of these two drives, or southeastern Ohio driving in general?

Hat tip to the buff books for shining a light on this heretofore-overlooked part of driving country. We’re filing these away for later.

Posted in Roads
Tags: driving roads, hocking hills, ohio, southeastern ohio

Assorted grab bag of stuff we like

•June 17, 2013 • 10 Comments

Getting right to it.

Posted in Grab bag, Still images

This never gets old: Ford Supervan

•June 14, 2013 • 2 Comments

The Ford Transit Supervans were a series of promotional vehicles built for the Ford Motor Company in the UK. They combined the outline and appearance of the popular Ford Transit van with the chassis and performance of a sports racing car.

The Supervan first appeared at the Easter 1971 meeting at Brands Hatch. A GT40 chassis and its mid-engined 400 bhp Ford V8 gave a standard pressed-steel Mark 1 Transit bodyshell a claimed top speed of around 150 mph. The vehicle had been built for Ford by Terry Drury Racing. Externally the van appeared very like a standard Transit, in Ford’s racing livery of white with low horizontal triple blue stripes. The wheel arches were flared to almost cover the wider wheels, but this was barely more noticeable than the extensions fitted to the production long-wheelbase Transit. Aerodynamics of the high-mounted bodyshell were crude though, and although the van was usually demonstrated with drag starts, body lift limited its top speed on a track (source).

(Hat tip to Stipistop)

Posted in Moving images, Still images
Tags: ford, supervan

Tail light moment of zen

•June 13, 2013 • 7 Comments

MCB Japan correspondent Skorj captured this moment of zen. We see three pretty damn neat (not to mention desirable) cars in this frame: the 850 Turbo wagon (a perennial MCB favorite), the Maserati Coupé with the elusive early boomerang tail lights (which we discussed), and of course the dashboard of Skorj’s own Honda S800M coupe. Delish.

Posted in Moment of zen, Readers' rides, Still images

Old car brochures. Lots of ’em.

•June 12, 2013 • 15 Comments

The motherload, we found it. Or we were made aware of it, anyway. There’s a little something here for everyone, but if you’re a German car aficionado in particular, expect to say goodbye to a good portion of your morning, afternoon, or evening. Here’s a preview:

Commence right-clicking and saving-as… now:

car-cm.jp/brochure

Hat tip to Jeff B on mye28 for this top tip!

Posted in Still images

Mind-boggling: Toyota Camry tuning by Carlsson

•June 11, 2013 • 13 Comments

Strange but true.

Carlsson is, as some readers are no doubt aware, the Mercedes-Benz tuning company founded by the Brothers Hartge (a third brother remained with their namesake tuning company, which continued to focus on BMWs).

We have no doubt that respectable performance could in fact be coaxed out of that beigest of beigemobiles, that most appliance-like of all conveyances. Still, one has to wonder what the point of all of that is (and we somehow suspect that irony isn’t one of them).

And of course, it’s not the first time that a German tuning house hopped in bed with a Japanese car manufacturer.

(Hat tip: TuningHistory)

Posted in Mods, Still images
Tags: carlsson, hartge, toyota

Readers’ rides

•June 10, 2013 • Comments Off

Checking in on MCB readers’ rides! Here are some of the latest that you all have submitted.

Renato in Bavaria’s 1987 Saab 900i:

M in Canada’s collection of silver BMWs:

Giannes in Greece’s Lancia Ypsilon:

John in NJ’s 1997 Mazda Miata M-Edition:

David’s BMW M3 (E90):

R. Egea’s Nissan 350Z:

Dean in the UK’s Audi RS2 Avant:

BiTurbo228’s Lada Niva:

Le Baron Noir’s BMW 328i Touring (E36):

Michał in Poland’s Subaru WRX STi:

Thanks to everyone sharing your nice rides! And as always, see the rest of it or contribute your own here.

Posted in Readers' rides, Still images

Assorted grab bag of stuff we like

•June 10, 2013 • 9 Comments

Getting right to it.

Posted in Grab bag, Still images

Cars and Coffee is to the US as…

•June 7, 2013 • 12 Comments

…the Breakfast Club is to the UK!

Since it was introduced in March 2006, the free to enter, and open-to-all Breakfast Club – based at Goodwood Motor Circuit in West Sussex – has become one of the country’s most popular motoring events, an admission-free monthly gathering of drivers and riders united by their petrol-head passion (source).

Talk about doing it right. Wow.

Hat tip to reader Dean Grossmith for sending in these photos from the latest Goodwood gathering (you can see the rest of it here). Thanks Dean!

Posted in Circuits, Lifestyle, Moment of zen, Still images

Honda’s golden age

•June 6, 2013 • 4 Comments

Remember when Honda (Acura in the US) offered a pair of world-beating sports cars in the form of the Integra Type-R and the NSX? Hard to imagine now (almost twenty years later), but it’s true. These two cars look great doing what they were intended to do (being run hard on the track) in this old review.

Between these two cars, the CR-X, the S600/800, and perhaps the S2000 for good measure, we think Honda’s legacy is secure in terms of bringing everyday sports cars (that most people could own) to market. Here’s hoping that Honda of yore comes back someday.