And not the chopped breadvan version, either. Interestingly, the stickers don’t look as silly and out of place as one might expect on a car as otherworldly as the SM.
The latest obsession
•March 31, 2011 • 5 CommentsWe’ve been entertaining the idea of paring down the E30 and MkV GTI to one car, and thinking how perfectly an engine-swapped E30 Touring would fit that bill (we like the E28/E34 M5’s S38 mill, but certainly wouldn’t complain about an S50 out of an E36 M3). Too bad Tourings were never imported to the US – the recurring lament of the auto enthusiast here – making federalized examples about as rare as hen’s teeth. Time to start keeping a closer eye out for these on BaT, where they appear to pop up, oh, about once a year or so. We’re kicking ourselves over this one in particular. $12K?? Had we been in the market then, we would have snatched that beauty up in a heartbeat. F*** our timing.
Even stock, they look so, so good.
No such issue with unobtanium in other parts of the world:
£900! Can you imagine? If we can’t find one here, we may need to import one in a couple of years, when they turn 25 years old and become exempt from federalization requirements.
La Source
•March 30, 2011 • 5 CommentsIf you’re a motorsport photographer, La Source, and not the Karussell, is probably the single most exciting place from which to lean over and shoot (MCB friend and Grab Bag regular Julien Mahiels has a ton of these). Here’s a breathtakingly rare (provided it’s real) GT40 Spyder passing by, literally no farther than a stone’s throw away, if that:
And you can see how it’s done here.
(Image credit: albertmensingacreative.nl)
Oh wow
•March 30, 2011 • 4 CommentsHave you ever seen such a thing? It wouldn’t have *ever* occurred to us to do this to a Jaguar XJ (if it’s a Jag, it feels like it should have chrome somewhere), and we’re still not sure we would but… we think it comes together quite nicely.
To say this is one of the more unusual and unconventional Jags we’ve ever seen would be an understatement.
Your moment of zen
•March 29, 2011 • Comments Off on Your moment of zen
Dear scorned Peugeot 505..
•March 29, 2011 • 7 CommentsAside from being somewhat uncommon, we thought you were fairly unremarkable growing up. We had always had a bent toward German (to be frank, still do); at the time, our yet to be formed worldviews didn’t quite know what to do with French, or where its place was in the automotive world. And of course, it didn’t help that you’d always be dressed in colors we once deemed frumpy, like brown (which, irony of ironies, is one of our favorite colors now, along with green, another erstwhile oddball).
Revisiting now, now that we’re older, and you, too, are older? Oh my— we feel like we hardly knew ye.
(You might also remember this entertaining post.)
Assorted grab bag of stuff we like
•March 28, 2011 • 5 Comments
The [myriad] cinematic cars of “Ronin” (1998)
•March 27, 2011 • 10 Comments
We still remember watching this when it first came out on the big screen— what a treat that was. But now, thanks to the all-devouring power of the Internets, one could argue that this film has become a victim of overexposure, of its own success.
Still, when all is said and done, 1) the people behind “Ronin” had exquisite taste in cars (which are almost like characters themselves, and which have been impeccably cast— for example, we feel it launched the Audi S8 into automotive superstardom, or at least in our imagination), and 2) these are, ballyhooed or no, some of the most terrific car scenes recorded in cinematic history. Quite frankly, they never get old, and we think they’ll continue to age well through the 21st century.
If that isn’t the mark of a modern classic, then we don’t know what is. Chalk yet another one up for director John Frankenheimer, whose screen credits include another film you might have heard of, something by the name of “Grand Prix.”
Plus, we love the effortlessly classy Natascha McElhone.
(Images via the indispensable IMCDb.org)
Checking in with just about one of our favorite 2002s M2s cars ever
•March 25, 2011 • 2 Comments It’s rare to have a car make multiple appearances on this site (other than our own), but this is one such car. To be sure, it’s done up louder than we normally like – it’s no subtle thing, this – but you get the sense that a car this thoroughly badass was never meant to live the quiet life of a wallflower. We get – and even like – sleepers, but we also think that there’s a place in this world for cars that wear their capabilities on their sleeves. (Otherwise, all we’d ever have are stock-looking cars hiding away their engine transplants.)
It’s all right by us, in other words.
Doing what it was built by its owner to do:
Full specs and history here, plus more photos here. So superb. With possibly the exception of the white trunk and hood, this car represents just about everything we’d ever want in a weekend/track car.
Motoring Con Brio 