Motoring Con Brio

Widebody RX-7s

•February 10, 2011 • Comments Off

Reminds us of the RX-7 version of the Porsche 924 GTS/GTR— not the first time these cars (their base models, anyway) have been mentioned in the same breath.

We dig these cars a lot— the fire-breathing examples you see here, as well as the bone stock car on which they’re based. We’d easily rock a clean roadgoing version.

Another:

More images and information on the widebodies can be found here. And this is a nice article on how to get into one of these cars and what to expect (the example featured is a real peach, inside and out).

Posted in Mods, Still images
Tags: imsa, mazda, rx-7, sa, wide body, widebody, works

McQueen and his Lotus Eleven

•February 10, 2011 • Comments Off

We try not to descend into McQueen fanboy-ism (for as cool as McQueen obviously is, there is already enough of that on the web, almost to the point of being embarrassing— you’d think grown men were teenage girls), but these are some sweet shots that we think are worth posting for at least a couple of reasons: the Lotus doesn’t get as much play as the Porsches, Mustang, Ferrari, or Jaguar when it comes to things McQueen. And we’re suckers for clutter-free square compositions.

McQueen and his Lotus 11, circa 1959. This is the car that he traded his ’58 Porsche Speedster for, and as such it was McQueen’s first real racing machine. He enjoyed several good battles in it, winning a few races along the way. About it, McQueen said “In that Lotus I really started to become competitive. I was smoother, more relaxed; the rough edges had been knocked off my driving. I was beginning to find out what real sports car racing was all about.”

via

Posted in Still images
Tags: eleven, lotus, lotus 11, lotus eleven, mcqueen, steve mcqueen

Accessories for you and your Gordini

•February 9, 2011 • Comments Off

What an awesome photo. Even some 40-plus years later, the stuff shown here seems fresh and/or desirable, if even just for novelty purposes (that deerstalker!). Love it.

Posted in Lifestyle, Mods, Still images
Tags: gordini, r8, renault, renault 8

Two Alfas we have lusted after recently

•February 9, 2011 • 5 Comments

’67 Giulia Super:

’73 GTV:

The Super comes via BaT (natch) and is available in case you happen to have a cool 30K burning a hole in your pocket right this moment. The GTV went recently for 20K. Looks so good with the 14″ Cromodora Daytonas! Don’t think we’ve ever seen these wheels on a GTV before— it’s rather amazing how big and modern 14s can look on a small classic car. The dilemma (a nice one to have, obviously) is that there are a number of fine wheel options for the GTV.

We find both cars to be insanely desirable. One of these days…

Posted in Still images, What would you buy
Tags: 105, 105/115, alfa romeo, cromodora, daytona, giulia, giulia super, gtv

Reader-submitted Zen

•February 8, 2011 • Comments Off

Reader Philip passed on this gem. Nicely seen, Philip! We approve.

Posted in Moment of zen, Still images
Tags: 911, aircooled, fuchs, philip, porsche, whale tail

Dean

•February 8, 2011 • 3 Comments

On this day, February 8 of 2011, he would’ve become an octogenarian.

Live fast and never die, Jimmy.

Born in Indiana, James Dean lived in Los Angeles from the time he was 4 until he was 9. When his mother died, he rode the train back to Indiana with her remains and lived in the hamlet of Fairmount with an aunt and uncle until he graduated high school in 1949. A few days later, Dean was on a bus to rejoin his father in California. James attended Santa Monica City College and transferred to UCLA to study drama. In the spring of 1951, he went to New York where success on Broadway brought him back to L.A. early in 1954 to make his first movie, East of Eden.

With some of his Eden money, James bought a used MG TD, the most popular sports car of its day. By early 1955, about to make his second film, Rebel Without a Cause, Dean decided he wanted to go racing. He purchased a Porsche Super Speedster from dealer John von Neumann. The model was only recently introduced and was the hot setup for the under-1500-cc production class. Speedsters were in short supply, and Dean’s celebrity almost certainly moved him to the head of the waiting list.

James’s private personality was much different from the on-screen Dean. He was very methodical in his approach to reaching goals. In high school he’d done well in debate. He’d also won the Indiana section of a National Thespian Society contest, and went on to finish sixth nationally. He approached racing in the same calculating way. Within 10 days, he put 1000 miles on his Speedster, much of it on Mulholland Drive, where difficult curves on the coastal range crest were a breeding ground for would-be racers and some real ones as well.

Dean’s first race was on Saturday, the 26th of March, on an airport course at Palm Springs. From the moment the flag dropped, his training and choice of mount paid off. Dean took the lead and was never challenged. After the race, interviewed by Gus Vignolle, editor of a biweekly racing tabloid, MotoRacing, Dean said, “Gee, I can’t believe it. All I’ve been doing is racing around Mulholland Drive.”

Posted in Still images
Tags: 356, bathtub, james dean, mulholland, mulholland drive, porsche, speedster, super speedster

Assorted grab bag of stuff we like

•February 7, 2011 • 4 Comments

No further commentary necessary, so let’s get right to it.

Posted in Grab bag, Still images
Tags: alfa romeo, audi, bentley, bmw, citroën, datsun, ferrari, fiat, jaguar, lancia, mazda, mercedes-benz, porsche, renault, shelby, subaru, triumph, volkswagen, volvo, vw

What we’re listening to now

•February 6, 2011 • 2 Comments

Taking a quick break from cars. Haven’t done one of these in awhile, so here’s a soul two-fer for you to enjoy.

Eight years between them, but both are equally intoxicating.

Posted in Moving images, Music to drive by
Tags: 1962, 1970, curtis mayfield, marvin gaye, move on up, stubborn kind of fellow

The People’s Car

•February 4, 2011 • 12 Comments

MkIV 25th Anniversary Golf GTI

Got a reader request recently for some Vee Dub— specifically, the MkIV Golf. Will we play? Sure. Admittedly, the MkIV is no longer an aspirational car for us (though one of us did own – and dearly love – a VR6 Rave Green GTI in the early aughts), but does that mean we wouldn’t take one still? Heck no. Given the chance to own a raspy, snarling R32, say, we’d jump on it in a heartbeat. Where do we sign up?

MkIV Golf R32— still one of our favorites after all these years

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: cars like the MkIV Golf R32, 20th Anniversary Edition GTI (USDM), and 337 Edition GTI (25th Anniversary in the EUDM) are among the nicest (and nicest-looking) cars to ever roll out of a VW factory, period. When your stock wheels are OZ Aristos, or BBS RCs, or even seriously handsome 17″ OEM wheels like the Long Beach or the Santa Monica (VW likes to name their wheels after cities and race tracks), that’s a sign of something pretty special. In the looks department, these cars needed very little, if anything at all— that’s how good they were ‘out of the box’. Just slap on some H&Rs and call it a day.

MkIV 20th Anniversary Golf GTI

Yes it’s true that when it comes to GTIs, we here would most want a MkI or a MkII, or that we’d rather have a MkV or MkVI over the MkIV because by most objective measures, they’re better cars, better drivers (the lone exception: we’d rather our VR6 R32 be a MkIV than a MkV). But that’s not a knock on the MkIV so much as it is a testament to the enduring greatness of the VW Golf which, some hiccups along the way notwithstanding, has had one hell of a ride, 36 years (!) and counting…

So without further ado, here are some nice MkIV Golfs (and/or nice photos of them, in any case) which, as per our wont, we’ll take OEM+.

(All images can be found in the German Automobile Photography group on flickr.)

If you own a MkIV VW, feel free to post or link to it in the comments.

Posted in Still images, What would you buy
Tags: golf, gti, mk4, mkiv, r32, volkswagen, vw

A perfect space to hoon

•February 3, 2011 • 1 Comment

Enjoyable little film! It’s not often that music gets used to good effect in automotive videos, but here the lazy groove enhances the good vibes and sense of enjoyment conveyed by the video and nay, helps give it a sort of dreamlike quality. And of course, we are gobsmacked by the er, cutting edge filming apparatus that was used in the making of this video.

We’re envious of this private little space. Not all that big and wide open, but just big enough to have a good time. And that’s plenty good for us.
http://vimeo.com/18870970
Via the always great Axis of Oversteer

Posted in Hoon, Moving images
Tags: bmw, cosworth, e36, ford, greece, helicam, hoonage, mazda, miata, rs, sierra