All posts by ndubs77

Highlights from The Elegance at Hershey 2014

June 23, 2014 ndubs77 1 Comment

We made it out to The Elegance at Hershey 2014 in Hershey, PA where Hershey’s chocolate is made. It is a great event at a wonderful venue, the five star Hershey Hotel. With beautiful gardens and fountains supplementing all of the stunning cars, it is surely a great place for photos.

There were many rare cars this year, everything from a French-market Cadillac built for the Rothschild family to the best-in-show winning Duesenberg “Mormon Meteor” Speedster. Enjoy the highlight gallery of the event and check back for features on some specific cars.

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CARS 101

Mind Over Motor Modification Guides

June 19, 2014 ndubs77 5 Comments

Every type of car has an aftermarket where you can customize your car and make it faster. When searching around for a new car to buy, many enthusiasts spend a lot of time digging through online forums to learn about what can be gotten out of each type of car with performance modifications. Online forums often provide a thorough, if cluttered and confusing, picture of what can be done to each type of car, and it often takes hours of digging to find it.

This is why we want to make some general modification guides for our readers that are quick and easy to understand. We won’t be going through every single possibility that you might find on the forums, no, this will just leave readers with a good idea of what to expect in a short amount of time. For any extremely specific concerns, the forums are still the best place to go.

We also aren’t going to go into too much detail on everything that is possible to do to a car with an outrageous amount of money because at that point, your imagination is the only limitation. Hell, you could make a Toyota Prius run a 10 second 1/4 mile if you had the money to spend, and the desire to do so.

What we are going to do is try and illustrate what can be done to a variety of different cars for a few thousand, or even a few hundred, dollars. Most people aren’t interested in doubling or trippling the cost of their car with modifications, but many people are interested in what they can get for a couple extra grand. These days, everyone seems to be doing at least some modifications to their cars, so, in many cases, the modification potential may be just as big of a selling point as anything else about a car.

We’ve already posted our Subaru WRX STi modification guide, but there are many more to come in the future. Let us know in the comments what cars you’d like to see us do modification guides for!

-Nick

Auto Idolatry, SHOWCASE

The Ferrari that inspired the Ford Thunderbird

June 19, 2014 ndubs77 1 Comment

Here’s some fascinating automobile trivia for you. The inspiration for the legendary Ford Thunderbird (or T-Bird) came from a 1952 Ferrari Barchetta that was given to Henry Ford II by Enzo Ferrari. Yes, the two automakers had a long relationship before their famous falling out in the mid-1960s, which resulted in the Ford GT40. Just look at the styling of this one-off Ferrari Barchetta, especially the rear, and you will see the T-Bird in the making.

This one-off Ferrari currently resides in the Peterson Automotive Museum, and they let Jay Leno take it for a spin with his cameras rolling. Enjoy the sights and sounds of this machine that helped shape automotive history, because without this Ferrari, her daddy would’ve had to take away whatever else she was having fun, fun, fun with.

-Nick

CARS 101

Subaru WRX STI Modification Guide

June 18, 2014 ndubs77 44 Comments

The Subaru WRX STi is a fantastic package with solid Brembo brakes, a high-performance suspension, and around 300 turbocharged horsepower being put to the ground with pure all-wheel-drive traction. It is a deadly back road weapon as-is, but there is a lot of room for improvement should you want to take your rally car the the next level.

While better tires will improve any car, overall, the STi is already very well set up for handling and braking. To raise the excitement level, you can just dive right into adding horsepower.

This post is meant to be a generic, easy to understand guide for anyone who is looking into modifying a Subaru STi. We hope this will help save people the hassle of having to dig through online forums just to find the basic information. Look for more modification guides for other types of cars in the future.

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Car Shows

Highlights from the CF Charities Supercar Show

June 16, 2014 ndubs77 Leave a comment

We showed you the American hypercars last week, but there were many more awesome cars present at the CF Charities Supercar Show as well. Everything from a Bugatti Veyron to an Ultima GTR to a full-on dragster, the crowds were stunned repeatedly.

Enjoy the highlight gallery of this fantastic show!

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Cars We've Driven, Everyday Normal Cars, Exotic Supercars, Luxury Cars

Cadillac ELR Reviewed (6.5/10)

June 13, 2014 ndubs77 5 Comments

The Chevrolet Volt hasn’t sold well, despite its fantastic technological design. The reason Volt hasn’t sold is because it costs around $40,000 when a Toyota Prius costs around $25,000; who would’ve guessed, but most cost-conscious consumers would rather save their extra fifteen grand.

GM knows the Volt is in trouble, so they’ve decided to attack the problem from a different angle — if the Volt is too expensive, then why not make it into a Cadillac, called the ELR, which can command a higher price. On the surface that seems like a good idea: take an over-priced economy car, turn it into a luxury car, and add a couple grand to the price tag.

Here’s the problem, though. GM didn’t just add a couple grand to the Volt’s price tag, they went and doubled it. So now, a way over-priced economy car has become a way over-priced luxury coupe.

Knowing all of this, when given the opportunity to take an ELR for a spin, I decided to put my predispositions aside, and see what the car had to offer. Maybe, just maybe, GM could’ve sprinkled it with some sort of magical pixy dust that would make it worth the $80,000…

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Car Shows

Fast & Exotic American Things At The CF Charities Supercar Show

June 11, 2014 ndubs77 4 Comments

We went to the CF Charities Supercar Show this past weekend, and there was some serious American metal there. Not muscle cars, as you might expect, but an array of hyper-exotic supercars from US manufacturers, oh, and of course an imposing Black Hawk helicopter courtesy of the US Army. It was a very exciting event with eye candy in many forms, fast cars, deadly aircraft, and beautiful women — our founding fathers would be so proud!

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Car Shows

Exotic Supercars of the Greenwich Concours d’Elegance

June 9, 2014 ndubs77 1 Comment

Here are the exotic cars from the 2014 Greenwich Concours d’Elegance. There was quite a spectacular display of some very rare supercars and hypercars on display this year, everything from the $1.9 million Pagani Huayra you see above, to a Ferrari Enzo, to the world-speed-record-setting Hennessey Venom GT, to Jim Glickenhaus’ P4/5 Competizione. It was surely a sight to be seen.

The Pagani Huayra really stood out, though. It spent both days of the show tucked away in the corner of Miller Motorcars’ display tent, but it was completely swamped with people the entire time. When it left the field, people literally lost their minds, jumping around in a reckless frenzy to try and snag the perfect shot of it.

Is easy to see why people go completely nuts over the Huayra when after a decade of grueling depravation for American car enthusiasts, it is the first Pagani to finally make it stateside. But the Huayra is also an exceptionally magnificent object, even by seven-figure supercar standards. Every aspect of the car seems so “full,” right down to the finest detail — nothing has been overlooked or under-thought.

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Car Shows

Pre-War Cars at the Greenwich Concours d’Elegance

June 6, 2014 ndubs77 4 Comments

“They don’t make them like this anymore…”

That is a phrase I must have heard uttered over a dozen times during the weekend of the Greenwich Concours d’Elegance by people gazing at the magnificent pre-war automobiles on display. And they definitely don’t make cars like these anymore. In fact, most manufacturers of these majestic machines have long been defunct. The likes of Duesenberg, Packard, Minerva and Delage are all absent from the vocabulary of modern automobillia, and it’s a real shame because the cars they made were nicer (relatively) than even the top-of-the line Rolls Royce today.

In fact, as I’ve said before, Rolls Royce is really the only company from this era that still makes the same type of cars today as it did back then. Cadillac and Mercedes-Benz still exist, but have both moved their base of operation far down market. Yes, the pre-war era was a different time, when the automobile was a blank canvass for craftsmen to as they pleased. There was a lot of art-for-art-sake in these cars, and that’s something that is mostly absent from modern cars now that accountants and health and safety people run the show.

So the relative gray-scale of the cars we know today makes ogling over these pre-war gems an activity to be savored. I am really hoping for a renaissance of creativity in the auto industry, where the artistry will come back and add to all of the modern technology and design. The cookie-cutter designs of modern cars have gotten extremely old, and a design that aims to please anyone is also boring to everyone. So I’ve got my fingers crossed.

For now, though, just enjoy gazing at these incredible pre-war machines. The attention to detail, and the sheer craftsmanship is simply breathtaking to behold. Enjoy the cars!

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Auto Idolatry, SHOWCASE

/DRIVE on NBC Sports: Monaco Special

June 5, 2014 ndubs77 1 Comment

Drive has posted their NBC special on YouTube, so we figured we’d share it for everyone who hasn’t seen it. It originally aired on NBC as part of the coverage for the Monaco Grand Prix. Big props to everyone at Drive for getting that gig, and doing a phenomenal job with making us all learn, laugh, and drool. Chris Harris, Mike Spinelli and Matt Farah make a great trio, could Drive be the Top Gear of tomorrow?

-Nick

Car Shows

Classic American Muscle and Majesty at the Greenwich Concours

June 4, 2014 ndubs77 2 Comments

These are the American classics and muscle cars that stood out for us at last weekend’s Greenwich Concours d’Elegance.

The rumble of many V8 engines ran thickly through the air as the award ceremony began. First the rare Shelby GT350 R came to life, then the furious Roadrunner fired its 440 six pack, all as they prepared to parade in front of excited show-goers. Muscle cars sure have a mighty amount of presence, you can feel it in your bones.

After the Muscles were flexed, we were treated to some 50’s metal in lively colors. Everything from the cliché pink Cadillac to a turquoise Chevy Impala paraded through the show, and I felt a sudden urge for a burger and a nice big milkshake.

Enjoy the photos of all this classic iron!

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Cars We've Seen

Lamborghini Countach spotted in Greenwich, CT

June 2, 2014 ndubs77 2 Comments

We were up in Greenwich, CT this weekend for their annual Concours d’Elegance. There were incredible cars running around everywhere, both in the show and on the streets, so we have a lot of material coming for you soon. For today, here is an always-stunning Lamborghini Countach that we saw out and about to wet your appetite. There’s a Ferrari in there too, somewhere.

-Nick