Tag Archives: American Cars

Rezvani Beast X Performance at Amelia Island

Rezvani Beast X Performance Amelia Island 1

This is a Rezvani Beast. It starts life as an Ariel Atom, but gets a total overhaul from Rezvani, built exactly to the buyer’s taste. While I love the raw appeal of the Ariel Atom, I find the Rezvani a lot sexier with its shaped exotic bodywork. Sure those good looks come at the price of an extra 300lbs or so, but Rezvani also more than doubles the horsepower of the basic Atom 3 using a supercharger. That’s 500hp in a car weighing only 1,600lbs, people…

It’s pretty impressive, but it had better be considering, at $160,000, Rezvani has also more than doubled the price of the standard Ariel Atom.

See the Beast in action on Jay Leno’s Garage:

Continue reading Rezvani Beast X Performance at Amelia Island

Highlights From First Class Fitment 2016, Gallery 2

First Class Fitment Rat Rod Bike

Our second gallery of highlights from First Class Fitment 2016. Enjoy!

Continue reading Highlights From First Class Fitment 2016, Gallery 2

Highlights from First Class Fitment 2016, Gallery 1

First Class Fitment Rauh-Welt Porsche 993

First Class Fitment is always an entertaining show to shoot. Every car is different, special in its own way. It is a sea of automotive creativity, and this year was no exception.

Enjoy this first batch of photos!

Continue reading Highlights from First Class Fitment 2016, Gallery 1

1957 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz at the 2016 Lime Rock Concours

1957 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz Front

At Lime Rock this year, I had no idea what to expect, this being my first time attending. What I really didn’t expect was to see a slick black ’57 Cadillac sitting on the field, much less one owned by Skip Barber. This being an enormous, fab-Fifties convertible, it doesn’t make much sense to me that Skip would own one of these, but I’m glad he does, since this car is very tasteful. The black paint and red leather seats go together perfectly, while the parade boot adds a touch of pomp and circumstance–exactly what every 50s Caddy needs. Enjoy the photos. Continue reading 1957 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz at the 2016 Lime Rock Concours

Highlights from the Scarsdale Concours d’Elegance

Porsche 918 Scarsdale Concours 5

We attended the Scarsdale Concours d’Elegance yesterday, and the turnout was great considering the iffy weather. This is a highlight reel, focusing on the details of the whole show. Look for individual galleries of many of these cars in the future. As you might imagine, the orange Porsche 918 Spyder above was the center of attention. Also, that American Flag Stingray is the car from the movie Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me.

Turnout to the show was a little light this year, but the cars present were all of staggering quality. It figures that the people who really want to be at the show would also have the best stuff.

Enjoy the gallery!

Continue reading Highlights from the Scarsdale Concours d’Elegance

1968 Shelby GT500KR at Lime Rock

1968 Shelby GT500KR Front

Bright yellow works on a good many cars. But eye-scorching, retina-searing yellow works even better on the Shelby GT500KR. This is one of the most over-the-top garish colors I’ve ever seen, and in the sunlight it pops like nothing I’ve seen in some time. Packing a 428 cubic inch big-block Ford V8 coupled to a four-speed heavy-duty manual transmission, the GT500KR was an expensive thrill ride for the fortunate and knowing few who could get their hands on one. I imagine whoever first ordered this car had zero shame and feared no one. Enjoy the photos of this gorgeous old-school rock star car. Continue reading 1968 Shelby GT500KR at Lime Rock

Modified 1971 Dodge Challenger spotted on 287 South in North Jersey

1971 Dodge Challenger Rear

On our way home from Lime Rock (where Nick saw yesterday’s featured Purple People Eater Hellcat), Shane and I were right behind him and saw this mean triple-black 1971 model, featuring massive tires and an exhaust note that could drown out a jungle cat. I may like the Hellcat, but I prefer the classic E-body to the newer designs.

Spotted by: Shane and Al

This Purple Challenger Hellcat is a Rolling Middle Finger Aimed at Everything Society Holds Dear

Purple Dodge Challenger Hellcat 2

There’s a reason Toyota doesn’t offer the Camry in “Bright F*cking Purple.” That’s because it takes a certain kind of person to pull it off, and most of them aren’t interested in a forgettable family sedan. They are, however, interested speed, style, and badassary in general.

As it turns out, the 707hp Dodge Challenger Hellcat is quite appealing to purple-car-driving people. The audacity of the color suits the personality of this apex muscle car so well. I’d even say it’s my favorite color on the Hellcat, bar none.

Red cars are for people who think their hot-shit. Black cars are for people who think their a badass. Purple cars are for people who just want to start shit with the world. I mean, it’s a “girly color,” right? Go ahead and tell the guy driving this that, and you’ll probably be staring at a set of taillights before you even know what happened.

This purple Hellcat reminds me of Johnny Cash’s song, “A Boy Named Sue,” because it seems to inherently provoke the world. Its a 200mph muscle car in a world where the highest posted speed limit is 85. It’s entirely unacceptable, if you go by the rules of society. Luckily, we still live in a world with a decent bit of social wiggle room. Cars like the Hellcat can still be driven on public roads, you can exploit its massive performance freely in between speed traps.

Oh, and on top of its insane color, this Hellcat also had a manual gearbox. No excuses needed. It always breaks my heart when I see one of these beasts with only two pedals.

This is pretty much how I’d spec-out my own Hellcat. It’s always awesome to see one of my exact dream cars in person, in the parking lot at the Lime Rock Historics. I hope you enjoy seeing this car as much as I did.

Continue reading This Purple Challenger Hellcat is a Rolling Middle Finger Aimed at Everything Society Holds Dear

1991 Dodge Spirit R/T at the Radnor Hunt Car Corral

1991 Dodge Spirit R:T Front

A Dodge Spirit does not belong in a Concours. It belongs in a Cars and Coffee if and only if Grandma Mildred or Grandpa Irving need to make a morning run to the local Pathmark to get fresh bread before the grandchildren show up. However, what you’re staring at today is not a normal Dodge Spirit. Carroll Shelby (may he rest in peace) got ahold of this one, and managed to turn a pereniall snore-mobile into one of Chrysler’s more eclectic fast sedans. Continue reading 1991 Dodge Spirit R/T at the Radnor Hunt Car Corral

Consulier GTP at the Lime Rock Sunday In the Park: EDIT – Warren Mosler Responds

Mosler Consulier Limerock 1

The Internet is a funny place, folks. Sometimes you write something about an obscure car you saw at a car show, and then get a response from the very person who created that car. Well that’s exactly what happened here.

I saw this Consulier GTP at Lime Rock over Labor Day weekend, and I wrote the segment below after some quick research for context on the car. Evidently, Mr. Mosler had some issues with what I found, and hey, who else would know better than him, right?

I haven’t altered anything here. I wanted to let the man himself say his piece about the car he created. I have left my original words intact below along with his responses.

Read it for yourselves, and see what you come away with:

Mosler Consulier Limerock 2 Mosler Consulier Limerock 3

Continue reading Consulier GTP at the Lime Rock Sunday In the Park: EDIT – Warren Mosler Responds

1969 Chevrolet Camaro 427 COPO at the Lime Rock Concours

1969 COPO Camaro Front

According to the salesman at your local Chevrolet dealer, this car officially does not exist. Of course, if you asked the right questions and greased the right palms, anything was possible back in 1969. According to the options lists, a Camaro could not be sold with any engine larger than 400 cubic inches. But, thanks to the Central Office Production Order system, anything was possible back in the day. The result was this monster, the COPO Camaro, as it came to be known. Continue reading 1969 Chevrolet Camaro 427 COPO at the Lime Rock Concours