There’s nothing quite like American Muscle, the brawny style, the thunderous roar of a V8 engine, and the stiff competition between automakers. It’s a hell of a lot of fun!
This gallery showcases the highlights of the American cars that caught my eye in the pits at Laguna Seca during the Monterey Motorsports Reunion. Enjoy!
-Nick Walker
Chrysler, at one point, was all about really big cars. I’m not talking “big” in today’s terms. I’m talking “it takes up one whole city block” big. Chrysler didn’t do small cars until the late Seventies–and the proof was how they sold the 300. Continue reading 1967 Chrysler 300 Convertible at the 2014 Radnor Hunt Concours
I saw my first BMW i8 out in the wild the other day, but only for just long enough to be awestruck, and then it was gone. While I didn’t manage to get a photo of that silver one on the road, I do have the photos from the i8’s first viewing at Amelia Island last year.
I must admit that I have love for everything that the BMW i8 represents, and I don’t think BMW could have executed this plug-in hybrid sports car any better. I remember in Monterey this year, we saw one parked in front of a restaurant, right next to a green McLaren P1. Which car drew the crowd?… The i8.
In fact, the most memorable part of that night was when I spent 10 minutes trying to convince a group of people that the i8 wasn’t a concept car, but was, in fact, on sale. They kept saying BMW would never make a car that looked so radical and actually expect to sell them. I had to pull out my phone and show them the i8 on BMW’s website, complete with its $136,000 base price. At that point, they finally believed me, and were wowed.
The BMW i8 is in the same price range as the higher-end Porsche 911 Carrera models, but BMW has given it the head-turning exotic appeal of a Pagani or a McLaren P1. The i8 looks like nothing else on the road. It even has show-y gullwing doors so you can make a grandiose entrance, or so you can’t get back into your car if people park on either side of you. Yes, that wonderful supercar idiocy is present and accounted for in the i8.
Performance wise, the i8 isn’t really a supercar by modern standards, but it’s plenty fast to have a lot of fun with. 0-60 takes 3.8 seconds, the 1/4 mile goes in 12.4 sec, and it tops out at 155mph. The kicker is the fuel economy. Where a Porsche 911 Carrera S can manage a respectable 29mpg, Motor Trend saw an Average of 45mpg in the BMW i8.
Put in 2004 terms, the i8 has the performance of a Ferrari 360 with the fuel economy of a Toyota Prius. This is progress people.
Enjoy the pics!
-Nick Walker
This is the Cadillac Cien Concept from 2002. As a contemporary of the Ferrari Enzo and Porsche Carrera GT, it would have been one hell of a hypercar back then, and even still to this day. However, much to the continued chagrin of all car enthusiasts, the Cien was only a tease from GM. Worse is the fact that the Cien is a fully-functional concept, not just a rolling design study with no engine. And what an engine it has – a 7.5L Northstar V12 with (supposedly) as much as 950bhp on tap. That is the sort of power we see from the Modern LaFerrari and McLaren P1, but back in 2002. The Cien would’ve changed supercars, four years before Bugatti did, but Cadillac was just too lame to make it happen.
Now, here in 2015, Cadillac has an increasingly great lineup of cars, but their brand image still suffers from the “old conservative man” syndrome, which, frankly, has never been “cool.” Cadillac’s new CEO, Johan de Nysschen, has stated his goal to reinvent the Cadillac brand, and he’s even moved the corporate headquarters to New York City.
The V-Series models have done a lot to give Cadillac some serious “cred” with the enthusiast crowd, but that doesn’t apply to more general buyers. The new CT6 is a fantastic car for the more general luxury car buyer, and as the real successor to the current CTS sedan, longer term. All that said, something more drastic is definitely needed, because public perceptions can only be changed quickly with a sledgehammer.
There has been a lot of talk lately about there being a mid-engine Corvette in the works, but I think that would be a huge mistake for GM, and a big missed opportunity. That mid-engine supercar needs to be a Cadillac!
Continue reading The Cien Concept, and Why Cadillac Desperately Needs An Exotic Halo Car
When it takes someone 13 years to restore a car, it’s going to be something special. I am a huge fan of the second-generation Dodge Charger–and so is the rest of America. From the General Lee (of late Seventies fame) to the 1970 Charger hero car with the gargantuan supercharger poking out of the hood (thank you to The Fast and the Furious), this is a car that refuses to go out of style. The 1970 model was the final year of the Coke-bottle styling, and it has a few features that distinguish it from its earlier neighbors. Continue reading 1970 Dodge Charger R/T at the 2015 Boca Raton Concours
I could say that I have many “dream cars”, but none quite so much as the majestic Pagani Zonda F. This really is “the one” for me, above all other cars.
The Zonda is fast as hell, but there are many faster cars out there. It is extremely expensive too, worth a few million, but one with enough money could always spend even more. But when it comes to being special, when it comes down to the fine individual details that add up to make something that is truly magnificent, a Pagani has no match.
Continue reading Pagani Zonda F (Horacio’s Own) at The Quail
Duesenbergs and Pebble Beach go together like Los Angeles and celebrities. They are genuinely made for one another. Last summer at Pebble, there was a class of five Duesenbergs competing for class prizes. The one here, a 1934 SJ Limousine with coachwork by Rollston, was not an award winner by the book, but has a history for the books, like most Duesies. Continue reading 1934 Duesenberg SJ Rollston Limousine at the 2014 Pebble Beach Concours
A few weeks ago, my friend, Alex, sent me this photo of a crazy-looking car I had never seen before. He told me it was called an “Elio”, so I searched around on Google to find out more about it.
Made by a brand new company, Elio Motors, this 3-wheeler may well revolutionize the auto industry in the coming years. It may look fast, and far-out, but really it is economical and wonderfully simple. I had a chance to get up close with the Elio prototype at the New York International Auto Show this past weekend, and since then I haven’t been able to stop thinking about the Elio.
The Elio’s Proposition By The Numbers:
3 Wheels, 2 Seats, 3 cylinders, 60hp, 1,200lbs, and 84 MPG, all for a price of… $6,800.
So What Should We All Make of the Elio?
We went to the 2015 New York International Auto Show this past weekend to get up close with all of the cars we’ve been hearing so much about and commenting on in the last few months. NYIAS is always a fantastic time, but this year was the best it has been in 10 years. The show is a bit of a tradition for us to do with our friends, and this year we chose to forgo the press days so we could go with the group. I’ll admit up front that we didn’t get to everything that was at the show, but we had a blast with everyone. Here are our highlights and opinions on the cars we saw.
Continue reading Our Highlights From the 2015 New York International Auto Show
There is a special tingling sensation that runs through your body when you know that you’re about to go flat out on a racetrack in the ultimate version of the Lamborghini Gallardo. It is the same sort of nervous excitement you experience before getting on a big roller coaster, except here it will be you that is tasked with controlling the thrill ride. Knowing the responsibility you are being entrusted with only adds to the anxiety because the price of a mistake could top a quarter of a million dollars. But nothing could make you turn back at this point. You have been handed the key that will fulfill a dream. So as the engine erupts into life with a loud, satisfying bark, you decide to rise to the occasion, grab on to the bulls horns, and prepare to face its fury head-on.
It has been about a decade since Lamborghini first released the Gallardo. It was a “baby Lambo” model designed to topple the Ferrari 360 in its final years and lock horns with whatever replaced it. A brainchild of Audi, the Gallardo was supposed to widen the appeal of the Lamborghini brand, targeting people who want a car that fits within a single lane of traffic, and who like to be able to see while they drive. Many Lamborghini die hards scoffed originally at the idea of a more sane Lambo, but the end result has been by far the best selling Lamborghini model of all time.
Continue reading Test Driven: Lamborghini Gallardo LP570-4 Superleggera (10/10)
Mind Over Motor 