Cars

[Arenacale]

As usual, the Lime Rock Park Historic Festival proves to be an amazing car show beyond the on-track stuff.

The Chiron looked pedestrian only because of what was a couple of slots down, a Pagani Huayra in full blue-tinted carbon glory. The Chiron is impressive engineering, the Huayra is art.

 

[kz1000ps]

Lots to love there, but that Gemballa E30 is *chef's kiss*

 

[Arenacale]

Cool stuff from The Boston Cup on the Common this morning. The Autozam AZ-1 won best in show!

 

[kz1000ps]

"MPG 9"

That yellow 355

 

[kz1000ps]

From the latest Bedford Cars & Coffee

A personal holy grail car and the first time I'm seeing one in person, a Mazda Eunos Cosmo

 

[kz1000ps]

Japanese Car Day at the Larz Anderson a week ago

There's my unicorn car again.... the Mazda Eunos Cosmo!

"I'm a friend of Sarah Connor"

 

[Arenacale]

That kei fire truck is a winner

 

[kmp1284]

Anyone know what this is? Stumbled across it earlier going through some old pics.

 

[Justbuildit]

Citroen SM. Weird shape and obviously NOT Italian? Gotta be post-war French.

 

[Arenacale]

Indeed, an SM. The King of Weirdo Cars. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citroën_SM

 

[kz1000ps]

The Citroen SM was put to sultry good use in this Janet Jackson video from 1998

 

[Arenacale]

The Citroen SM was put to sultry good use in this Janet Jackson video from 1998

I was thinking Grace Jones was the Citroen reference here, but it's for the later CX:

 

[Stlin]

Personally, I've always wanted a CX - they're such cool cars mechanically. I just don't want to have to maintain one.

I will say too... we like to say that Americans are in love with the SUV, but the love of boring crossovers is sadly global. Looking at Citroens modern lineup, everything they currently make is a taller crossover-y thing. For a company that doesn't sell anything on this continent, known for its quirky small cars? Its kinda sad. (The Ami doesn't count.)

 

[Arenacale]

Personally, I've always wanted a CX - they're such cool cars mechanically. I just don't want to have to maintain one.

I will say too... we like to say that Americans are in love with the SUV, but the love of boring crossovers is sadly global. Looking at Citroens modern lineup, everything they currently make is a taller crossover-y thing. For a company that doesn't sell anything on this continent, known for its quirky small cars? Its kinda sad. (The Ami doesn't count.)

It's absolutely everywhere and getting way worse. Ford just killed the Focus globally (it had been dead here for a good long while), Acura just killed the TLX, etc. I guess seating position and stepping up into vs. stepping down into is truly a huge deal for the buying public, unless it's just keeping up with the Joneses. I think crossovers all look terrible and I actually prefer both sitting a bit lower and the driving dynamics of a lower center of gravity.

My '18 Fusion Sport is at 145k right now, and I know I'm probably looking at a new car in a year or less, but I have no idea what I'll replace it with, since AWD sport sedans are now almost the exclusive domain of the Germans. I really don't want to debase myself to a Camry or Legacy, but my wife demands I have AWD for the snow and my baby requires 4 doors. Neither of those make anywhere near the HP the Fusion makes (325!), and I don't really want to give that up. So I guess I'm looking at a 3 Series or A3 - for twice what a domestic car would have cost. Arrrrgh.

 

[Justbuildit]

It's kind of an in-between, but the Crown seems like it's trying to do something in this realm? Volvo no longer having sedans is also a total shame. Always a great foil to the Germans, but alas...

 

[Arenacale]

I sat in a Crown a couple of years ago at the Auto Show (man I miss those) and I was thoroughly unimpressed with the interior. The Corolla was a nicer place to be. Maybe it was just a stripper model they had there, though.

 

[Stlin]

It's absolutely everywhere and getting way worse. Ford just killed the Focus globally (it had been dead here for a good long while), Acura just killed the TLX, etc. I guess seating position and stepping up into vs. stepping down into is truly a huge deal for the buying public, unless it's just keeping up with the Joneses. I think crossovers all look terrible and I actually prefer both sitting a bit lower and the driving dynamics of a lower center of gravity.

My '18 Fusion Sport is at 145k right now, and I know I'm probably looking at a new car in a year or less, but I have no idea what I'll replace it with, since AWD sport sedans are now almost the exclusive domain of the Germans. I really don't want to debase myself to a Camry or Legacy, but my wife demands I have AWD for the snow and my baby requires 4 doors. Neither of those make anywhere near the HP the Fusion makes (325!), and I don't really want to give that up. So I guess I'm looking at a 3 Series or A3 - for twice what a domestic car would have cost. Arrrrgh.

I hear you... I've always wanted an agile sedan, so my last two cars have been a turbo jag and a BMW . Check out the CT4 with a 2.7 or the 3.0 CT5 - the CT4 is still in production through next year, and they just refreshed the CT5. if you want a domestic AWD gas sports sedan, thats basically it at the moment, but both are quite nice.

That said, for sheer power you really can't beat anything electrified at this point - thats what I'm most likely to get. Check out an Ioniq 6, if you don't want a Tesla model 3, which are really cheap used now.

 

[kz1000ps]

Spotted at my old apartment in Allston

 

[Arenacale]

Got back from the Rolex 24 at Daytona this week, which was basically Comic Con for car nerds this year. I made sure I took my camera to "The Art of Speed" over at One Daytona on Friday night, where this year they had some truly incredible stuff, starting with one specifically for kz:

I feel like I've seen a Carrera GT in the flesh before but don't remember where, so it was very cool to see one here.

I definitely had never seen a Mercedes McLaren SLR in the flesh before!

From the track itself, plenty of 911s and whatnot but the JDM stuff stood out for it's uniqueness.

And some Mustangs in the Fan Zone and Midway. A Saleen first...

...then a GTD like they've had the last couple of years...

...and finally the new Dark Horse SC that was unveiled just a couple of weeks ago. I do like this, even if a regular Dark Horse would be more than enough car for me.

 

[Arenacale]

And finally, some race cars. Historic Sportscar Racing held a 30 minute invite-only race that brought out some childhood heroes. McLaren team principal Zak Brown drove the stunning Jag, the Danka sponsored Riley & Scott Mk III was my personal favorite, but everyone was really there for the rotary screamer Mazda 767B. It was like a Gran Turismo race brought to life.

One for the NFS crowd...

And I'll end on some Golden Hour shots of the race cars. I took about 4000 images over the weekend, and shot in RAW for the first time, so it's taking a bit of time to go through everything.