Last year, the Seattle Italian Concours d'Elegance was one of my favorite events, and Rob and I had a blast gawking at all the sexy sheet metal. There were more Lambos there than I'd ever seen in one place, including this wingless first-gen Countach. While there, I talked briefly with Roy Cats, the title sponsor of the event. He's a really cool guy, and related the history of the '67 Muira below. Apparently, a young American couple purchased it new in Europe, and they drove it all over the continent before having it shipped home. Unfortunately, the car wound up spending several years as a guest of the Customs Department, and the husband died while it was in bureaucratic limbo. It's been stored since the early '70s, and with around 10,000 miles on the clock, it's believed to be the lowest mileage example in the world. When I was trying to pin down the date and location for this years event, I stumbled across this:
Mr Cats has been directly responsible for nearly tripling the number of Lamborghinis in the Pacific Northwest. His dedication to the Lamborghini marque is 2nd to none. Not only does Mr. Cats own Cats Exotics, but he is also President of Fire Protection Inc. (FPI). A Seattle based company founded in 1968, which specializes in residential and commercial burglar & fire alarm systems, as well as access control, video surveillance, and intercom systems.
Is the fact that Mr. Cats specializes in one of the most fire-prone marques in history and has his fingers in the fire protection pie a coincidence? I think not. Look for coverage of this year's Italian Concours d'Elegance in early September.
On Sunday John and I will be heading out to the Mopars Unlimited Spring Roundup, which is being held at XXX Root Beer in Issaquah. I plan to park my Satellite in the show field and then John and I are going to wander around and take photos (which will appear in the Events section Monday). Spring Roundup generally attracts some of the hottest Mopars in the Northwest--expect to see plenty of Hemi cars, Max Wedge cars, wing cars and high impact E-bodies. Oh, and if you like old cop cars, the Seattle Police Museum will be bringing a 1967 Plymouth Fury King County Police car as well as a 1970 Plymouth Satellite Seattle Police car. So if you make it to the show, look for two guys in CarDomain t-shirts and be sure to say hi.
With the long weekend and blog redesign I almost forgot to give something away this week. So here's the deal: leave a comment below with your best oil change horror story. It can be a bad quick lube story or an oil change you did yourself that went horribly wrong. Whoever has the best story by Monday gets a free case of oil from Royal Purple (purple high riser not included). And don't forget to leave a link to your ride page!
This contest is over. Want to know who won? Go here.
Here's another cool car in the GRM UTC Challenge category. Eric lost his left leg in an accicent in 1982, so he set up his 96 Vette with a Guidosimplex clutch system which allows him to keep the manual shift without the use of his leg. Eric has a lot of track time with this car. Oh, and he doesn't just drive--Eric also does all of the wrenching himself. Be sure to check out his ride page, which has links to videos of him driving at VIR and Willow Springs.
By David
GRM Editorial Director
Even before most of us could drive, we were already reading about cars. I grew up on a steady diet of Hot Rod, Road & Track and Sports Car Graphic. My dad is also into cars, so there was no shortage of appropriate reading material around our house. Most of the magazines were stored in our basement, so they had that cool, musty basement smell.
Fast forward a few years, and now I'm on the other side of the process. I'm pretty much always on a deadline, and the subject is always cars. I guess I can't complain.
I still read as much as possible and have quite a collection at home. When my parents moved, my dad sent me all of his old magazines--boxes and boxes, most dating from the '60s and '70s. Add to that everything I have amassed over the years, including a growing collection of Japanese-market books and magazines.
In a couple of weeks, I'll be at Autobooks-Aerobooks. This book store is located in Burbank, Calif., and all of their titles deal with cars or airplanes. If you're in Southern California on June 16 and are looking for something to do, stop by and say hi. I'll be there starting around noon.
It's no secret that I like a cocktail every now and then. Oops, sorry for the fib, I like cocktails whenever I'm not legally or professionally obligated to abstain. So sue me. Now, I generally go for something simple like a vodka tonic, or if I'm feeling fancy, a Manhattan. But a Flaming Lamborghini? This is one time it feels like a professional obligation to imbibe. Wow. I love my job. Check out the recipe on Webtender.
I just spotted this one today in the GRM UTC Challenge category. Holy cow this thing is gorgeous.
The engine makes 365 RWHP at 12lbs boost, 450 RWHP at 18lbs boost and is capable of some big number if I choose to run at 25lbs boost.
I just wish there were more photos, but the work all looks to be top notch. Check out Tom's ride page for more on this red hot 280Z.
So what happens when your dream car is WAY out of your price range, or even a concept car that will never see the light of day? You make it! That's pretty much how eBay member fabrlcar approached his BMW Z9 project. These days you can convert a Miata into just about any dream car you've ever wanted. CarScoop found this little gem on eBay. Now, I don't think I'd drive it, but it sure is an interesting project! Oh yeah—and the BMW engine cover is a nice touch!
By Jason
Marketing Lackey
Mazda's rotary engine turns 40 today. Winding Road has a nice spread that walks through the fruits of rotary power:
- Ethanol is depressing tequila production! This could extend my life by years: MSNBC
- Auto Express has new spy shots of the next Skyline: Auto Express
- The SSC Ultimate Aero TT appears ready to break the production car speed record: Winding Road
- Memorial Day weekend means the advent of "Click it or ticket" ad campaigns and patrols. That reminds me of when I lived in Idaho and they doubled the fine for driving without a seatbelt—to $10. LA Times
Eight years ago, the Crawford Auto-Aviation Museum in Cleveland, OH started a senior outreach program. Basically they take their cars to nursing homes and give old folks rides. Pretty cool. I wonder if they've ever taken a senior for a ride in their Yenko Camaro. Might give someone a heart attack. More at Cleveland.com
Ever worried that your “Toyota” or “Dodge” key fob wouldn’t give a potential thief quite enough information about which car on the lot is yours? Now you can lead him right to it with a tiny keychain replica of your ride. HFlix sells them on eBay in a surprising range of makes and models, and when I saw that they had a Ford Escort I couldn’t resist, simply because it’s so hard to find die-cast first-gen Escorts in any scale. Now I’m just dying to paint it PPG Cinnamon Candy with blackout trim to match my life-size ride. I’m assuming you’ll all have more common sense than I do, but since I’m not a complete idiot, the keychain will probably just be for storing key blanks. Even if you drive a car that no one wants, it makes sense to use something more generic to hold your actual keys.
Ryan, our new web designer, created this slick new blog design for us. Note that the rides in the header change each time you refresh the page (if you want to know more about any of these vehicles, you can read about most of them in CarDomain Finds). So let us know what you think. And be sure to check out Ryan's sweet E24 (pictured below).
Check out this Fiero with 8,000 miles. David added leather seats (the original cloth seats are in storage) and upgraded the sound system a bit, but otherwise this baby is bone stock.
What's Russian autocross like? Well, from the looks of these photos, it's kind of a cross between oval track racing and demolition derby. Thanks again to English Russia for posting all these great pics!
This might just look like a shameless plug, but I've started uploading all of my AE86 pictures on to my ride page (when I'm not working the CarDomain Store). In addition to my own car, check out page 5. There you'll find over 100 pictures of AE86's from around the world, but mostly JDM of course. A lot of the pics I've snagged are from Yahoo Japan Auctions over the past couple of years. I've got over 100 uploaded, but I've got a few more hundred to go (trust me guys, I'm working on it, but we've got more brands we're trying to get up for you gearheads!).
If you have a member page with your favorite vehicles, feel free to drop your link in this thread! Enjoy!
With drifting, nitrous and plenty of crashes. Not bad for a bunch of kids...
