Cars and Coffee, February, 2014

It was a cool-bordering-on-cold, windy morning, but the Cars and Coffee faithful were there in force anyway.  By the time I arrived at 7:30 the party was in full swing.

The first car that caught my eye on the British row was this nice Triumph TR-4.

I've seen this one before at the All English Car Show, but it's just one of those cars I never tire of seeing.

This tastefully pimped Mini Cooper S was nice, too.

* "tastefully pimped"....the ultimate oxymoron? *

While nothing at all exotic, I've always liked Audi TT's.  I think my name on the title of this one would look great!

This was your lucky day, Betina.  Look what I found for you....

A showroom perfect BMW Isetta 300.

Did somebody really drive this thing from Oregon to Texas?

One of the better hot rods for sure!  I think Tim "The Toolman" Taylor would approve.

The times, they are a changin'.

Now even the Korean car guys have reserved space.  Car clubs are always present at C&C, the most prominent usually being Lotus, BMW, Mini, Mustang, Camaro, and Subaru.

Oh yes, and the Corvette "comb-over" boys club, too.

I must give the Subaru WRX boy-racers high marks for their sense of humor.  :)

"If it's not leakin', it's empty"

Close, but no cigar.  If it had been blue, this could have passed for my first car.

It was a treat to see this '70-ish Lancia Montecarlo there.

It must have never gotten wet.  If it had, all you'd see would be a little pile of rust on the pavement and 4 tires.

Alfa Romeo Spyder....still on my Lust Bucket List.

I must admit, Ferrari's (458 Italia ^ ) can look good in "non-red", too.

Then again, why upset the ghost of Enzo (Mr. Ferrari)?

While not the newest or the most exotic, I still think the 599 ^ has the most class.  I love those thin "flying buttresses" off the rear glass.  They're both aesthetically pleasing and aerodynamically useful.

Nostalgia time....who wants a ride in my '56 (?) Cheeevy.  (Umm, maybe I'd better ask the owner first.)

The car that made Ralph Nader famous....the Chevy Corvair.  With the engine (and all the weight) in the back, it had a tendency to swap ends while in motion (not good for life expectancy), hence Ralph's book Unsafe At Any Speed.  He's been running for President (and losing) ever since.

Still, I think this is a great looking, very well maintained example.

There was a camera crew there interviewing some race car driver, but I was more impressed with this rig that allowed the camera to very smoothly glide horizontally.  Pretty cool!

And now, for my Show Favorite....

This immaculate Austin Healey 3000.

Achingly beautiful.

That's it....Cars and Coffee, February, 2014.  Hope you enjoyed.  :)

S

Auto Show debrief

Yesterday my friend Neil and I had a good time at the Dallas Auto Show.  We rode the light rail to the convention center, avoiding all the traffic and parking hassles....easily worth the few bucks it cost, and we arrived ahead of most of the crowd.  Much to my delight and surprise the show was NOT dominated by Bubba trucks.  I was rather disappointed that there weren't any wild concept cars.  None.

Of course I was immediately drawn to the European exotics:

Like this 2014 Aston Martin Vanquish.

Of course I ordered mine "Well Equipped".

After gawking at this more proletarian Vantage ($150K) for a while I was invited inside the velvet rope and assigned my own personal advisor, Aaron Stephenson IV*. Before long I had one of his high-dollar catalogues and was calling him "Biff" and picking colors and accessories.  He's probably still waiting for me after I excused myself for a rest room visit.

Maserati Gran Cabrio

McLaren MP4-12C

The new, soon-to-be introduced Jaguar F-Type.

I didn't say there weren't ANY Bubba trucks there.  This was some kind of "wrap" treatment you can cover your truck with enabling you to hide from ducks and deer and such.

I'm not a big Range Rover fan, but I must admit the Evoque ($58K) was rather impressive.

There were some vintage oddities stuck over in one corner, like this Datsun 2000.  It was quite a screamer back in its day....

....as was this '71 Datsun 240Z.  As a college student I lusted for one of these.  ('Course, I lusted for all kinds of things back in my college days. ;)  As I didn't have $34 dollars back then, much less $3400, it became another of my lost loves.

Awwww, my little Fiat 500 Abarth.  Innit cute?  One of these days I'm gonna convince K it followed me home.

One thing I took away is that cars are getting ridiculously expensive.  A decent BMW, Audi, Mercedes, Lexus, Infinity, etc, is just more than I want to pay for wheels.  They're for those who want a "look at me" experience.  Or Lottery winners.

What I found was that Subaru and Mazda in particular have some quite good cars at very reasonable prices....mid-upper $20's.  Even Volkswagen's are getting pricey, although the new GTI @ $33K still seemed like a good value.  Chrysler products seemed way behind the curve, and poor GM seems to be in a continued slow decline.  Ford, however, had some good small world-class cars worth looking at.

The Geneva or Frankfurt or New York show it wasn't, but all things considered the Dallas show was worth the effort to attend.  Oh...and the "booth babes"?  Not a disappointment, either.  ;)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On today's "to-do" list?  I asked K if she wanted to go to the Greenville Avenue St. Patrick's Day Parade and Alcohol Soiree, but she said she'd rather take a bullet to the head.  I guess that's a "no".   At this point I'm just hoping for lunch out.

Have a great weekend everyone.

S

*not his real name