Cars and Coffee, July 2014

As I suspected would be the case, attendance at this month's Cars and Coffee event was down by roughly 25% due to many of the regular attendees being out of town for the holidays.  That turned out to be a blessing in disguise as it was much easier to walk around and take photos....there were lots of unique cars there I hadn't seen before.

The oddest of the odd had to be this 1960 Panhard.  Can you guess its country of origin?

A clue?  OK...."stinky cheese"...."escargot"....DOH....

Yes, France!  The home of the world famous Le Odd School of Automotive Design.

Doesn't it just scream, "Stop the assembly line!  We're out of wine." 

It completely out classed the East Germans, who nevertheless proudly displayed their ever-popular Trabant.  How 'bout that fine build quality, huh?  (Take note J.D. Powers.)

McLaren was there showing off their uber-exotic P1.

Fetching from any angle.

Here's one I'd never heard of...a Rossion Q1.

It's a specialty American maker and it's based on the British Noble M400.  Meh.

I saw this Jaguar F-Type coupe there, the first coupe I've seen in the flesh.  It is truly spectacular from this angle. 

Unfortunately IMO the front doesn't impress as much.  It seems a bit busy.

This was a true rarity....a 1990 BMW Z1.

The owner told us there were only 8000 made, all for Europe, although a dozen now reside in the US.

The most interesting thing about this unique car were the doors.  They "opened" by sliding down into the door sills.  Oh, those wacky Germans!

Whatcha lookin' at Scott Tweety?

Anglophile that I am, you knew I'd be drawn to the British sports cars.

This very nice 1962 Triumph TR4 stirred me.  ( I said "stirred", not "shaken".  :)

Likewise did this classic Triumph Spitfire, although I think it would have looked better in British Racing Green, especially with that tan leather interior.  That's my favorite color combination on British sports cars.

How about some vintage off-roaders?  This was one of the best back in its day, the Toyota 40-series Land Cruiser.

Newly refurbished Ford Broncos like this have developed a cult following and are now demanding top dollar.

Most unusual paint job of the day went to this iridescent purple/green Mazda RX-8.  The verdict is still out.

The worst....this Fiat 500, although Peter Max fans might disagree.

This BMW 1600 Cabrio was impressively restored and maintained. 

Beautiful!  Love it!

Some classic Americana....

....a '59 Cheeevy.  Fins rock!

Anyone remember the Nash Rambler?

Yes, this was the car immortalized in >>the "Beep Beep" song<< by the Playmates in 1958. 

Ahhh....Hula girls, fuzzy dice, curb feelers, and necker knobs.  Who remembers?

I know!

Looks like the rolling Tacky Party made it to Dallas just in time. 

Note the Sapporo beer tap handle as the gear shift. (Walmart, here they come!)

But for simple, classic understated style....

....I think I'd take this '70's-era Ferrari 308 home.

Hope you enjoyed Cars and Coffee/Dallas, July 2014.  :)

S

Cars are back!

In response to the multitude of requests that I show more car photos....OK, it was only Doug....I present some interesting finds from today's Cars and Coffee event (always the first Saturday of each month):

An especially nice mildly customized Mini Cooper.  The guy who brought it, and fit in quite comfortably, was at least 250 pounds.

The Mini's contemporary, an East German Trabant.  Says volumes about the virtues of communism, doesn't it?  It looks like the English Bulldog is about to give his opinion of it, too.  ;)

And from across the other pond Datsun sent us this 2000.  It was quite a hot car in its day.

Here's something I might actually be able to afford to both buy and maintain....a super-clean Karman Ghia.  It was actually just a slick body on a plain vanilla VW.

Here's a tiny English-built Metropolitan.  My dad bought one of these for my mom thinking it would be the perfect little car for her to buzz around town it.  She wanted none of it, however, so he drove it for a couple of years until he could buy something better.  This is the type car I learned to drive in.

Side note:  A gorgeous 20-something woman was showing this car to her boyfriend who I think was Italian.  She was pointing out the food tray with the fake hamburger/fries/root beer on it, explaining how in the days before drive-thru's a girl known as a "car hop" would bring it out to the car and attach it to the side of the car.  She said she learned about it from listening to her grandmother.  After hearing that I gave up and exhaled.  ;)

A Triumph Stag.  I was surprised to see this as I thought they had all self-destructed 20 years ago.  "Durability" was just another word at British Leyland.

The Stag's little brother, a TR-6.  This one was very nice, although I was never very fond of the Baby Diaper color.  I sure would like to have one in British Racing Green, though.

Of course there was all of the modern hardware there, too, but around here they are almost passe.  (As you can tell I prefer the old, odd relics, probably because I'm an old, odd relic myself.  Well, "odd" anyway.)  The newest star there was this Lamborghini Aventador ^.  ("Nice car.  Sorry about your penis.")

Gotta go run a few errands before more college football this afternoon.  Y'all have a great day.  :)

S