So if you’ve visited lately, you know that Chris is off to enjoy the power tour…and he’s already posting regularly with his updates and adventure notes.  I figured before the barrage of all things power tour really gets going, I’d hit you with one quick euro treat.
I first got my hands on an Audi S5 a little over a year ago when I was tagged along with a colleague to attend an Audi press event in the Bay area…specifically the Napa Valley and Infineon Raceway.  The sparkle of the event was the R8, but I came away with a real affection for the S5.  The car is strikingly elegant and completely Audi in its subtle sexy-ness.   Lets move to the SEMA show last fall in Las Vegas where I met Flourian from Abt Sportsline….a German  company that takes mostly VW & Audi production cars and turns up the heat.  Flourian was nice enough to show me a few examples on display in Las Vegas, and also to give me some insight into the company.

Shortly after the SEMA show, the Abt Audi visited my home town…and the photos that follow are the result….striking in every way.  The Audi is a bit more aggressive and for some it will seem over done. Myself, I’m not sure. The original design is breathtaking and the Abt modifications are dramatic. I think my only area of uncertainty is the colors and their delivery. I guess this is one of the beauties of design and the car world…we all have our own opinions, and that is all that matters.  If you like it. Perfect. If you love it, even better.

Alright, Chris will be pounding us with power tour material in the next week…so enjoy this last gallery before the storm really gets going!

[View with PicLens]

The Swedish super car maker, Koenigsegg, makes some of the most exclusive cars in the world. Not only are they deadly fast…but they are equally beautiful. Enjoy here.

I was probably 2 maybe 3 days old before I started dreaming about my first project car.  At the time, my dad was working on putting together a 1969 Mustang Mach 1 and as far back as I can remember, that was the car that got me hooked on muscle cars.  As I got older, my dad and I threw around more and more ideas for what we could put together as my first project car. Camaros, Mustangs, Challengers, but they were all too expensive for a beginning driver and didn’t quite have the flair that we were looking for.

It was then one fateful day when I watched Wayne’s World for the umpteenth time and put two-and-two together.  Why not a Pacer?  Dad laughed, but I was serious.  He wrote it off as crazy, but I kept my eye open.  A month or so later, paging through a car trader with my buddy (yea, that’s how car obsessed I have always been) we stumbled across a 1978 Pacer that the ad claimed to be equipped with a V8!  I clipped out the ad and rushed home to my dad.  Showing it to him, we both wrote it off as a typo until he called.  AMC DID in fact put a V8 in a Pacer, and this was one of them.  We had found our project car.

I was 13 years old when we took delivery of our Pacer, and within a month it was completely torn down and body on a rotisserie.  Three excruciating years and a lot of blood, sweat and tears passed until we had it fully restored and ready for the street, and when it finally was, it was a HOOT!

Those three paragraphs must be the longest introduction to a post ever, but I had to give some perspective to the Black Pacer in the above image and accompanying photo gallery.  Read the rest of this entry »

When people talk of Southern California….especially when your not in Southern California, people are quick to list the negatives..expensive housing, traffic, car chases, earthquakes etc…. and those things are all present, but its not all negative.  One of the biggest positives when your a motorfanatic, is the cars…cars that would be stuck in a garage in most areas of the country, roll the streets regularly around here.  Once again on Saturday, I ran down to the “local weekly car show”….and honestly, you’ll only see this in Southern CA.  See the pics here.

So today I had to drive up to Huntington Beach, I figured I’d take PCH, and bring a camera along. If you are ever in Southern California, and you are into cars…you have got to take a drive on PCH. This was all on a Friday around 2pm….In the gallery you’ll notice an Aston Martin, a classic Caddy, my own unattainable dream 4S, but the highlight was actually right after I pulled onto Newport Blvd.  From PCH.  I spotted a Ferrari 599GTB sitting in a parking lot.  I’ve seen many a Ferrari, hell I’ve driven an Enzo, but I’ve never seen this model in public until today.  I must say, the Pininfarina masterpiece is truly breathtaking in person.  Front engine Ferraris are hard for some to swallow, but I think the successes that other manufacturers have had (think Viper), forced Ferrari into showing their strength.  Strength that is building incredibly sexy, incredibly powerful (612hp), and incredibly expensive vehicles (this one goes for over $300,000).  Ferraris are many things, but more than anything, they are exclusive.  Most car fans, could never afford one, hell, I don’t think I could afford an oil change.  But we can dream, and we can appreciate the heart, and effort that the Italian manufacturer has put into this product.   BTW, this isn’t exclusive to Ferrari, it makes us fanatics happy when we see a vehicle that obviously carried incredible amounts of passion to develop.  Even if we will never turn the keys, we appreciate it. Thanks.

Oh, you might notice an Orange car in the background of one of the 599 shots, I tried to get a clean shot but couldn’t, but yes that is a GT3RS….hey, it was Newport Beach!?

MotorFanatics is growing. We’ve got our basic site design down (simple’s the name of the game for now…bigger and better is assuredly on the way), and we have a video player and a photo player live. Now, it may not seem like a lot to some people, but to us, this is materializing a dream.

First is our Pics section (check it out at the link on the right or click here if you’re lazy like us).  There we’ve got some pretty neat stuff.  First is my late great CJ7 Jeep.  It was a project between me an my dad many moons ago, and yes, that is a GM LT1 under the hood…and you are correct, it is the same type that powered the C4 Vette.

Also in the pics section are some shots from Dan and his work on the movie “Redline”.  Many of you may not remember Redline,  a movie with a horrid script made even worse with horrendous acting, redeemed with some serious machinery.  Carrera GT, Enzo, Ford GT…yea, pretty freaking sweet.  Dan was there, and got some studio shots of them too.  Those galleries are a must see.

Finally in our pics section are some shots from Dan’s various escapades around SoCal.  A few car shows, and some awesome Forumla Drift stuff…shot only the way Dan can see.  Don’t take my word for it’s awesomeness, click on the link above and check all the new galleries out.

I did have to save the best for last though…our video section.  It’s our videos that are truly going to set MotorFanatics apart from those other stupid car websites.  First up is our teaser video.  Dan and I love cars…but even more driving.  What on earth could I mean?  Check out the vids link (alright, here’s a link because I know I’d want one here too) and see the hilarity ensue.  We’re working on wrapping up the rest of the video as we speak…and should have it up soon.

We’ll be posting more and more as we find cool stuff, but for now get to checking out all the new cool stuff!