One of the greatest things about living in Southern California, is the access to so many cars.  Now some may see the cars as a bad thing, and don’t get me wrong…traffic sucks.  But the benefit of having a gazillion people jammed into one area…is that there are literally millions of people who are motorfanatics, and the diamond in this situation is that many of them have the money to act on it.
As members of the automotive press, there are also many perks, and this last weekend was a great example of that.  We where invited to tour 3 private car collections on Saturday, the catch was that we weren’t allowed to know where we where going until that morning.  Unfortunately for my partner in crime, he was in Michigan doing among other things, testing his dads DSG transmission, and  driving their project car.  But you’ll read about that later.  Anyway, Chris couldn’t make the tour and the friend I invited to go with me, had a late night on Friday as well.  So I struck out alone to the address I was given, not knowing what to expect. Read the rest of this entry »

So starting the day out with a walk through one of the best car garages that I’ve ever been in was a pretty amazing thing.   When I saw that the next stop was going to be at the Vel’s Parnelli Jones Racing headquarters, I knew it was going to stay good.  So after lingering at Dave’s garage for as long as I could, I finally made my way over to the Vel’s Parnelli Jones Racing building.  Once again the parking lot was filled with collector cars, but the real treasures where inside the building and upstairs.  There where old race cars that had been piloted by Al Unser & Mario Andretti and there was a Bronco that had been raced and won multiple Baja events.  Its hard to imagine a vehicle that could withstand multiple races down in Mexico…let alone one that could win the 1000 2 years in a row, and then the third year win the 500….that’s pretty impressive.   The vintage race cars where also incredible (speaking of vintage racing….Chris and I have some future plans along those lines) which sparked a little browsing online yesterday for some used Indy cars….THAT’S WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT!
Anyway, after spending about a half an hour at Vel’s Parnelli Jones, I headed to the last and final stop of the day, the private collection at Honda.  Inside they had samples of most of their historic landmark vehicles… as well as some legendary Honda Racing cars and motorcycles.  Now, I realize that we probably wouldn’t put an 1985 Accord in our personal collections but for Honda, we get it.  These are the cars that made Honda what they are today.   So have fun cruising the gallery…there are some pretty legendary vehicles in there.

As MotorFanatics, we are many things. We are enthusiasts, we are participants, and I believe the most important part, we are dreamers.  We dream of roads and cars, and that day in the future where our dreams will be reality.  Maybe we already have our dream car and we are dreaming of later that day, or maybe the scheduled drive next weekend.  Some of us dream of a 69 Camaro or a 32 Ford and cruising the old strip.  Others dream of high priced exotics that many have never seen in person.  Whatever your dream, we all share the common bond that is the automotive fantasy.  While most of us will realize our dream in one way or another,  there are a few companies out there who have decided to make your automotive dreams their business.  I know, how intrusive.  Over the last few years, I’ve had a chance to talk to a few of these outfits, and they offer a pretty interesting option for MotorFanatics of all types.   About 2 years ago, I was put to the task of creating a video piece for myride.com on this subject.  So we decided to head up to San Francisco to check out one of these businesses that prey on the dreams of  so many, Club Sportiva.  Here’s the resulting video. If your not ready to commit to a video…we understand.  I’ll just say Gallardo, F430, and Golden Gate Park.
Last year I also made a couple trips to New York and once again, I wanted to visit some purveyors of dreams on the east coast.  Both Gotham Dream Cars, and The Classic Car Club of Manhattan caught my attention.

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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.

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.

Every once in a while you come across something rare,  in the world of motorfanatics, rare doesn’t automatically mean good, but it does always spur interest.  Today is one of those days where rare, means really good….in a Spyker kinda’ way.  Until today, I had never seen a Spyker on the road (pics here), the only time I’ve ever come in contact with them, has been at autoshows.Luckily last year, at the LA autoshow when the attendant left the door up, I mistook another fan as a booth babe, and asked her if it was ok if I climbed in…she looked at me like I was speaking jibberish, and again I made the mistake of thinking…wow, they must have brought her over from the Netherlands!  Long story short, I climbed in, looked around, and did my standard look over….on exit, the door to the car was immediately shut, and the rope was up.   I guess I wasn’t really supposed to be sitting in that car.  Lucky for me I got in when I did…because its a slim chance that I’ll ever get that shot again.

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