As they say “Tis the Season”….well, here at motorfanatics, ’tis the season to be dreaming. Dreaming about fantasy shopping binges. Yesterday, Chris and I went for lunch..and after a quick bite to eat, we decided to do some window shopping. I quickly remembered the BRABUS showroom in Newport Beach, and we headed over. As we pulled in, it occurred to me that it had been a while since I looked in the window. BRABUS was gone, but there was a Rolls Royce Phantom staring out the window with a big bow on top, so we knew we’d still get to see some goods. Inside we found another ½ dozen rolling palaces, in various colors and configurations. All equally extravagant, and excessive. But in the back we found the cars more our style. Read the rest of this entry »

Have you ever been given a gift that seems to have a life of its own?  Like one that you are given initially and that alone is great, but it just keeps giving?  Things like BBQ’s, wet bars, hot wifes, surfboards, golf clubs…you get my point.  Well if you frequent motorfanatics, you may remember that earlier this year I bought into the Porsche family…and while that purchase wasn’t a gift per se, it sure has kept on giving.  Beyond the daily drive or even the joy that it gives me to clean it, being in the Porsche family automatically included me in the “club”.   Being in the club has had a couple immediate perks:  the first is that when you valet park a Porsche, you don’t get that silly giggle from the valet that you get in a rough idling 4runner.  Secondly,  as you probably already know, the new Panamara is starting to show up at dealerships and the dealership I bought my car from invited me to take a drive.  Read the rest of this entry »

I would imagine, that back when transportation fantasies consisted of a healthy horse, and fertile hunting grounds…guys still stood around and said…”If you had 2 gold pieces and you had to spend it on horses, what would you get?”
Because, I’ve played that game since I was a kid, and I can’t imagine variations of the discussion ever not existing.  Its kinda like space….its always been there in some form…and it will continue long after we are all dead and gone.  So this morning, Chris and I had the conversation…and I just happen to have the transcript….

me:  So, if you had 300g’s and you had to spend it all on cars. what would your first purchase be?
Christopher:  it was given to me today?
me:  yep. you get a check at lunch.
Christopher:  FIRST
I’d go straight to the auto gallery and pay cash for that GT3RS
without thinking.  it’d be a reflex
Read the rest of this entry »

So over the last few months, Chris and I have had some pretty excited conversations about many things MotorFanatics….one of the things that we frequently talk about is if money was no object…what cars would we buy.  This conversation always includes the Carrera GT for both of us.  As well as an ever revolving stable of exotics, classics and everything in between.  One of the side topics that has been heavily discussed is paint colors, we typically agree on what would look good, but frequently disagree on the colors we would paint our own personal cars.  Red, Black, Silver, Orange, Green….you name it, we’ve talked about it.  Lately we’ve been talking matte, and we both agree that if done correctly, it is an amazingly aggressive look.  The problem is, would we really want to commit to that look?  One option is vinyl, covering a car in matte vinyl would give you that same look, and would also preserve the original paint, when we get tired of the matte look, we would just peel the vinyl off and go back to the gloss original.  Well, we haven’t pulled the trigger on this yet, but we have seen a few true matte paint jobs recently on an E93 M3 that had a complete matte paint job, and also an R8 that had matte side blades.  We may differ on opinions of many things…but we both agreed that these cars both look pretty awesome. Have a look for yourself here, and let us know what you think.

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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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 »

Here’s the deal, car racing, and all its variations, draws ga-zillions of fans, and for me personally, the Le Mans series here in the states is probably my personal favorite.  You mix modified production cars, in a couple of different classes,  with completely dedicated LMP machines, and throw them all out together on the same track, at the same time.  Genius.  Because you and I don’t drive on tracks..we drive in traffic..and racing like that is a true test of a driver.   I’m drawn by watching a Porsche GT 2 or 3 duel it out with a  F430 Ferrari, or an Aston Martin…what? that rules…and then just as your getting into that part of the race..the leaders..in the LMP cars….SMOKE THEM ALL!  like they weren’t even there!  Its just fun on so many levels.  No, it doesn’t get the attention that NASCAR does, and F1 totally looks down on these guys..but you know what, I love it, and so do a lot of other fans….and hopefully Chris and I will make a couple races this year…come on, do you really think it takes more tallent to run TALADEGA than Laguna  seca?

Now, the point of this post..well, the American Le Mans series is about to start, and to celebrate that, Porsche decided to show us some past all-stars from their hall of fame stable.  They gave us the  718 RS 60, the RS Spyder as well as the 935 and 962 models.  So we’ve got the 718..it only had 160hp, and it smoked more powerfull competitors back in 1960, it was, and is, truely legendary.  The 935 cemented Porsches place in racing, and gave the company true credibility, and the respect they wanted. In 1985, the Porsche 962 continued the 935’s success streak with pilots A.J. Foyt, (racing hero, in any class)  and Bob Wollek . In the years 1986, 1987 and 1988, the 680 hp sports prototype with the 2.85-litre six-cylinder turbo engine also crossed the finish line first in Sebring.   In 1998 Porsche made legendary marks with the RS Spyder, the 4th vehicle in the photos…this car was just unstoppable, and if it wasn’t for this car, the Le Mans series would just be called the “Audi shows off” series.  Trust me, if Porsche will let us near their cars this year..we’ll try our best to bring it to you!