6th Anniversary of Cars and Coffee Irvine and Marconi Open House

Cars and Coffee 10/20/2012 Pics

October 20th was the 6th Anniversary of our favorite weekly car show here in Southern California. Mother Nature didn't seem in a particularly festive mood, but the constant mist didn't seem to keep many people away - by 7 am the lot was about 80 percent full and folks kept trickling in along with the precipitation over the next hour or two.

There was no featured marque this week, but the corral was filled with a random assortment of what has made this show such a treat from the beginning. The eclectic mix included a group of Challengers, some old Jags, Cobras, GT40s, Fiat Dinos, Pontiac GTOs, a Split-Window Corvette, Porsche 356 Carrera 2, Morgan, new Camaros and more.

The Porsche row featured the usual mix of 911s, 356s and Boxster/Cayman models, highlighted by a Carrera Panamericana 356 on semi-slicks, a new 981 Boxster S and a nice 550 Spyder among others.

Walking the rest of the lot, it was more of the same random toy collection on display - Old Mustangs, some tuned Fiat 500s, Audi R8 Spyder, Maserati Bora and Merak, Lotus Cortina, BMW 2002 tii, Citroen 2CV, Datsun 1600, S15 Silvia, some classic Mercedes, a Cobra Jet Mustang drag racer, C-Max Hybrid and an RX-7 Turbo powered Mazda pickup by Racing Beat that had a 4-rotor engine in the bed and a matching license plate to advertise the cargo.

Besides the great assortment of cars, trucks and bikes, there were quite a few interesting people at the show. My buddy Bruce introduced me to a young couple who were first timers - she from Riverside and he from England. Bruce also bumped into a German reporter who was another first-timer, not knowing anyone at the show, he still managed to have a great time it seemed, enjoying the cars and making some new friends.



Marconi Museum Open House with SEMA Preview

After the show we headed over to the Marconi Museum where they were having an open house with a special display of some international customs that are headed to SEMA next weekend. It's always fun to visit the Marconi, with its great collection of Ferrari supercars, customs and F1 cars, Indy cars, vintage racers, muscle cars and assorted European exotics, but throwing in those wonderfully delightful foreign customs made it extra special.

The best part of that SEMA display was the fact that the cars looked like they could have been made right here in the States - from the Swedish '57 Chevy to the Trinidad & Tobago-born Range Rover, from the Mexican '46 Ford to the French (what else?) 2CV, it was cool to see that the hot rodding hobby knows no bounds.

Supercar Sunday - 7/31/11: Ferrari v Lamborghini upstaged by Zonda R

 

 Supercar Sunday 7/31/11 Photos

Lured by the Ferrari v Lamborghini showdown planned for this last Sunday in July, I decided it had been way too long since I had made the drive up to Woodland Hills for Supercar Sunday and got my butt outta bed for the first time in almost a year. It was a wise decision.

Not only did I get to see about 1,000 interesting collector cars on display, I also had a chance to catch up with at least a dozen friends I hadn't seen in a long time. That alone made the trip worthwhile, but the surprise unveiling of a Pagani Zonda R made it incredibly fortunate.

The Pagani Zonda needs little introduction, but these amazing boutique supercars are extremely rare here in the States. Never officially imported, a couple have found their way into private collections, and a few have been displayed at various shows and races around the country. I consider myself lucky indeed to have seen a handful of them between SEMA, SCS and Goodwood, the impression they leave in person akin to meeting Lewis Hamilton or Michael Schumacher - that sudden thrill you get from realizing you are in the presence of a legend.

Auto Gallery, who generously underwrites SCS, has been named an official Pagani dealer, allowing it the privilege to sell the Zonda's replacement, the Huayra when it goes on sale soon. As if seeing a Zonda isn't enough to make friends who weren't there hate your guts, the Zonda they helped bring to the show this weekend was actually a Zonda R, the race version that holds the lap record at the Nurburgring Nordschleife for production based cars. Its 6:47.5 time bested the Ferrari 599XX by eleven seconds and the new production car record holder the Porsche GT2 RS by...wait for it...thirty seconds.

Horacio only built a few of these race cars so not everyone will get to see one in their lifetime. Without DrivenWorld publisher and SCS organizer, Dustin Troyan, I may have missed my chance. Dusty's hard work, along with the generosity of the car's owner, Auto Gallery and Century Towing allowed me to cross another vehicle off my bucket list.

Seeing the car up close reveals why Pagani has such an aura about it. The shape is alien yet beautiful and the engineering prowess of the company is immediately evident. The carbon fiber is laid perfectly, and close inspection reveals the titanium threads woven into the cloth to add flexibility to this normally brittle substance. Every detail is not only functional, but designed in such a way that you feel there must be some artists in the engineering department. Why can't every carmaker make their vehicles this beautiful and capable?

If you click the link above to view the gallery, you'll notice that at least half of my photos are of the Zonda R, but pry yourself away from those and you'll also see why shows like Supercar Sunday are so much fun. How's this for eclectic? When was the last time you saw a Toyota Crown Deluxe coupe? Never? How about a Kurtis Kraft 500? There were at least three there today. A Ram Air GTO Judge wagon? Maybe not factory, but a really cool sight. Other rare and wonderful sightings included a Renault R5 Turbo, Ford RS200, '73 Carrera RS, Continental Mark II, Morgan Aero, Hurst Camaro, Maserati 3500GT, Riley Elf, two yellow Ultimas, three BMW Z8s, Qvale Mangusta, and a few Lamborghinis and Ferraris.

The marque of the Bull was represented by dozens of Gallardo variations, a few Murcis, a pair of Miuras and a handful of Countaches. Prancing horse lovers were treated to scores of 3X8s, Maranellos, 355s, Modenas, 430s, 458s, Stradales, Scuderias, and Testarossas. Favorites included the 330 GTS, 550 Barchetta, 575 Superamerica, and a lone F40. Not a bad turnout by any stretch of the imagination, but overcast skies and a few scattered showers may have kept some of the even more exotic stuff at home. We're not greedy though, so an F40, two Miuras and a Zonda R were just fine with me.