Cars & Coffee – 7/16/11

Cars & Coffee – 7/16/11

I'm just going to list some of the cars that were there today, as the O.C. Fair awaits me. Hillbank, which sells Superformance and Shelby vehicles as well as parts for Mustangs and Camaros, filled the corral today with dozens of American icons. There were even a few originals in the mix, including a rare green Shelby GT350H and a genuine Pedro Rodriguez B Production championship winning GT350.

The first Fiat 500C showed up today, as well as a new Shelby GT350 and the new Chrysler 300 SRT8. Older highlights included a white Countach 5000S, Saab 9-3 Viggen, Porsche 911 Speedster, 911 soft window Targa, Bandit T/A, a few more Mustang racers, Riley Elf, beautiful Ford F-1 pickup, 1971 Toyota Corolla, 1959 Olds Ninety Eight, Fiat 850 and 600 Multipla, Peugeot 403, Jensen Healey, Puma GT and a Ferrari F1 car.

The F1 car was Dr. Tony Nobles' and it is part of the Corse Clienti program that the factory offers. The car is the 2001 Monza car that was raced by world champion Michael Schumacher right after the tragedy of 9/11. Tony has run it on many of the world's most famous tracks and is next headed to Belgium to see if he has the cajones to go flat through Eau Rouge at Spa. After recently becoming just the fifth person to do that same feat at Paul Ricard's similarly laid out section, I'm guessing it won't be a problem for the Doc.

Link to photos

Cars & Coffee – 7/2/11: The Pike's Peak Edition

Cars & Coffee - 7/2/11

Slow internet connection while out of town for the remainder of the Independence Day Holiday weekend necessitates a brief write-up today. Will add more details on the StopTech blog in a few days.

A filthy Hyundai in the corral today was much appreciated, not because we have a thing for dirty Korean cars, but because this one had racing dirt on it. It was the very same Hyundai powered unlimited class car that Rhys Millen had used last weekend to tackle Pike's Peak. While Rhys was only able to finish second, this little rocket ship is still mighty impressive in person. With nearly the same power as a Veyron and less than half its weight to haul around, this awd LMP shrinky dink can catapault from a rolling start-124 mph in less than 8 seconds. It also pins you back into your seat at 1.14 g's in the process. Rhys is a cool guy who spent a lot of time talking to people about the car, the race and himself. We did have to give him a hard time about his other car on display though - a pimped out Ostrich leather interior'd Equus SEMA show car. Now if that thing had Pike's Peak dirt all over it, then it might be something special.

The only other car that really caught my attention yesterday was a Cobra. It was used in the movie "The Gumball Rally" where it raced a Ferrari Daytona Spider from NY to LA. While "Cannonball Run" is perhaps the better known movie about the first Coast-to-Coast illegal car race by a group of wealthy East Coast sportscar owners, "Gumball" is a much better car movie. The scenes of this Cobra and that Daytona racing through the LA River are classic. To think of how valuable each of those cars has become makes the footage that much more impactful today. If you haven't seen it, track it down. This should be in every car lovers collection right along side Le Mans and Grand Prix.


Link to photos