Maserati 3500GT
(courtesy of my friend Matteo @ Swisscarsightings.com)
the $259,000 ‘bargain’ Bugatti.
not sure of the official HP figures, but this Parmigiani Bugatti Super Sport watch costs a lovely $259,000. Perfect for the Bugatti Super Sport owner in your life.
http://www.acquiremag.com/style/watches/bugatti-super-sport-by-parmigi.php
is VW trying to buy Alfa Romeo (!?)
Well this is a hell of a rumour, that has been getting louder and louder over the past few months. Fiat has been whining about Alfa Romeo not making any money for the company for a LONG time now….and according to several articles I have been reading as of late, it seems that Walter De Silva (ex-Alfa Romeo design chief, now VW/Audi design chief) has been urging Martin Winterkorn to really go after buying Alfa Romeo should Fiat decide to sell the brand. Walter De Silva is so excited about this all, that according to one article i found, it states: “Given what is assumingly the passion for Alfa design, de Silva has in thoughts already about 8 models for Alfa, along with designs as well as drawings.” Easy boy!
To be honest, as someone who is REALLY into Audis and their philosophy, I have been seeing Audi as the new Alfa Romeo for the past few years…..they’re making the cars that Alfa should be making….and the Volkswagen group buying Alfa Romeo could REALLY rejuvenate the brand.
Is there any truth to this? we’ll have to see! It could just be substance-less, gossip…..or it could be the real thing. Knowing the way Volkswagen works, i wouldn’t doubt they are after the brand.
here are some articles about it:
rare NYC sighting: a modern Alfa Romeo GTV Spider.
Saw this little thing in Soho yesterday, a 1.8 Twin Spark Alfa Romeo GTV Spider. Pretty lovely looking car…..and very rare to see in the US. There was a “for sale” sign laying inside the car, with a price of $15k. I’ve sent an email to the owner just out of curiousity to see what he says (i’m not really interested, however i am curious about the story!). If anyone reading this is interested in buying the car, lemme know and i’ll pass along whatever info i find!
art of the day. bugatti factory.
for sale: $2500
artist: Joe Perricone
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some information about the painting from Tom Miller Sports And Classics:
Joe Perricone has been painting since childhood and has been restoring vintage cars for over 35 years. Joe started painting cars when he had a desire to do 4 paintings of the Vanderbilt cup races and never looked back. He paints oil on canvas of cars of the 20’s and 30’s, mostly of races lost in time and long forgotten. The subject matter is of the pits, action in corners and break downs on the track. Joe’s work is in the collection of Hutchinson Co. and many other private collections, he has paintings hanging next to the great automotive painter Peter Helck amongst others. Joe’s work is an expressionist remembrance of the work done in the 1860’s through the 1890’s with abstract line for balance and perspective and a distinctive color palette.
Alpine A110 + Michele Mouton = the coolness.
The super successful quattro pilot Michele Mouton posing supercool with her co-pilot Francoise Conconi and an Alpine A110. What a photo!
thanks to Motoring Con Brio for the pic!
foto of the day. DS2
the mighty Citroen DS2.
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foto(s) of the day. a MK2 TT?
Well i’m not a fan of the MK2 TT’s weird styling….in fact i think the styling sucks! But holy hell i spotted this one linked to on QW today and i gotta say it looks great…probably the best modified MK2 i’ve seen and definitely the only NON TT-RS MK2 i’ve seen that really gets me going. So maybe it does have potential?
……but it’s no MK1….that’s for sure…..but this one looks pretty damn good.
link to more photos here:
http://www.tt-forum.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=180735
IEDEI vs. Alaska, part 1, “Alaskan Fool’s Gold”
Brad from Automobiliac has aptly and entertainingly chronicled the story of my attempt to secure one of my all time classic cars (BMW 2002 Turbo) recently. Late Friday night, i recieved confirmation that this was NOT going to work out…….as the car was not what i thought it was…..
I will be posting more about this weird and awkward attempt at finding a classic car for my collection later this week….but in the mean time, read Automobiliac’s version of the story here (very entertaining):
http://www.automobiliac.com/automobiliac/2010/8/7/alaskan-fools-gold-you-heard-it-here-first.html
creamy tea-coloured Lamborghini Espada.
Yeah, i dig weird shades of brown….and i REALLY dig the Lamborghini Espada…this thing is sweet! Apparently these photos were taken at Lamborghini Of Houston (click to see more pics, the car is on sale there for $55k+)
friday evening rock and roll, IEDEI style.
You may or may not know that i also play music, in a project known as The Bavarian Druglords. Over the past few years, one of my favourite new bands to come out of the UK are a band called Exit Calm, who I was going to try to do a split 7″ single with last year—however it never came to fruition.
Anyways, i’m pleased to report that the latest Exit Calm release is a full length album, entitled “Exit Calm” was released last month, and it’s brilliant. so go listen to it.
Here’s a video from their album…for a song called “Hearts & Minds”…..but petrolheads, don’t worry! THERE is a car in the video! (an Audi Coupe GT)
foto of the day. 504.
I love this photo. it’s so authentic, with such beautiful colours. i love the car too, a rare Peugeot 504 Coupe in rare rally-spec.
from the Ivory Coast Rally, 1979
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resurrection of the Lancia Stratos?
that’s what Italiaspeed is reporting, after these weird spy pics of a Stratos testing at a FIAT test track in June. I just hope it doesn’t come to america as the Chrysler Conquest or something…
GTV6 & a story.
I really dig this article published on Motoring Con Brio about fellow Brooklyn-ite Brad Automobiliac and his Alfa Romeo GTV6.
“I never really loved the car’s looks before, but it has a kind of cool wedge-like hatchback shape that is getting old enough to be reappraised, and they are a pretty rare sight. In fact I had never laid eyes on one in the flesh ‘til I drove the one I was to buy up in Maine, two months later. From the first moment I got into the car, I was hooked.”
read the whole article here:
http://motoringconbrio.com/2010/07/16/guest-contributor-bradley-price-on-his-alfa-romeo-gtv6/
cheap eurocar wants: under $4k
I’ve got this weird desire to own a ‘cheap and older’ european classic car. It is a persistent desire and I constantly find myself perusing the classified ads looking for that perfect cheap-ass eurobox…..something that makes me look like a disgruntled member of the United Nations from the 80s or 90s. Clearly it’s a stupid desire, as i possess MINIMAL mechanical ability to fix these on my own, and them being european; i am virtually guaranteed things going wrong……..but regardless, the desire lives on…and i can’t get rid of it.
my top 5 ‘cheap’ classic cars i want…….WHAT are you guys after? Do you already own a ‘modern’ classic euro car? any stories?
1. Audi 90 (B3): Not sure why i want these so much, but i think it stems from my experiences with one back in the year 2000, when i bought a used 1993 Volvo 850. During my test drives, I had also driven a 1995 Audi 90 quattro….and i LOVED it…it was so much better than the Volvo. But it was also $15k, i bought the Volvo for $9k. I still have an eye out these days…looking for that old woman selling her 90 Quattro. I’m hoping i can find a REALLY clean one for less than $2500…..unmodded, unabused…i think it’s possible. It’d be fun to throw these around in the winter…and to use as a utility car….
2. Audi 4000 Quattro: While looking for Audi 90s, i started seeing these 4000s popping up….for cheap. like $1500 for those weird 80s boxy Audis….with quattro. They’re sort of like buying an Audi quattro coupe….but not really….Either way, they look very german, and i really dig em. Similar to the 90, if i find an old couple selling their unabused 4000 quattro, i’ll be so tempted to buy one.
3. BMW 3-series E30: Yeah it’s all played out now, because every european car enthusiast knows about the $2000 E30 that you can find on craigslist, so now you have thousands of people looking for these E30s….but they really are a cool eurobox to pick up cheap and drive around for kicks; the biggest problem is how many people are looking for em……
4. Alfa Romeo GTV6: Such a cool car, i still remember one of my best friends in 3rd grade used to get dropped off by his mother in one of these….and i loved it then. They look much smaller in real life now than i remember them to be back then…but they make a helluva noise still. It’s tough to find a ‘cheap’ one in good condition, but i think it’s possible. I know Brad from Automobiliac picked his up cheap….and it looks great. An affordable way for an american to get a very cool Alfa Romeo for sure…(look at the one in the picture below; it is the HOTNESS)
5. VW Corrado: Another car i always wanted. Unfortunately all the kiddies into VWs have bought lots of them, abused them, modded them poorly and distastefully, and most of the 2nd hand Corrados i see are quite broken. Even more unfortunately, when i do find ‘clean’ Corrados…i’m pretty sure they WILL break soon after getting it anyways. So it’s a car i look at, but i would NEVER buy unless i become trained as a mechanic, because they are always proned to breaking…..
8mm footage; Nurburgring 1966.
Got this from the great blog, Automobiliac.
Silent 8mm footage of the 1000km race at Nurburgring, filmed in 1966. Sure there’s no sound, but watching this is like watching an action painting. beautiful!
foto of the day (2). tr6
Triumph TR6.
foto of the day. 328 KAMM
this is the BMW 328 KAMM COUPE which was recently recreated by BMW to commemorate the 70th anniversary of it running in the Mille Miglia race of 1940.
Audi & the design of “inward flow”
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Well i gotta give it to Audi, not just because they are my favourite car company, but because they are the only company I can think of who are currently designing cars which will look classic in 10, 20, or 30 years from now (pardon me Alfa Romeo, but you’re kinda losing it). They are the only company I can think of who have attention to detail. The evidence for this is in the brand new Audi A7 introduced this past week in Germany. The rear end of the new A7 has been getting under my skin since the introduction….and now i know why.
The back end flows inwards, going back towards the body. Sure there is a bumper, however this inward flow hasn’t been used in many modern cars….until now. They have brought back the inward flow of the rear end! I know Alfa Romeo have used this ‘inward flow’ (as i refer to it) in their 8c Competizione, however it was a bit overdone with the weird round tail light, but i’m not complaining! The 8c was a stunningly designed car. I think Corvettes and special edition cars like the Ford GT also used this, but when have you recently seen it on a production sedan? i can’t remember any car in the last 10 or 20 years with this….production sedan, shall is say.
Alfa Romeo has a long history of sports cars with this inward flow, I generally recollect one of my favourite Alfa Romeos, the superb Montreal:
Audi claims their inspiration for the new style rear-end comes from them analyzing the 1970s Audi 100 Coupes and i can definitely see what they were looking at…..in fact, i think this new car has more similarity to that design than any other current Audi.
Apparently, this was a very conscious effort to consider ‘older’ designs when designing the A7. Check out this drawing that Audi issued to the press about the influences of the A7 design.
It seems though, that Lamborghini has been flirting with this idea for a while! Well at least in concept form. Check out the Lamborghini Estoque Concept and the Lamborghini Miura Concept from the past several years. Same indented inward flow rear end. Lamborghini, however, is a company essentially operated by Audi, so this isn’t surprising at all….
So what do you guys think about this? will this set a trend and bring this design sense back into the currently lackluster japanese & korean-influenced automotive design world? Can Audi influence other car makers to bring something new & old back into design? Alfa Romeo from a few years ago (2000-2007) really influenced alot of automotive design, however it didn’t last…..but I feel that Audi has already caused all these companies to use “big grilles”….can they get the rest of the industry to throw a bit of retro in the game? I hope so.
IEDEI 
