Car Lust

The 2012 Nashville British Car Club Show

Call this a hat trick if you will. The 2010 and 2011 Nashville British Car Club Shows have been featured here at Car Lust, so now we complete the trilogy with the October 13, 2012 presentation, which included the Sunbeam Alpine Invasion.

The weather for each of these three shows was simply superb... dry October days with temperatures in the low 80s. Quite the contrast from the damp country that built these magnificent automotive specimens, which may explain why many of them are here in the first place.

2010 and 2011 brought a multitude of Triumphs, MGs, Jaguars, and the like. They were lined in rows that seemed almost endless. And there were a number of those roadsters at the 2012 show, but this year seemed to be devoted to the rarest of the species. And that's what we'll concentrate on here... so let's start with the really rare:

Notes From The 2012 Cleveland Auto Show

I made my annual pilgrimage to the Cleveland Auto Show on March 3 this year. Here's some of what I saw.

Cyclekarts

Modern vehicles are increasingly sophisticated, with digital engine and suspension controls and ever more complex mechanical systems. This has given us a world where the humblest entry-level Hyundai hatchback boasts a level of efficiency, reliability, and safety that was once unimaginable in even the most prestigious high-dollar luxury battleship. This is, of course, a good thing--but as we've sometimes lamented here at Car Lust, all of this sophistication also means that there's not as much of a place for the do-it-yourself mechanic as there once was.

The same is true of motorsports. These days, racing is something it usually takes serious dollars to get into. NASCAR "stock car" racing, once the home of self-taught "good ol' boys" who race-prepared Hudson flathead straight sixes by the seat of their pants in corner garages, no longer has much (if anything) to do with "stock" cars--that is, cars you can actually buy at your local dealer and drive on the street. Today's NASCARs are purpose-built racing vehicles costing millions to design and build. Indy cars, F1, endurance racing--these are even less accessable to the non-professional. There's little room these days for the hot rod assembled from junkyard components, the dirt track racer built in someone's garage--hell, even Soap Box Derby cars have been commodified and standardized and come in easy-to-assemble kit form!

So what's left for the backyard automaker? Is there still such a thing as entry-level motorsports for people who design and build their own iron and don't have a degree in mechanical engineering or corporate sponsors writing checks for them? Is there a class of competition cars that can be built by motivated amateur craftsmen of average skill using ordinary materials, hand tools, and kitchen utensils found in the typical American home?

I'm happy to say that there is still such a thing, if you know where to look for it. One example is the sport of cyclekart racing.

Project Terrapin: a Design for a "Turtle Deck" Roadster

Lately, my design blood has been really bubbling. I guess I'm just anxious to forget playing on my computer and getting back to modeling and twisting a wrench. Here's my latest idea: a "Turtle Deck" roadster which emulates a little more antique version of the 1932 Studebaker two man Indianapolis racer my father once owned.

"The Fast And The Furious" 1970 Dodge Charger

(Submitted by Car Lust reader and commenter Tigerstrypes)

 

It’s amazing how a car steals a scene, even among trendier “hero” cars. The Coke-bottle silhouette of the 2nd-gen Dodge Charger did it again (I don’t know about you but the Charger in ‘Bullitt’ stole my attention from the Mustang) with very little screen-time and no build montage. It sleeps, no, waits, for the moment to get out and beat, no, obliterate new blood (or is it motor oil?) off the streets.

I liked its story: Belonged to Dom's late father and it scared the crap out of Mr. Hi-Performance Imports here of just thinking of driving it (as it should, probably the most realistic thing going on in the movie).

And it’s all downhill from there.

1989-1994 BNR-32 Nissan Skyline GT-R

Submitted by Tigerstrypes

Ladies and gentlemen, meet "Godzilla," as coined by the Australian motoring press (allegedly Wheels magazine). Overhyped?

• Nurburging record-shattering  performance (8'20" by Nissan; Best Motoring magazine managed was 8'22"38)

• Japan Touring Car Championship dominator from the get-go (29 wins out of 29 races!)

• 1991-’92 Bathurst 1000 winner (with a turbocharged 2.6 I-6 vs V8 equipped competition)

• First Japanese car to win Spa 24 hours in France in 1991.

• The Heat Treatments Drag R32 Skyline GT-R, driven by Reece McGregor of New Zealand, broke the world record for the fastest AWD over a 1/4 mile with a 7.57 at 305.96 km/h (190.11 mph) at the Willowbank Dragway in Australia in 2007.

Rodeocross

Many of you are familiar with--and some of you may even be active in--the sport of autocrossing. Here's a quick explanation for those who aren't.  Autocross (called "Solo" by the SCCA) is a form of motorsports which emphasizes handling and precision driving. The competition takes place on a parking lot or similar flat surface, on a temporary course defined with traffic cones. You can drive just about anything in an autocross competition: a Chevy Aveo straight off the showroom floor, a tricked-out Civic Si that's been swaybarred and coilovered to within an inch of its life, a '63 Dodge Dart, whatever. To keep things fair, the cars are assigned to various competition classes. Contestants go through the course one at a time, shortest time in each class wins.

In the Czech Republic, they have a thing called "rodeocross." It's exactly like autocross except that they run on a dirt track . . . wheel to wheel . . . in Trabants and other old Warsaw Pact penalty boxes. The end result is a crazy amalgamation of autocross, dirt track racing, Group B rallying, demolition derby, The Dukes of Hazzard, and Alarm für Cobra 11.

Looks like fun.

--Cookie the Dog's Owner

Fantastic Fords

Bring a Trailer has been on a tear of awesomeness lately, and I'd like to highlight two rare 1980s Fords that have caught my eye recently.

1986 Ford RS200 Evo
This RS200 is an under-the-radar supercar, with 0-60 times of 3.0 seconds and roughly 600 horsepower coursing through its futuristic-for-the-1980s rally AWD system. We've talked about the Group B rally championship before, and while the on-track competition was incredible, I almost prefer the fire-breathing street vehicles that resulted. The RS200 was at the absolute apex of that group--faster than the Audi Sport Quattro, the Porsche 959, and the Ferrari GTO, and rarer and more mechanically interesting than any of that group as well.

I want an RS200 so badly, and this example is so perfect, that I'm trying to figure out what assets I could sell to be able to afford it. With home values at a low, I don't think I can scrape enough together.

1986 Ford Mustang SVO
Considerably less exotic but still highly lustworthy is this basically brand new Ford Mustang SVO. Anthony Cagle recently wrote a great piece on the SVO that I recommend checking out, but essentially this was the Mustang Pony car turned into a European-style sports coupe. The key was suspension work and a the same turbo 4-cylinder that powered the Merkur XR4Ti.

This car has only 4,500 miles on it and is as close as you'll get to the experience of driving a brand new SVO. This would be a perfect addition to the 1980s sports coupe wing of the Chris Hafner Memorial Museum of Bad And/Or Underappreciated Cars.

--Chris H.

Imagineering a Chevrolet Citation Group B Rally Car

This post is your opportunity to illustrate what you think a Group B rally version of the Chevrolet Citation might have looked like. If you're one of the three people in the world who has the combination of graphical talent and a mentality demented enough to share my curiosity about the subject, please submit your work to carlustinfo@amazon.com.

A week or so ago I was sitting in a drive-through, just whiling away the minutes waiting to be served, when I saw a Chevrolet Citation motor slowly by. For most people this would mark the end of what would make a particularly uninteresting story, but as you may have noticed I'm a little different. My name is Chris Hafner, and I'm a confirmed Citation devotee. As a result, I noticed that the gold Citation that drove by was in absolutely immaculate, showroom-fresh condition, and I instantly fell in love.

  Things like this happen to me all the time--I see a weird car on the street, I lust madly for it, and I forget about it when the next one rolls by. This time, however, I made the mistake of telling some friends about the absolutely radiant Citation that had captured my heart. The result was a not-inconsiderable amount of ribbing for even daring to think of a Citation in an object of lust. Even this isn't that remarkable, though; I take a lot of abuse for my car tastes, and almost all of it is completely justifiable.

There was one strange comment, though; one friend suggested that if I was so in love with blocky hatchbacks that I should shift my affection to the Lancia Delta Integrale. Now, I have no shortage of lust for the Delta Integrale; it's both one of the great unobtainable performance cars of the 1980s and the basis for one of the most legendary rally cars of all time. But the suggestion that I prefer the Delta to a Citation struck me as odd; it's a bit like telling a friend who is in the mood for Taco Bell that he should fly to San Diego for some gourmet shrimp fajitas, or like telling a Pontiac Fiero owner that he should own a Ferrari GTO instead.

Hot-Rod Renault 5 Turbo

This week has morphed into a Datsun theme week, but I just can't resist pointing out this gorgeous Renault 5 Turbo featured on Bring a Trailer today. Besides, given the Renault/Nissan relationship this car could possibly be considered a step-cousin of the Datsun 280ZXs we've been featuring.

The R5 is one of my long-time favorites, and this example is in absolutely stunning shape--with fewer than 26K miles. Good gracious, this thing's overtly aggressive Group B persona makes me want to jump in and bury the throttle just for the sheer joy of it. I'm not sure I'd be willing to pay the $48K that the seller is asking, but I sure would love to carress it reverently.

Regardless, whatever you do, don't call it a Le Car.

--Chris H.