Euro, Nostalgic Wednesdays

Nostalgic Wednesdays: MBenz 500SE Coupe AMG Widebody.

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June 6, 2012

Don’t you just love random sightings; its like finding a dollar in a parking lot.  Sometimes you come a cross an old school car and admire its well kept paint, crisp interior, how it sounds, the old leather smell, and specially meeting the owner and the story behind the car. That’s one reason why I love classics. The passion and time spent to maintain them is priceless.

Last Friday, my wife and I decided to stop by Freebirds around the SW side of Houston, since she has not been to one. After dinner, we walked to my car and i noticed an old big-body Mercedes coupe parked at the other end of the lot. I decided to drive by it and check it out; and to my surprise, it wasn’t just an ordinary 500SE Coupe, it was an AMG Wide-body (I WAS STOKED). Paint was I believed to be original, body was straight, staggered AMG Penta wheels, it even had the OG color-matched emblems. I wanted to wait for the owner but we had to catch a movie, so I just had to quick snap with my phone so pardon my raw unedited photo.

I shared the picture on my wall and a good friend commented that this is a type of car that the average person would not notice. I’ve seen more F430 Scuderias and CLK63 black series rolling around Houston but spotting a SEC500 AMG Widebody was definitely a treat.

From the AMG catalog but not a Wide-Body.
Wider option…of course i’d take it.

-Mark

Nostalgic Wednesdays

Nostalgic Wednesday: Black Limited “eight-six”

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May 30, 2012

 

If you’re in the market for an 86, good to you finding a clean unmolested chasis. With the 86 synonymous to drifting, you will probably find a fender bent, stripped down, tracked out, zipp-tied, sticker bombed hachi-roku. Sometimes you will get lucky and find a clean PineTree smelling, grandma driven, low milage, Walmart runner; and sometimes find that dream corolla hatch and soon to find your friends laughing cause your funny sounding 86 was really a single-cam carb’d 85 (Initial D: Itsuki’s Hachi-Go).

To make your hunt more challenging, back in 1986, Toyota released the “Black Limited” Trueno Hatch.

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Nostalgic Wednesdays

Nostalgic Wednesdays: Opel/Vauxhall/Chevy/Holden Calibra DTM

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May 23, 2012

 

 

Produced from 1989 to 1997, the Calibra was branded with different manufactures in different regions; from South America, Australia and UK. Built from the Opel Vectra’s chasis, designer Erhard Schnell created a mid-size contender against the Japanese sports coupes. An interesting fact about these cars is that it was the most aerodynamic production car during its time. It held it’s title till the Honda Insight and Audi A2 was released.

One reason why I love the Calibra is because of its participation in the International Touring Car Championship in 96. The conversion of the sports coupe to a full race DTM race car earned recognition by winning the best team and driver of that season.

After the victory, the Calibra was withdrawn from motorsports and production ended the following year. In my opinion, the Calibra is definitely one of the well designed AWD, eye-candy DTM race cars ever built.

-Mark

Nostalgic Wednesdays

Nostalgic Wednesday: Dodge Omni GLH

By
May 16, 2012


Love for automotive has no limits, the pursuit of that dream car is volatile. One thing I love about the tuning world is when someone builds something totally unexpected of what it was supposed to be. I will never forget back then when my friends and I mess with our cars and one of my friend’s dad dad would observe us and comment; ” Japanese engineers spent millions in research and development to build that car and here you are boys messing with it.” I love how an economy car delivering tofu in Japan could be a glorified mountain pass racer. Meanwhile, here in the US, a Texas born hot-rod tuning legend named Carroll Shelby picked one of the least desirable cars as his project; a Dodge Omni. The builder was famous for building Ford Mustangs but not everyone knows that he also had collaborations with Chrysler-Dodge and built limited edition Chargers and Omnis.

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Nostalgic Wednesdays, Uncategorized

Nostalgic Wednesdays: 90’s BTCC Volvo 850R Estate

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May 2, 2012

I love how BTCC slam their cars with 18s and 19s and come out still functional. lol

There are times that I miss having my 2000 323i wagon. Specially when my neighbor drives by driving her boxy volvo wagon. She wasn’t driving an ordinary Volvo wagon, she had a 850R. It took me a long time to really love how this car looks. One fact that made me more interested in the 850R Estate was it’s racing history. Back in the early 90’s, The 850 estate was entered into the BTCC. Everyone thought it was a joke and a marketing gimmick and it worked. Volvo wanted to prove that the Swedish company don’t just build super safe cars, but also build cars that has performance. Rumored that an 850 sedan was supposed to be used to compete in BTCC but there was only a wagon shell available.

They thought that the estate’s long roofline would provide an advantage in aerodynamics than the sedan. Then later found out that the saloon, equipped with a rear wing, it had a much better downforce than the Estate without rear spoiler;LOL Ricers. 

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