One thing I love about classic racing cars is the paint schemes! So pure. So iconic. Today's liveries are so convoluted, so filled with minor sponsor clutter. Only rarely do today's racing car graphics have the visual impact seen on the older cars. Click the shots below for the full gallery!
In between the big name events and top dollar auctions of Pebble Beach, there are a few more minor events tucked away, and the Tour D'Elegance is one of them. This is the only opportunity to see cars from the Pebble Beach Concours actually move on the road, and let me tell you, it was pretty darn cool!My dad and I staked out an uncrowded vantage point right next to the road and watched the cars roll by. Even though they were only going about 35 mph, it was an absolute thrill to hear the GTOs go by, and when a Jaguar C-type snarled past me about 5 feet away, I nearly wet myself.The drivers were generally in a great mood, either waving or at least giving the motors a nice rev for us as they passed by. In an action-packed week where the increasingly big crowds and the meticulous judging put pressure on the car owners, this was clearly their chance to have some fun with their machines.Click on any of the pics above to access the 125-photo Gallery! Make sure to look at both pages of images!
The first installment from my trip (by popular demand) is my photoset from the Monterey Historic Races at Laguna Seca. Over the next week or so, I'll keep adding more and more content from the eventful week I spent at Pebble Beach and Monterey! The track is legendary so it was really a special treat for me to visit the place for the first time. I found it to be much like Road America in scale, and like Elkhart Lake, to see the whole circuit required a fair amount of hiking up and down hilly terrain. I must say the corkscrew really blew my mind. After seeing hundreds of photos of the corner, I was unprepared for how steep the thing really is! And what impressed me even more is how incredibly step the downhill section of track is that immediately follows the corkscrew. On TV and video, you really can't see the extent of the incline. I gained new respect for the skill and bravery it takes to get around Laguna Seca watching these guys!After a lot of walking, we found a really excellent vantage point on the outside of turn 6. Here, you can look down on the cars, but are still quite close, and you can watch them fly through the turn and power their way all the way up the hill towards the corkscrew at full throttle. The sound was incredible. I hope you all enjoy the videos. The cars got progressively faster and louder as the day went on!
CLICK HERE or on any of the photos for the full glorious photo gallery!
Of course, one of the highlights was listening to the magnificent sounds of the field of Ferrari GTOs. Make sure you crank up your speakers for that one, folks!
Our intrepid man in the UK, Davide de Giorgi was kind enough to selflessly attend the Goodwood Festival of Speed on our behalf, so that those of us on this side of the pond could enjoy some captivating imagery of the event. Davide has a huge flickr stream of photos from Goodwood, but we've chosen our 50 favorite photos for our gallery here on Automobiliac. Click any picture below for the full gallery. Does anyone out there know the history of this spectacular 250TR hardtop coupe below? The streamlined roof does not seem like something Enzo would have done, so the question is: "Who did it?" A quick google search did not yield an easy answer.
All photos copyright Davide de Giorgi and used with permission.
Hong Kong is a place with fabulous wealth concentrated in the hands of a select few. Thankfully, many of those select few have some pretty cool cars, and like to drive them around the city.
On a trip to Hong Kong last year, I snapped some car shots evocative of the city. I love how exotic cars offer a fantastic accent to the visual clutter of urban settings. You don't realize how special some cars are until you see them in a crowded urban context! Click the pics to see the entire gallery! Or click HERE.
Thursday, September 1, 2011 at 12:19AM 
