Autumnal Orange

Seen in all its rust free, chrome-free glory in Brooklyn Heights.

Cadillac Steals the Show at Pebble Beach Concept Corral

Pebble Beach was sensory overload for most attendees, myself included. But one standout among all the beautiful cars I saw was the simply sensational Cadillac Ciel Concept. They should have just called it the Eldorado, because this car wholly deserves the illustrious name bestowed upon it. The car has an extremely long wheelbase, allowing the surprisingly clever surface transitions plenty of time to flow gracefully from one to the next. The result is a study in elegance, fluidity and subtlety.  If the crowds of delighted onlookers were anything to go by, I wasn't the only one smitten by the big convertible land yacht. I heard statements like "Now that's a car!" and "Wow. That's really beautiful!"  This isn't at some mall parking lot, folks. These are comments being made 20 feet away from 2 Bugatti Veyrons and a putting green full of the latest exotic supercars from Europe.  It all made me want to shake Ed Welburn's hand, but I chickened out when I eventually saw him at the Concours.

The placement of the Ciel next to the BMW 328 "Hommage" (the extra M is for Mengele, I suppose? What else could have inspired such an atrocity?) only served as a snapshot of everything that is right and wrong in today's car design landscape.

The 328 "Hommage" Concept had horrific, stubby proportions, a pastiche of mismatched styling cues and textures, a mess of intersecting and folded surfaces that would give even Frank Gehry indigestion. It was ghastly, and actually made me disgusted to see the mighty BMW reduced to such a sideshow freak. Placing an original 328 next to this hideous abomination only rubbed salt in the wound. I bet all those people who hated on Chris Bangle for years wish they had him back.  His 328 MM coupe "homage" was brilliant and innovative, by the way.  My vote for most irritating design detail on the 328 Concept was the inexplicable ornamental double hood strap made of leather, which clashes horrifically with the semi-matte carbon fiber of the body. The Ciel, in contrast, was bathed in such perfect, luminous, lustrous paint that even rivalled the quality of Peter Mullin's "Best in Show" winning Voisin. Seriously.Honorable mention in the Concept Car Corral goes to the Jaguar CX-75. While many people squinted trying to see what if any E-type cues were in the car, it is clear that the designers were looking at the Jaguar XJ-13 for inspiration, with more than a passing nod to the XJ220. It's funny that Jaguar doesn't make much marketing hay around the XJ220 which is now almost 20 years old and still looks sensational (I saw one at the RM auction preview looking every bit the supercar). In particular, the rear end of the CX-75 bears close examination. It's a great interplay of flowing lines and aggressive elements working together. And it instantly says Jaguar. I would love to see this design theme translate into production Jags. Tomorrow.Last but certainly not least was Jason Castriota's "Shelby SuperCar (SSC)."  Now I've been pretty harsh on Castriota in the past, and I still think his talent to hype ratio is way off balance. However, I thought the SSC is probably his manifesto work, as it combines all his signature styling elements into one very cohesive package.  The car has a very slippery, aeronautical feeling to it that I quite liked, and I really loved some of the surfacing details along the bodyside.  The car has a lot of presence in person and I must give credit where credit is due.The Alfa TZ3 Stradale was there, and failed to impress me. The new McLaren was also a yawn. Even metallic chrome-look paint couldn't save it from looking hopelessly outdated when placed next to Castriota's car and the new Aventador. I'm sure it drives better than either of them, though...

Click HERE for the full Gallery!

Monterey Historics 2011 Gallery and Video

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!

Automobiliac at the Deutsche Classic!

Longtime readers know we love our Italian cars over here at Automobiliac, but vintage German machinery can also be ever so cool. There was plenty of it on display at this weekend's Deutsche Classic German car show in Fleetwood, PA.  The weather was fantastic and the drive out from the city was about 2 hours of rolling countryside.  The show was roughly evenly divided between classic BMW, Porsche, Mercedes and VW, with a smattering of Opel GTs and other unique vehicles for good measure.In addition to the beautiful cars on display, there was a small swap meet area with vendors selling all manner of replacement parts for German cars.  My personal highlights of the day were a pristine BMW 3.0 CS (The owner seemed less than interested when I told him his car was my favorite at the show...) and a really cool Porsche RSK.  There was also a gorgeous Mercedes 300SL gullwing in attendance, and Herbie the Love Bug also made an appearance. Click any of the photos to see my entire gallery of the swap meet and car show!

Frank Stella BMW M1 goes on the block at Bonhams this August

It's times like this I wish I was a Russian oligarch.  Or any sort of oligarch for that matter.  In addition to the famous BMW 3.0 CSL that Frank Stella painted in graph paper livery for BMW's Le Mans assault in 1976, he also apparently painted an M1 on private commission in 1979.  This makes the M1 in question the only BMW Art Car that will ever be available for private sale, since all the others reside in BMW's permanent collection.  Even more curious is that this painted M1 was in the Guggenheim's collection since 1999, but it was never displayed, as far as I know, except to be driven in 2003 for an exhibition run.  With an estimate of $450,00-$600,00 I'd say this car is a bargain by Art auction standards.

Via the NY Times Wheels Blog

Upper photo credit: Phil Patton