Why Don't I Ever Find These Barns?

  Well, the world of seriously expensive classic cars, just got a big shock.  It turns out that about 60 lost classics, some of them of quite serious value, have been rotting away in France for decades, while no one was paying attention.  They are now.  The collection, which includes the Ferrari California and Maserati A6G/2000 that appear in the picture, will be sold at Retromobile, in February.  The list of cars includes just about every name you've ever wanted to see in your garage (With the notable exception of ATS), and several you probably never knew to want, including a Mathis, which I still have to look up.  There are an almost silly number of Talbot T26s listed.

  And thankfully, someone made a nice video of the cars before moving them.  It's a bit haunting, and very pretty, and it's not every day that these sorts of finds get documented so wonderfully before being moved, and broken up.  Anyway, here it is.

  It'll be interesting to see how much of a feeding frenzy happens when these cars hit the block.  I sort of assume that they weren't sold at the collections original liquidation because they weren't in a condition that would make the sale profitable.  But with process of reiteration projects rapidly approaching parity with those of perfect cars, we could see money changing hands on an amazing/depressing scale.

  The discovery is timely, because it turns out that the LaFerrari-based FXX K that Ferrari debuted yesterday, has already sold out.  This would have left the billionaire enthusiasts of the world scratching their heads, looking for something to buy themselves for Christmas.  A problem which is now solved also by this not-at-all-vaporware resurrection of the Willys-Interlagos version of the Renault-Alpine A-108, on which you can absolutely, factually spend a not-at-all-unreasonable $466K.  It's nice to have choices...

As for the FXX K, well, I'm still really not sure about these track day dominators.  You could buy and run an obsolete F1 car for about the same money, and get stuck behind slower cars even more of the time, if that's your goal.  I do wonder if anyone will ever manage to bring this and McLaren's P1 GTR together, but I gather Ferrari have strictly forbade the event.  My other problem with it, is that I actually think LaFerrari is a pretty car, and they've gone and done this to it...

  Speaking of LaFerrari, I haven't seen one yet.  I've ridden in a P1, but the prancingest of horses, along with Porsche's 918, has so far eluded even my sight.  It's a situation I'm hoping to resolve this Sunday, at the 11th annual Motor4Toys car show in Woodland Hills.  It's always a great event, and it supports a great cause.  If you're in the area, I recommend checking it out.

  I plan on bringing an unwrapped toy and my Alfa Spider, bald front tires and all.

Bond has a new car that isn't, and evo. have done two thirds of a test we'd all like to see.

  More on the above, later.  First bit's first.  evo. magazine have gotten a McLaren P1 and a Porsche 918 together for the first time, and it went... well, not quite like we would have expected.

  For some reason, I keep underestimating the Porsche.  Yes, it's heavy, but it's also very powerful, and very torquey, and everyone who's driven it has taped about how fast it is.  Meanwhile, CAR Magazine is busy with the other bit of this test, managing to smuggle a LaFerrari out of Maranello, for a rendezvous with a P1.  Different drivers, different conditions, roads vs. track; it's not a very good situation, but I fear it will be a while before we get to see all three cars tested together.  Someone needs to do it though, because I need my vicarious throttle-jollies.

  But on to less important matters.  The makers of the next James Bond movie released a bunch of tidbits to the press this morning, and inevitably, the question of Bond's next vehicle came up.  Unsurprisingly, it will be an Aston Martin.  Shockingly (But again, not really surprisingly) Aston have nothing interesting enough in their current stable, so they've had to make something up.  Of course, that's not how Aston themselves put it.  They're building ten of them, and there's no word on any of them being for sale.  There's also no word on specs/drivetrain/chassis/ but I'd be amazed if it turns out to be anything but a dressed up V12 Vantage.  Aston don't really have the money to build an all new car at the moment.  It's a shame really, I'd like to see Bond driving a car to which one could aspire, even one for which I could never hoe to assemble the money.  By removing the car completely from reality, I really feel like something has been lost.  Then again, this all takes place in Bondland, where casting Monica Bellucci at 50 is the kind of incredibly forward thinking decision for which a director "deserves credit," and not the simple technicality of a 25 year old Monica Bellucci not having existed for 25 years.

  The other issue with letting Aston Martin make believe, is that there are a least two perfectly relevant Bond Cars on the market, or hitting it momentarily.  One is Jaguar's F-Type R Coupe.  The other is even more suitable, with one tiny drawback...

  Look, it's not like Bond has never had a German car, but he's only done so when in terrible movies. Still, with the lack of anything British that fits the bill, I think the producers should have given a little consideration to the AMG GT.  This is honestly the first Mercedes-Benz I've found really exciting since... what, the CLK GTR, and it's totally a Bond Car?  Also, it looks like this car actually works.

  On that note, I'm done here for today.  It's been raining for the last two days in  Los Angeles, and I'm eager to go for a ride, and then a drive.

Toyota's First Attempt At Simple Fun:

For everyone who's ever said that the GT-86/FR-S is too slow to be fun.

My First Column For Driven World Magazine

This is a piece I wrote, which appeared in the August 2013 issue of Driven World Magazine:

  It was about 15 miles South of Bakersfield that the Ford began running on three cylinders.  The car had, in the last two years, become the bane of my existence.  Enough so that the Ginetta G15 that Brian and I were going to see, was almost certainly a step up in reliability.  With plans already in the works to scrap the car, we decided to press on, all the way to Fresno and back.  The journey hadn’t exactly been planned, it had just sort of happened.  We should have taken a different car, but left in a rush, in a Focus that often fails to make it across town.  It was going to be a long, hot trip, and the CD player had failed years before.  Somehow, none of it really mattered.  

  Brian has been a friend for decades, but the last few years, since I moved from the O.C., have seen fewer and fewer times to get together.  And so, it was a chance for old friends to talk, and that’s what we did.  We talked about life since high school, and the Army.  We talked about marriages past and present, about the looming borderland of turning forty.  About high school reunions, why we don’t really want to go to them, lost friends, lost cars, and the way that life just never seems to go to plan.  All that time, the landscape changed around us.

  The Eastern San Joaquin Valley is a long, flat pan.  Hwy. 99 moves through it in a series of straight lines, bordered by Oleanders and gigantic Eucalyptus trees.  To the East of the Hwy, row crops run into the distance, flashing by in that distinctive Doppler Effect visual, that seems to curve their straight lines.  On the horizon, the San Emigdio Mountains, recede into Tehachapis, then the sharper peaks of the Sierra Nevada.  The route is dotted with the kind of wide spots in the road that haven’t changed much since they were founded, except to grow a Starbucks or a Quizno’s.  Many of them have strange names like Ducor, and Colinga, having seen them shortened on USGS maps, from proper names like Dutch Corners, and Coaling Station A.  Through all of it, the Focus carried us with a labored sense of dignity.  It’s always been a trusty beast; albeit one that was never put together properly.

  We got to Fresno all right.  After a couple turnarounds, we got to the house we’d been seeking.  The Ginetta, all 875cc and 1200lbs of it, was in great shape.  I was even able to fit in it.  We talked with the owner, and started looking into what was needed for the car to be driven on the road.  The owner had listed a bunch of stuff that he thought the car needed; enough to make a show queen too nice to drive.  As seen, it was the kind of car I love, usable, and original.

  We started for home.  The engine thrummed toward Los Angeles, on three all the way.  The conversation went on as the sun gradually plunged toward the horizon.  It was an adventure, and a re-acquaintance.  We realized that it had been a year since we’d seen each other, and lamented the road trips we hadn’t taken last summer.  It all took place in a room, moving from place to place, through places we would never see, but from the seat of a car.  

My mother once said to me, “I think I did something wrong, raising you.  You’re never comfortable without wheels moving under you.”  I disagree on the former, but the latter is definitely true.  There are many reasons cars appeal to me; probably as many as there are cars.  But one of my favorite things about them is the way they provide time in our lives.  They’re often seen as time wasters.  Who out there likes sitting in traffic?  But on trips like this, cars take on a distinct feel of space moving through space.  They bring us places, so much more quickly than we would be able to get there without them.  Soichiro Honda famously believed that the time your car saved you in travel, could be counted at the end of one’s life as extra years.  But in another way, cars give us time, to think, to talk, and to be away from the world.  Some of my best thinking and ideas come behind the wheel.  Cars have more than a few draw backs.  But I can’t think of anywhere I’d rather sit quietly with a friend, sip a cup of coffee, and chat.

Oh, someone put a deposit on the Ginetta the day before I called back.  Better luck next time…