All Entries Tagged With: "911"
Simpler Times: Early Clarkson With Early (964) 911 Porsche
“All the knobs look like boiled sweets.” Bleh!
GarageCurrent’s Ye Olde Candy Shoppe
Garage Current’s showroom fresh 500SL Benz.
By Gunnar Heinrich | IMG GarageCurrent.com
WHAT’S the Japanese for “Yum” anyway?
I can’t help but want everything in Garage Current’s showroom. The Yokohama based car dealer specializes in selling previously enjoyed -* MINT * – Teutonic (mostly) grand tourers turned recent classics. Each car is presented in immaculate form with a full history for the connoisseur.
Drool with me over the following:
Grey over black 1992 500E with 5,100 km and …
Flawless interior.
Charcoal over black 1990 560SEL with …gulp… 4,700km plus…
5540cc V8.
1992 Porsche 911 in electric blue on black with 87,900 km.
Behold the metallic might of Porsche brakes!
2005 G55 AMG in white over charcoal with 31,500 km.
And COMAND-ing view.
And for good measure – 2005 Lamborghini Gallardo in shock therapy blue over…
midlife crisis blue/yellow.
Yum! Like I said, I take the whole showroom. Thanks.
2009 Ferrari California: The Horse Prances Off Style Ranch
By Gunnar Heinrich
FERRARI hasn’t made beautiful cars in some time.
The last gorgeous, stop-me-in-my-tracks-HOT set of equestrian wheels to come from Italy was the F355. Frankly, I’m tired of Maranello’s artistic drought – it seems that all the style has fled from the barn to the lesser stables on the Fiat ranch – principally Alfa Romeo and Maserati.
Let’s prescribe an eye crossing double negative by observing that Ferrari’s latest top-down, pedal down roadster fails to not disappoint. The styling is the offspring of a late 90s Fiat Barchetta that was crossbred with a Lotus Elise (already a strange looking car).
Throw some California and Ferrari badges on it and – voila! – a Ferrari that will likely be priced to appeal to those with more modest means – Porsche drivers, namely.
There was some yabbadabbadooing about reintroducing the “Dino” nameplate*. But that idea just didn’t fly and only Hannah Barbara knows why.
The square lined matrix grille that curves into a rye smile is a plus. But the also-ran five spoke rims are forgettable and stand in awkward contrast to the torch blown undulations of the car’s flamboyant flanks.
Counterpoint – the interior looks as glove soft and sweetly hide bound as a Ferragamo boutique. In cream, it’s tactfully and tacitly well executed.
But back to bitchin’, as one commentator on Jalopnik noted, the electronically retractable hardtop looks German-car complex and far too heavy to befit a lithe Italian sports car.
What happened to the 575 Superamerica’s beauty by simplicity?
I can’t wait for Ferrari to start making beautiful cars again.
[Linked: Autoblog | ADL Archive Post > At Concours, A Ferrari Owner Flips His Lid]
____________________________________
*Note* – A hallmark of another era of sports cars, the original Dino (1968-1976) was a less expensive model series that founder Enzo Ferrari named in memory of his son Alfredo “Dino” Ferrari who died at a young age.
