All Entries Tagged With: "New York"
Griffin Up New York! Save Saab Rally to Times Square
By Gunnar Heinrich
RECOGNIZING that the automotive world’s a better place with Saab in it, the following are the details for the upcoming Save Saab rally in New York that’s set to take place this Sunday, January 24th. At present, NOAA’s forecasting rain. But when did that ever stop committed Saabists?
Per SaabsUnited.com
The Save Saab New York Rally
Meet @ 10am: Exit 5S off the Palisades Parkway (near US Army Reserve, Orangeburg)
Depart for Times Square @ 11am. Arrive by noon.
The New York event will coincide with same-day rallies in Paris, Washington, Chicago, St Louis, and Denver. Visit SaabsUnited’s “Save Saab” page for further details on those events.
Griffin up!
On The Street: Maybach 62S in New York
By Gunnar Heinrich
PROVIDING further evidence that, yes, Maybachs do still roam the Earth along with the rest of traffic, yours encountered a new black /black 62S in a recent soujourn to New York.
That the Maybach didn’t even have NY state livery tags, was a promising sign indeed!
Sadly, as night had fallen I wasn’t able to capture photographically the rare limo in all its W140-Sonderklasse-platformed glory. Yet, as I drove alongside the road yacht block for block (Carparazzo? Moi?), I took visual notes which I’ll impart to you herein.
The subtle changes of detail and trim on the Maybach 62S grant a surprisingly freshened appearance over your garden variety 57 or 62 of some years and even more miles. The black coat was as jet noire as a Steinway & Sons.
The 20″ alloys along with those distinctive taillights are a boon to the appearance,too. Unifying both lamps for an über sense of occasion, Maybach channels a little bit of Porsche Carrera with a horizontal red bar of LEDs.
Incidentally, one Maybach tail lamp can be had on eBay for $2,250.
I should mention the vehicle imparts a large sense of, well, mass.
From an E46 gen. BMW 3er’s drivers seat, my line of sight seemed on the same plane as the Maybach’s doorhandle, such was the limo’s apparent loft.
Few are to be seen outside metro areas, as Bentley Continental GTs and Flying Spurs and Crewe-era Royces reign supreme in the Constitution State. Looking back, yours has only personally spied Maybachs in urban areas (DC, NYC, Paris)
That said, Phantom to Maybach sightings that night in Gotham were a bit uneven: 4 to 1.
New York Gets New Plates
- shrug -
By Gunnar Heinrich | IMG NY DMV
IN so much that New Yorkers rank a slim second behind Californians in visiting our fair site, I thought I’d plug a recent vehicular development in their fair state.
It seems that there’s change in the air and that means that next April, the Empire State (in all of Albany’s - ahem – wisdom) is looking to introduce a new set of license plates that rock back to a distinctly retro blue and gold, not seen since the days when Ed Koch asked New Yorkers “How’m I doin’?”.
Curiously, this new/old simple=passable color scheme will also match the state police uniform colors. Joy!
Replacing the current -meh- blue and white plates, the New York Post reports that the mandatory license plate swap – at $25 per tag - will draw $129 million into state coffers.
Oh you wanna keep your current number, too? Another $20.
Here’s a novel idea for the debt-ridden-state: if they charge $30, I’d bet more New Yorkers would opt for the old red and white Liberty plates. Those were the prettiest tags in the Union. And hey, the design’s what saved the City in Ghostbusters II.
iPhone Update: 200EX @ IAC
By Gunnar Heinrich
SECOND day without true Internet (still moving in…) Anyhow, the Rolls mini-celebration in NY for the 200EX went swimmingly; save for mysterious, last minute damage to the show car. Somewhere Sir Henry harumphed a prodigious, patrician harumph in obvious consternation.
The logistics team were a model of grace and professionalism and the presentations were a model of British understatement.
Interviews plus pics a plenty to follow tomorrow. Initial reaction: Rolls has a commercial winner on its hands, but the inset grille represents a sudden onset of modesty that may have put the marque on the slippery slope to compromise. Time will afford the appropriate hindsight.
In the meantime, the glorious Phantom carries on the Pomp and Circumstance -two were positioned curbside at IAC along with the new coupe. They looked magnifocent inspite of March’s cold light.
Much more tomorrow.
Dieu et Mon Droit!
It’s A Wonderful Life
$10.25
By Gunnar Heinrich
YOU know the deal.
Your girlfriend wants to see the tree at Rockefeller Center and it’s the last weekend before Christmas that you get to haul ass into the City to check it out. Granted, year after year one seven-story Norway Spruce starts to blend with the next, but that’s neither here nor there.
It’s the principle.
So, on principle, you make your way to the nearest station. And that’s where your fun begins…
BMW 328i Convertible: Rough Going In Gotham
By Gunnar Heinrich
NEW YORK is brutal on cars. Brutal.
The City is home to streets and bridges that will literally chew through a set of rims. Sometimes entire cars get eaten and people go missing. Yes, it’s that bad.
Our “Crimson Red” BMW 328i convertible seemed like the better choice to venture into town than the “Monaco Blue” 128i ragtop. There’s more interior space to hold three and four occupants and on highways the suspension is a little more compliant than 1er’s; better to cover distance.
That was the logic, at least.
Trouble is our $49,825 Bimmer has the $1,200 Sport Package that, aside from being sprung on tighter springs, rode hard on 18″ wheels covered thinly with Bridgestone performance rubber.
So when the front wheels encountered their first two-inch asphalt ridge that spanned three vehicle lanes, the impact damn near broke my teeth. On the instrumentation display the traction light briefly flashed in protest and seemed for a second that the car had its wind knocked out – or maybe that was just my own.
Broken, uneven pavement is a fact of life in much of the US and while a standard 3-Series sedan is typically able to provide a buttered glide while maintaining the requisite performance jilt, this droptop lost its composure time and again on surfaces that even my own hard riding Saab 9-3 ragtop manages to take with a grain.
More intriguing, the 128i Convertible, also equipped with low-profile tyres seems to track better over broken pavement and under passenger load than does its costlier cousin.
Take one of the sweeping corners that directs traffic over washboard pavement toward the Triborough Bridge, and the 328i’s rear seems to want to track away from the front – while proceeding at reasonable speeds.
The 1er by contrast will train true – almost Benz like – in its quest to round a corner.
The 128i probably would’ve been the better choice to take on Gotham’s mean streets.
The Ride: Cadillac Escalade Platinum
By Gunnar Heinrich with photography by Neil Rogers
FIRST impressions mean so much.
Back in March, the Suburbans that GM transported the ADL crew around the City (for NYIAS) displayed an unreal level of refinement for any Michigan built vehicle that I’ve experienced since – ever.
The Cadillac Escalade Platinum which is essentially the same truck only shorter in length and wheelbase takes the Suburban (Tahoe) level of accoutrement and raises it by a Vegas high roller’s wager.
Anodized-chrome trim dripping over exterior sheet metal broadcasts the truck’s arrival from a distance of give or take three blocks away. Once the presence parades to curbside; step inside and close the door with a satisfyingly soft “whump!” and you soon realize that there’s truth to Jim Taylor’s talk of Cadillac turning a new page.
The marque has changed. And hasn’t if we remember our history.
On first take, fit and finish seems Lexus precise. The new interior’s so nice, so buttery soft, it makes an ‘00 STS seem like the act of some ugly transnational cooperative act of friendly commerce gone wrong: Cadillac Built by Zil.
The second impression that hits home is the absolute silence that envelopes a cabin. New York’s war zone asphalt seemed such a distant reality.
There’s a bit of rocking front to back as the truck crossed the more serious dips in asphalt that coincide with each intersection along Park Avenue, but nothing that remotely reassembles the jello mold jiggle float of yesteryear’s Fleetwoods.
But what’s more telling than just about any specific feature in how this Caddy registers, is how the truck registers with people.
Arriving outside Grand Central Station, Team ADL exited the vehicle onto the sidewalk where a middle aged man ground his New Yorker’s gate to a halt; turned, stared, and muttered the simple word that any Escalade owner would really want to hear.
“Wow.”
Adding A Little Gaz To The Speculatory Fires
By Gunnar Heinrich
ECONOMISTS had been positing in recent weeks that the oil futures market is looking downright bubblish.
But to counteract such optimistic notes which might just send the price of oil (and the price at the pump) down a few percentiles, Russian state oil cartel Gazprom decided to throw a little gaz on the speculatory fires raging in the world’s crude markets.
“Today we are witnessing a very great change for hydrocarbons. The level is very high and we think it [the price of oil] will reach $250 a barrel,” The Financial Times quoted a Gazprom rep. as saying at a news conference.
That’s up from Goldman Sachs’ lofty $200 per barrel estimate stated earlier last month.
As if on cue, crude has jumped $16.24 in the last two and a half days. More proof that if someone, anyone, anywhere suggests that the price crude will be X, traders in New York and London will work like suicidal automatons to meet the target.
And bring the world’s drivers great pain in the process.
[Linked: FT]
Greenwich: Notes From Auction & Concorso
By Gunnar Heinrich
JUDGING by the grosso quantity of Alfa Romeos, Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Lancias, Maseratis, and assorted other Italian beauties of all vintages (ever heard of a Dual Ghia?), I’m convinced that Mr. and Mrs. Wennerstrom should rename the Greenwich Concours:
“Il Greenwich Concorso D’Eleganza: Rappresentazione Delle Automobili Italiani Più Belle Nel Mondo”
That said, the parking lots for Concours visitors (always a show unto itself) were surprisingly free of Italian wheels but featured, rather, the usual German suspects – including this SL generational trio (R121 | W113 | R230, respectively)
But, if the parking lots were brimming with Teutons and the lawns of Roger Sherman Baldwin park graced by so many Italians, the Bonhams Auction; or sweat-in (damn it was hot!), offered up for sale an assortment of both nationalities plus a large catalog of British makes.
Yours stayed just long enough to spy the Jaguar XK120 that was on the lot (at $40K the car had some wear ‘n tear) and to be awe inspired by a most immaculate 1929 Rolls-Royce Phantom I saloon, and, lastly, watch a 280SL sell for just over $20K.
It must’ve been the heat as ADL and Co. repaired to a nearby marina bistro for shade and cool libations.
EXCELLENTE
The Greenwich Concours did not disappoint this year. Any gear head in the tri-state area is best served by going there and coughing up the $25 entrance fee.
Reading news bits of the show online, I was sorry to have missed Autoblog’s Alex Nunez who posted a great assortment of shots from the show.
My favorite automobile on display at the event (show and auction) was a 1948 powdery blue on cream Rolls-Royce Silver Wraith convertible made-to-measure by French coachbuilder Franay.
If there were such a thing as the perfect expression of automotive art, that custom Silver Wraith was near-perfection elegantly expressed.
Perhaps the Concours should keep its name en français after all.
Special thanks to Bruce Wennerstrom.
Gallery: Greenwich Concours D’Elegance
By Gunnar Heinrich
WHEN event chairman Bruce Wennerstrom, explained to me over the phone that his Concours would run “rain or shine,” neither of us could’ve anticipated just how daunting the latter condition would prove.
Under a brutal sun – us New English aren’t used to 100+ degree heat index in June – the Concours condition paint finishes on some of the world’s finest rolling stock could easily have doubled for outdoor Webers.
How do you like your New York Strip?
Positioned off of I-95 on the park that overlooks Greenwich, Connecticut’s tranquil harbor, the Concours D’Elegance has run every June since 1996 and is spread over the course of two days: Saturday featured domestic cars and Sunday for the Europeans.
The location (in one of the wealthiest towns in the wealthiest state in the Union) plays a key part to the sublime vehicle entrants as each year the festival of chrome, sheetmetal, and unremitting ego grows larger, more dynamic, and draws more and more people.
As you’ll note in the gallery below, the sheer variety and excellence of vehicular wonder on display meant that this Concours was most certainly worth the heat.
