Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Sweet Odor O'mine...

Remember when cars had interiors made of steel, hard plastic, leather or Naugahyde? Well not all progress has been better. Sure, lives have been saved because of safety advances, but read on. This is a guest blog by Donald Bush who works with the EPA and NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratory) developing a new "Air Conditioning" system. You may want to share this with your friends...


Sunday, July 21, 2013

Carmel-By-The-Sea Concours 2013...

Imagine a hunk of aluminum on a lathe...it turns and turns, more times that can be remembered. It comes out a beautiful and functional piece of art, a piston. For years, that's how Doug Freedman thought about and worked his "Carmel-By-The-Sea Concours On The Avenue" before the first car was shown the street.


In the last six years of the Carmel-by-the-Sea Concours, it has been said that this is the perfect Concours, boasting gorgeous and exotic micro cars to "full on" race machinery, and open to the public to view between 10:00AM to 5:00PM. There seems to be no way to make this event better, but Doug has touched this event over and over through the years, again and again to create a subtle but better show including fantastic branding partners, the likes of Tiffany & Co., Meguiar's, and the beautiful Cypress Inn in Carmel. One could say he has put constant inspiration into this competitive display so the party is familiar when you show up, but you can count on each year becoming a little bit better. Last year the Trans Am cars that were going to be running at Laguna the following weekend were invited to drive onto Ocean Boulevard sans mufflers to rock the street. I was lucky enough to be the official photographer last year, and with the next event drawing closer while I'm polishing my camera lens, I thought it about time I shared some of my images, to get you in the spirit for this year, or if you would like to become involved with this event in the future.

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

New Kid On The Block...Porsche 911

It was the 1st 911 to race at the famous Daytona racetrack, finishing 1st in class. 1964 Type 911, a-Series, Chassis No. 300-128. One of the two first 911's delivered to the United States.

Sadly, photographer unknown
Brumos Porsche received the car for demonstrations. As Porsche said "Anybody who wanted to drive a 911 just had to get to Brumos and they could test drive the new 911."

Sunday, July 7, 2013

Peking to Paris 2013 Update #11...Marching into Paris

6/ 28/ 2013- As we left Stanley and Brant in the last post, they were in the final day before reaching Paris. This post follows up on that, and includes Stanley's comments after they reach Paris, with an overview of the event.

"Long drive today....or after 30 days on the road they all seem long. Many of the cars are barely operating. Instead of doing the route and special stages they take the motorways directly from hotel to hotel. Not a lot of sport there, but they are desperate to hold their cars together and get to the Paris finish line tomorrow. On the other hand, we had our problems in Mongolia and since the car was fixed in Novosibirsk we've done most all of the stages, transits, etc. Today there were 10 Passage Controls and one Special Stage, a Gymkhana. We did them all."

© Photo courtesy of Tom Miller

 "We crossed the Swiss-French border late this afternoon and it was very easy. The Swiss waived us through and there was no one on the French side to even look at our passports. The highway system in France continues to amaze me; for a long time I have believed that France has the best roads in the world. As soon as you cross the French border you see vineyards everywhere. France continues to produce great wines and they don't all have to come from Burgundy or Bordeaux."
 
"The crews of competitors were almost 'giddy' tonight in the bar. They can taste Paris and can see the end of this ordeal."