Monday, March 30, 2020

Don't Just Sit There, Visit a Car Museum Now!

Dan Gurney's LeMans winning Ford GT at The Henry Ford

Steve McQueen's Jaguar at the Petersen


We're all fighting the Corona virus by staying home and washing our hands, looking for entertainment in a bazillion places, so here's ONE MORE place to look. Various car museums are on line, and you can always find something interesting. If the first few in this article don' grab your attention, the article has links to plenty more. Once the virus is over, hey, just maybe we'll go visit these places in person. Check this out from our friends at Motor Trend: Museums Article: Motor Trend

When that day comes, we can highly recommend the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, and in fact we wrote about it back a few years ago: Petersen Part I    Petersen Part II

Monday, March 23, 2020

Going, Going, GONE!

Modified VW Beetle


What do these cars have in common?

Ford Fiesta
Chevrolet Cruze
Buick Cascada
VW  Golf SportWagen
Lincoln MKT
Cadillac ATS Coupe
Chevrolet Volt
Ford Taurus
Cadillac CTS
VW Beetle

They all go out of production in 2020. Of course, with the Corona virus shutting down just about all auto makers right now this may not seem like news, but some of these cars, like the VW Beetle and the Ford Taurus have been around for a long time, and sold in the millions. NMS has owned a Fiesta ST, and in years past owned a Taurus for about one year.

You can read more about these cars at Kelly Blue Book:



Kelly Blue Book List

Monday, March 16, 2020

Trailer Upgrades

Thanks to some Birthday support from the family, I started on some upgrades to the racing trailer.

Before shot of the interior. 
The trailer has been great to hide out from the elements, especially at the windy and cold Road Atlanta in December, but it could benefit from insulation. As it was built, the trailer is a steel frame with an outer aluminum skin and inner thin plywood walls.
Fitting the insulation into the walls.

We started by removing the top half of the inner plywood and cut to fit some insulation panels in the walls. The next biggest problem area was the roof, where there wasn't even an inner plywood layer. More insulation was fitted and some 1x4 boards were fitted to the steel frame to let us go back later and add a plywood inner covering for the insulation.
Ceiling trimmed out and fitted with insulation.

Before closing up all the walls, wiring was run for two new LED interior lights on a light switch by the door and ran wiring for the new AC unit that will be mounted on the roof.
The ever-critical tailgate gets insulation.

Even the rear door got insulation. I bought a bit too much insulation so I doubled up the 3/4" layers.


New custom shelf installed.
To cap off the weekend, Chuck fabricated a little corner shelf for the nose of the trailer and patched the hole in the floor that was previously cut for the other AC unit that had been used. Harbor Freight recently had their generators on sale, so I picked one up to run the new AC unit even if we don't have track power.

Massive thank you to Chuck! without his expertise and shop big enough to hold the 24' trailer this wouldn't be possible. 
Next time on This Old Trailer, we'll paint and install the ceiling panels, paint the walls, add two power outlets inside, LED lights, and install the AC unit on the roof. If all goes well, the floor will get an epoxy coating before adding back in a few final touches. Hopefully this will keep the race team protected from the elements, no matter what gets thrown at us.

Sunday, March 15, 2020

Insane Cars and Coffee, Volume 2

Well sports fans, the ol' Corona virus has cancelled a lot of sports and car events, that's for sure. While we're waiting to stay healthy or fight off the zombie horde, here's some more awesome cars that we spotted at the Porsche Club of America Cars and Coffee at Autosport Designs Inc. 
















Monday, March 2, 2020

Insane Cars and Coffee

Aston Martin

You might have heard of these informal car "meets" or "shows" called Cars And Coffee. Typically, there is no admission charge, no judging, no trophies, just two things...uh, "Cars" and "Coffee." As in, visit a local parking lot or car dealer on a weekend morning, hang out with other auto fans, grab a drink of coffee (or not), talk shop, compare notes, shoot photos, and then go about your business the rest of the day.

The first one the NMS team attended was a few years ago up in Charlotte NC, and there were usually great attendance, some cool cars like Ferraris and Lamborghinis, and various other fun toys, Corvettes, Mustangs, and cars from around the world. Since then I've lived in Virginia Beach and now New York, so I've kept up the Cars and Coffee habit, even on a visit with relatives in Carlsbad CA.

Anyway, NONE of those event prepared me for what I saw on Leap Year Day, February 29th just a half hour away from where I live on Long Island. I attended a Cars and Coffee at the Autosport Designs Inc, which was attended by the NY Metro region of the Porsche Club of America. My best guess was that a bunch of Porsches would be there, (and I was right) at whatever this store was. Boy was was there a LOT more!!

Autosport Designs Inc sells Lotus cars, and also does service and restoration and basically any other automotive work you might need for your classic cars. What kind of cars? Oh man I'm GLAD you asked! Let's take a look!!

First up, parked outside, and now that I think of it, I don't know if the Autosport guys worked on this or if this was a car someone drove to the C&C! Either way, this Aston Martin DB4 (I'm pretty sure that's what this is, like early James Bond Aston Martin) was just awesome!






OK, we're off to an awesome start, so let's look inside the garage!

For starters, how about a Ferrari F50! They only made about 349 of these from 1995-1997, and they go over 200mph. Three years ago, one of these (that had been owned by Mike Tyson) sold for $2.6 Million. Dollars. Really.

HOWEVER, this car is not your typical F50, it is a Prototype, and was featured at various international auto shows, and is now for sale for $3,300,000. Here's the link to the info, tons more info on this special car at Autosport Designs: Ferrari F50 For Sale Autosport Designs




While we're talking about the prancing horse of Ferrari, here's an older one that isn't RED, it's from 1961. I love the classic "egg crate" grill of these cars. You could ask some expert what it's worth, I'm pretty sure it's around two million dollars. This is a 1961 Ferrari 250 GT Series II Cabriolet, designed by Pininfarina, They made 200 of this model over about three years from what the Internet tells me. 







OK, I saved the best for last, because odds are you've actually heard of Aston Martin and Ferrari. Here's one I bet you don't know. OK, maybe you read about it 20 years ago in a magazine, or saw it win one of the most famous auto show in the world at the Quail during Monterey Week in California. Anyway, recognized the name on the dash but honestly had to go Google this thing to know what it is. 

This white car, parked in the middle of a garage full of fabulous cars is a one of a kind, basically a concept car, from the famous Italian design firm of Bertone. I said, ONE OF A KIND, the only one in the world, 2009 Bertone Mantide. You have to go to the store website and read about this thing. 

Good news, it's for sale, but you just have to ask them how much, or POA as they say in the fancy car magazines ("Price on Asking" I guess.) Me? I'm not even asking! I just can't believe I saw THE ONLY BERTONE MANTIDE IN THE WORLD earlier this weekend! Here's the link to the car, and the photos I took:  BERTONE MANTIDE

Bertone Mantide

Bertone Mantide

Bertone Mantide

Mantide Interior

Rear view mirror attached to the roof!