A Petrol Head Saturday

"Asphalt" (Asphalt) 06/29/2014 at 18:35 • Filed to: asphalt, petrolhead saturday, great driving roads, abarth, mini jcw. mustang

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The sun rose slowly over the tree tops of a small town on the outskirts of New York City, its rays enveloping a world recently engulfed within the darkness of a summer night. Below its all encompassing gaze, the city quickly winded into activity. The last stragglers of the previous evening were on their way home, whilst others were waking up, heading to work, hanging out with friends, or lounging around watching soccer games. The city that never sleeps, or more like the city whose populace live two lives: the life during the day, working, and the life at night, enjoying the wonders of a multimillion metropolis. Or perhaps its the city of the immigrant, toiling day after day to pay for their kids to have a better education, a better life. The city of beggars, who turn whatever skills they have into their next meal. The city of college professors. The city of doctors, dentists, lawyers. The city of finance and banking. The city of fashion. The city of many people, from every background, doing many activities at every minute. I guess that makes it the city that never sleeps then. But for a couple of kids on the outskirts of town, it was their city. And they were petrolheads.

The 1.4 liter multiair engine of the Fiat 500 Abarth rumbled into life, breathing and rasping through its exhaust pipes, alerting all within its vicinity of its mightiness. The benefit of straight pipes. The turbo whirred away into life, and the oil temperature gauge slowly worked its way up.

The little Fiat made its way through the city streets, over bridges and under tunnels, on its way to Harriman State Park, leaving the noisy, smelly city behind. The people, the Ford Explorers, the Camrys, it was leaving them all behind, heading to a world where its boost gauge could make its way to 18psi more often.

Upon reaching Harriman State Park, it ran into a Mini John Cooper Works and a Mustang. It stared at them quizzically, taking in it's little supercharged brethren and its new American friend. After a while, the trio set off through the park, heading over the mountains and across the rivers. It was their day to shine, their moment of glory after sitting in a dusty garage throughout the week.

For us, it was another day at work. The good kind of work. After meeting up with a few friends at Harriman, we set out to find more good roads. Yeah, we were doing work for the good of the community. Work that involved lots of suck squeeze bang and blow. Hmm... hard work.

Our first road was Arden Valley road, which went east from the roundabout where Tiorati Brook Road began, which you can see !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .

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Arden Valley road was even better than Tiorati Brook Road, longer and twistier, which made it better for small angry hatchbacks. We even ran into a Jeep who waved us by, and we saluted him for his act of righteousness. Remember folks, if you see a small loud Fiat behind you, always pull over to let them pass.

Next, we drove around Bear Mountain, but found the area to full of Chevy Equinoxes to be a fun drive, so we headed north on the 9W, and taking the Storm King Highway. What a majestic road. Essentially winding along the side of a mountain, the Storm King highway was not so much a highway in the traditional sense, but rather a very high way to pass over the mountain. Haha. The views were fantastic, although the drops made the drive stomach clenching.

After lunch at West Point, we bid farewell to the Mustang and the Mini, and headed north towards the Catskills.

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It was here we stumbled upon a fantastic little shop called Willow Automotive Services, where we snapped many pictures of their Ferrari Dino, as well as various cars such as the Lincoln Continental, the Ford Mustang, Triumph TR6, Volvo P1800 Shooting Brake, Jaguars, Land Rovers, BMWs, Jeeps, and more. What a fantastic find, and a reminder of the rewards of road tripping down the small roads.

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The sun was falling, and so we headed to film a few more roads before jumping on the 9W and heading south. But as we made our way back towards the city, the stumbled upon a muscle car show, and pulled over to take a few pics. Ford Model A or fastback Mustang anyone?

How about a 'Cuda or a Challenger? A Miata? What's that doing here?

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It's been a good day, filled with cars and roads. Time to sort through all those damn photos now. Yet more work in the name of the car community.

revrseat70 > Asphalt 06/29/2014 at 18:46

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Great imagery. Makes me want to go on a drive out to the country before the sun comes up tomorrow and I have to endure the merging and endless 1st gear starts of city life.

Howdy Harrell > Asphalt 06/29/2014 at 19:04

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What is up with the bird hood ornament on the Model A? I had no clue that was an option.