"Distraxi's idea of perfection is a Jagroen" (distraxi)
03/15/2014 at 10:53 • Filed to: None
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"Distraxi's idea of perfection is a Jagroen" (distraxi)
03/15/2014 at 10:53 • Filed to: None | 0
| 0 |
...continuing !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! from the Ellerslie Car show, I've now made it in the main gate.
!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!
To be confronted with Aston Martins. God I love Astons! Drive a Porsche and you're a rich jerk. Drive a Ferrari and you're a rich jerk with a small dick (sorry, Doug). Drive a McLaren and you're a rich jerk with no soul. Drive an Aston and you have money, taste, and class. Jerk.
The '60s DBs were the coolest cars EVER, even before BondJamesBond. I lust after any car with a Superleggera badge - it's got to be one of the most evocative names ever; positively screams Lake Como and leggy brunettes.
And the 70s AMV8s remain the classiest muscle car in existence. The V8 Vantage was my poster car when I was a kid - for some reason, aged 8 or so, I couldn't get over the fact that it was SO FAST IT DIDN'T EVEN NEED A GRILLE !!!!
We'll gloss over the 80s and 90s - as for so many companies, not a good time. But the last last decade's cars, well, gulp. The DB9 is still, after 11 years, the most gorgeous new car money can buy, IMHO. Shame Ian Callum's only got one design, but it is at least a damfine design, and he nailed it in the DB9. Tarting it up with wings and vents just wrecks it.
Generally Ellerslie is more or less laid out by country, so unsurprisingly, next up is RR & Bentley. The 70s badge-engineered boxes are just sad in my eyes, and the modern footballer cars don't do it for me. But back in the day, Crewe pumped out some lovely cars, especially under the winged B. I especially loved the aircraft-carrier sized Continental Park Ward Drophead Coupe. But there's nowt wrong wi' a MK VI, either.
Moving past a few standard Standards and Triumphs (what is it about midrange British badges that brings out the trainspotters?), we dive through Jaguar NZ's stand (no photos, I've already bitched about the F type and the rest of the current range do it for me even less) and come to Giltraps, the Auckland dealer who seem to have sewn up the franchises for almost every form of exotica known to man. Want a ridiculously expensive toy that isn't a Fezza? You gotta go see Colin.
V12, yum. Supercharged Camry engine, not so glass-worthy (though I think overall I'd rather have the Evora than the Lambo).
From the sublime to the ridiculous in terms of engine porn, next step round seems to be the "very small cars in very dull colours" section. Not that I'd turn up my nose at anything of that vintage with a Cooper or Abarth badge on it.
Skirting past the serious business of the day, the Concourse judging, we get to the MG Car Club. Where there is, along with the mundane and the odd (seriously - who could put time and love into an MG Metro) a very cool little K type racer, and an RV8. I was on the engineering team for the RV8 back in the day, and I still have a soft spot for them, even they are by all honest measures a dog of a car. Not my fault, it was way too late to dump the live axle by the time the team I was on got involved. I've never quite figured out where they found such a hideous shade of metallic khaki to replace a proper BRG, though. Or why it was the most popular colour.
A short deviation to admire the Early Holden Club not taking themselves too seriously, then its up the hill to drool over Big Healeys and Lotii for a while. Via some Cappuccinos: Look! a perfect 3/4 scale model of a car! I test drove one of these a few years ago and was astonished that as a 6 footer I fitted quite nicely - amazing piece of packaging.
Which brings me to a good place to stop, and allows me to open the next (and final) part of this photodump with the big surprise of the day. And follow it up with a bunch of things that aren't British, and one or two more that are.