One of the cars that caught my eye at the Arizona Concours d’Elegance was this gleaming white coupe. It had the classic long hood and short decklid look of a European car, like a Jaguar E-type. The car also had a large diameter wooden steering wheel like a sixties-era Ferrari. However, the car I was looking at was neither British nor Italian – it was a Toyota from Japan!
The 2000GT is a very rare car, with only 337 ever built. This one is particularly rare, because it is one of just 62 left-hand drive models made for the U.S. market. This car is significant because it’s the car that made people sit up and pay attention to Toyota as an automobile manufacturer.
History dictates that Americans are primarily focused on drag racing and NASCAR while Europeans are focused on Formula One racing. During the past couple of years though, I have noticed a surge of interest in road course racing in the USA.
What I’m talking about is the new hobby of the affluent motor enthusiast: road course racing at a members-only track such as Monticello Motor Club in New York and Inde Motorsports Ranch in Willcox, Arizona. In fact, I’ve recently come across another one: Spring Mountain Motor Resort in Pahrump, Nevada.
These are not small time events where people dart around cones in a Mazda Miata or Honda S2000. If you can afford the annual membership fee, you can probably afford a purpose-built track car such as a Factory Five GTM, Gumpert Apollo, Ariel Atom, or Rossion Q1.
At the 2013 SEMA Show, I discovered another contender in the street-legal-track-day-car market: the Radical RXC from Radical Sportscars.
Check out this video clip from the 2013 SEMA Show in Las Vegas as Simon from Spring Mountain Motorsports goes over some of the performance and features of the Radical RXC. We think you’ll be just as impressed as we were.
The great thing about the Radical RXC is that you can ditch the flatbed trailer – this is a completely street legal car! Put a set of plates on it and drive it to work, stop by the track and set a few lap times, then drive it home. Oh, to be rich!
In honor of its 100th anniversary, the Ford Motor Company produced a limited production supercar from 2004 to 2006. Known as the Ford GT, this mid-engined marvel had a production run of just 4,038 vehicles.
The folks over at Galpin Auto Sports wondered: what if Ford had kept making the GT? What would it look like today? Based on that concept, they created the GTR 1 supercar.
This amazing car is based on the Ford GT, but features some significant changes. Check out the video below to learn more about the Galpin Ford GTR-1.
Ask any non-car person who makes the world’s best sports car and I bet that nine times out of ten, the answer will be “Ferrari.” The Ferrari marketing department has done a great job of building up the brand to be a household name, even among people who aren’t into cars.
Yes, it’s true that Ferraris have six-figure price tags. It’s true that they look great in Rosso Corsa and their flat-plane crank engines produce an angry, high pitched sound. Ferrari does an excellent job of looking like the world’s best cars.
But you know what? They’re really not THAT fast. A new generation of hyper-expensive cars from Pagani, Koenigsegg, Bugatti, Hennessey and others boast more horsepower and faster acceleration than anything in Maranello’s stables.
The 1990s were an exciting time for automotive design. Engineers were really starting to push the envelope of performance thanks to a better understandings of aerodynamics and computer-aided design. From 1984 to 1994, the title of “World’s Fastest Production Car” changed hands six different times! One of these victories was claimed by one of my favorite supercars from this era: the 1994 Jaguar XJ220.
This is my own observation, but it feels like I’ve been seeing the car everywhere lately. It’s been mentioned in Motor Trend’s Aventador vs. Rat Rod video, it’s been featured on Petrolicious, and oh yes, Jay Leno has one. On top of all that, I’ve even spotted three of them in the past year at my local Cars and Coffee cruise-in.
The Countach was the catalyst that sparked the modern supercar era. It is one of the most ridiculous, over-the-top designs to ever come out of Lamborghini’s factory. The car’s abundant vents, scoops, and giant wing make it look like a fighter jet with wheels. And who could forget those vertical doors!
One of the cars that caught my eye at the Arizona Concours d’Elegance was this gleaming white coupe. It had the classic long hood and short decklid look of a European car, like a Jaguar E-type. The car also had a large diameter wooden steering wheel like a sixties-era Ferrari. However, the car I was looking at was neither British nor Italian – it was a Toyota from Japan!
