ROLEX MOTORSPORTS REUNION: LAGUNA SECA!

Posted on September 2, 2018September 2, 2018 by MartynL

Historic racecars come out of the woodwork worldwide once a year to challenge each other and the legendary Corkscrew at Rolex Motorsports Reunion: Laguna Seca. It’s the most important vintage-racing event in the US. Mike and Maureen Matune captured highlights for us. If it’s August, it must be time for the 2018 Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca! An annual pilgrimage for many of the automotive faithful, the event serves as one bookend for the extravaganza know...

MONTEREY CAR WEEK 2018, PT. I: THE HAMMER!

Posted on September 1, 2018September 1, 2018 by MartynL

I came. I saw. I need a drink, blogs photojournalist Jim Palam, after spending five days of auto immersion on the Monterey Peninsula. There’s no doubt that if you’re a Car Guy you must experience this high-octane week of automotive achievement, competition, celebration and extravagance. But be forewarned: bring comfortable shoes, lots of money, plenty of energy and a lot of patience. If you’re lucky, you’ll make it through Day One with enthusiasm intact for Day Two. Welcome to MONTEREY CAR WEEK...

ATLANTA CONCOURS: EXCEPTIONAL CARS AT CHATEAU ELAN!

Posted on August 30, 2018August 30, 2018 by MartynL

Now in its third year, the Atlanta Concours d’Elegance continues to grow in stature and is attracting award-winning automobiles from across the nation. This year’s Concours d’Elegance, scheduled for September. 29-30, 2018, will once again be held at the Chateau Elan Golf Club, adjacent to the Chateau Elan Winery and Resort in Braselton, GA. Co-founders and local Atlanta residents Bill Wallet and Harry Krix created the inaugural 2016 event at Chateau Elan, where they envisioned fulfilling an Atl...

E-TYPE JAG ZERO: PLUG-IN & PLAY!

Posted on August 24, 2018August 30, 2018 by MartynL

Zero-emissions iconic sports car breaks cover today at The Quail, A Motorsports Gathering, during Monterey Car Week. Following an overwhelmingly positive reaction to the original Concept for ‘the most beautiful electric car in the world’, Jaguar Classic has confirmed it will offer all-electric E-types for sale. The news follows the EV sports car Concept's successful debut at Jaguar Land Rover Tech Fest in September 2017. Combining its restoration expertise with cutting-edge technology from t...

OPEN ROADS, PART 1: COLORADO TO CALIFORNIA ON US ROUTE 50!

Posted on August 16, 2018 by MartynL

The Loneliest Road isn't quite as lonely as it once was, but it should still be on the bucket list of every automobile enthusiast, blogs racer, TV personality, Stephen Cox. I drove more than 1,200 miles this summer on America's “Loneliest Road,” US Route 50 West, as part of https://www.rallynorthamerica.com/ The event itself was remarkable, featuring incredible scenery, a family-like atmosphere with friendly people and a week of immersion in the automotive lifestyle. The rally started in Puebl...

BOOK REVIEW: THE ROAD TO MODENA!

Posted on August 14, 2018 by MartynL

Peter Brock takes us on a trip to Italy, via The Road to Modena, to tell the story of the stillborn Shelby-De Tomaso P70 Can-Am racecar he designed and the De Tomaso Sport 5000 variant he didn’t! Along the way, he relives his life and and adventures working at Shelby American. Of all of Carroll Shelby’s projects during the 1960s-1970s, the P70 Shelby-De Tomaso Can-Am racecar (at one point referenced a Ghia-De Tomaso Sport 5 Liter) is the one that little has been written about. Peter Brock r...

’69 COPO 9567 CAMARO: ONE OF NONE!

Posted on August 13, 2018 by MartynL

The rarest of all COPO Camaros, powered by an all-aluminum 427, could’ve been a street screamer. I drove the only one built at GM’s Milford Proving Ground, below, in 1969 and never saw it again. Chevrolet had a very effective “backdoor” approach to insuring its performance image. The process was called COPO (Central Office Production Order) and it essentially allowed for the building of non-standard cars. Dating back to the late-1940s, it was initiated to accept low-volume orders from fleet ope...

BOOK REVIEW: THE CORVETTE HUNTER!

Posted on August 12, 2018August 12, 2018 by MartynL

When it comes to finding rare, truly significant Corvettes, especially high-profile vintage racecars and bringing them back to life, Kevin Mackay is your go-to guy. He thinks nothing of spending years locating, documenting and then buying the rarest of the rare. He is the Corvette Hunter. “If you could look inside the head of Corvette Repair owner Kevin Mackay, you’d see one of the most organized, methodical automotive barn-finding minds in the world,” said Tom Cotter, author of Corvette In The...

GARAGE STYLE: IN THE GARAGE W/ JIM PALAM!

Posted on August 8, 2018August 8, 2018 by MartynL

Our man on the Left Coast spends some time in front of the camera in his garage while Cindy Meitle profiles him for Garage Style magazine. I first met Jim Palam more than a half-century ago when he was a kid on the pit crew of the legendary “Astoria Chas” Snyder’s ‘67 Corvette powered by an L88 engine, below. The car was KO-MOTION, it was built at Motion Performance, Baldwin, NY, raced by Chas, and I was Editor of Hi-Performance CARS magazine. CARS was one of the Corvette’s sponsors. Chas becam...

SHOOTOUT: PHASE III GT CORVETTE VS. FERRARI 250 GTO!

Posted on August 6, 2018 by MartynL

SHOOTOUT: PHASE III GT CORVETTE VS. FERRARI GTO!

With a Ferrari 250 GTO expected to cross the block in the rarified air neighborhood of $50 mil this month in Monterey, Joel Rosen thinks it might be a good time to take a closer look at Long Island’s answer to Modena’s prestigious Prancing Horse. Actually the comparison makes more sense than the 1964 Pontiac GTO vs Ferrari GTO that Car and Driver hyped. At first glance it’s rather obvious where Joel Rosen got the idea to build a very limited production Baldwin-Motion Phase III GT Corvette. A cl...