Friday, May 18, 2012

Thursday, May 17, 2012

What to watch this weekend (May 17 - May 23rd)

  • Mecum Auto Auctions. Muscle Cars and More 2012. From Indianapolis, IN (Parts 3&4). Thursday @ 2pm - 10pm (VelocityHD) new - replay @ 10pm
  • Mecum Auto Auctions. Muscle Cars and More 2012. From Indianapolis, IN (Parts 5&6). Friday @ 2pm - 10pm (VelocityHD) new - replay @ 10pm
  • Mecum Auto Auctions. Muscle Cars and More 2012. From Indianapolis, IN (Parts 7&8). Saturday @ 12pm - 8pm (VelocityHD) new - replay @ 8pm
  • Mazda Motorsports Hour. Star Mazda: Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, AL (Episode #5). Sunday @ 12pm - 1pm (VelocityHD) new
  • Chasing Classic Cars. Marathon of Seasons 4 and 5. Sunday @ 1pm - 8pm (VelocityHD) replays
  • Carroll Shelby: King of the Road. The life and exploits of the racing legend. Sunday @ 8pm - 11pm (VelocityHD) replay at 11pm
  • Top Gear (UK). Season 18. Episode 5. Monday @ 8:30pm - 10pm (BBC America/BBC America HD) new
  • Richard Hammond's Crash Course. Salvage yard. Monday @ 10pm - 11pm (BBC America/BBC America HD) new
  • Motorweek. Fiat 500 Abarth. Tuesday @ 8pm - 8:30pm (VelocityHD) replay
  • One of a Kind. 62' Ferrari 330 GTO & 39' Bugatti. Tuesday @ 9:30pm - 10pm (VelocityHD) great replays
  • Chasing Classic Cars (Season 5). Amelia Island Ponies: Cars. Tuesday @ 10pm - 10:30pm (VelocityHD) new
  • Wheeler Dealers. Mini 1000 City. Wednesday @ 9pm - 10pm (VelocityHD) new
No major racing this weekend unless you want to watch qualifying for the Indianapolis 500 (ABC), but there's a ton of great shows. Mecum auctions are in Indianapolis for another three days of wheeling and dealing madness. In case you missed any of the last two seasons of Chasing Classic Cars, you can catch up this weekend. Season 5 isn't over yet, but they're playing every episode through this week. Lastly, Velocity is re-airing the series documenting Carroll Shelby's life, who unfortunately passed away a few days ago. Tip your hats to a racing legend and enjoy your weekends.


Video courtesy of Top Gear.

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Event Recap: 2012 PCA Porsche Swap Meet @ Hershey Park

Going further down the to-do list of car-events I've missed for years but wanted to get to finally, is the Central Pennsylvania Area Porsche Club of America (CPA-PCA) Swap-meet in Hershey, PA. As an aspiring p-car owner and plain old fan (as if you couldn't tell by our content), events like these are a bit more special than the several annual VAG shows that have built up the basis of my summer show schedule for over a decade. This show was planned to be the only thing I did on this April Saturday, but the Cars and Coffee trip turned into the opener. By the time I left Hershey Park's lot for the afternoon to head home, it was clear that I spent just the right amount of time there.


Heading up I-83 to Hershey from Hunt Valley was a fun drive; I got my clutch replaced with a stock Sachs unit after some gear-selection problems arose with the SPEC Stage2 M20 clutch installed with my stroker motor last May. I made great time, then found myself right outside of Hershey Park's complex with a sweet 930 in front of me at a red light. A grin appeared on my face and I headed into the maze that is Hershey Park, ending in the visitor parking section for the Porsche Swap-Meet. I paid my parking fee of $10 and headed into the show grounds. It didn't take long for me to find a muse.


I would personally never buy a Porsche 912, but the 912's on display in the show field were nothing short of impressive. Just about all of them were period correct and restored to perfection. Then there was the 356 row. Oh yes. Making my way through the field I quickly realized what spoke to me and what didn't. I thought I would be more enthusiastic about the 928/944/968s, but even though there were some lovely examples I couldn't take my eyes off the 911s. Especially the 993s. My old man has a 96' 993 Carrera 2 coupe that he bought new when I was in high school. That car has been driving me for longer than I can remember, no pun intended. Seeing modified 993s was just about my favorite take-away from the afternoon; and oddly enough my favorite was a red one. Before buying the red coupe a few years ago, I wasn't into red cars really; I like making my maneuvers without too much attention. I've grown to love red since owning it, and now red cars are catching my eyes constantly.


While making my way around the lot, I went through the swap/yard-sale areas and made mental notes on the prices of all the things we VAG guys typically overspend for prior to knowing street values (wheels, etc.). I also took note of the prices out there for used 930s, as there was a lot just for trade/sale activities. There was a 46K mile 996TT for sale and it was going for upper $40s. This was surprising as the last I looked at those numbers, five years ago to be exact, they were nearly twice that. The economy is making this as good a time as ever for those with money blowing a hole in their pockets, but you definitely have to do your research to ensure stable resale value.


There was one other cool sight at this years meet, and that was two very rare Carrera GT's, in slightly different specs (but both Silver), in the same lot. It was well worth the trip to check this show out and hopefully I'll be making it up there next year. The album from this event is here. Wallpapers will be posted on the ROTL FB and Google+ pages over the next couple weeks, so keep an eye out.

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Quick Vid: 2012 Porsche (981) Boxter S (Drive)

Chris Harris plays with the all new Boxter (981) S.


Video courtesy of Drive.

Monday, May 14, 2012

GTGs: Cars and Coffee 4.21.12

For the longest time now I've gone online to forums and the like to see people pictures from Cars and Coffee events around the country. The great thing about these events is that you get a large variety of makes, models and model years, including the equally wide-range of aged people that into all of said cars. Corvette guys in this group, muscle car guys in that group, imports, german tuners, rare european classics, etc., etc.


Flash forward and I finally got to attend one a week or so ago. A good friend of mine dropped me a line asking if I was up to going to the one local-ish to him in Hunt Valley. For those that don't know, Cars and Coffee events run from about 7:30am - 10am. This is great for everyone as you can get in and out of there before your day really starts, take your baby out of the garage to get the fluids hot, and hang out with friends, associates and newcomers that all are into the same thing. For years I would've never got up at 6:30am to go to any event regardless of what it was, mainly due to the work schedule I had (working nights, mornings and everything between). Fortunately, I recently switched jobs and began getting up at the ascrack on a daily basis, so it wasn't the life changing event that it would typically be. That and we agreed to meet up at 8am to caravan over to the Hunt Valley shopping center (Maryland), so that helped too.


I just washed the red coupe earlier that week for the first time since January (post pending), so regardless of my deer-dent, I was happy to have drive it out on a great sunny spring day. We arrive at the shopping center in Hunt Valley around 8:30am. According to regulars the turnout wasn't as big as it was the week before, but there was still a good amount of cars out to play. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves, but my favorite of the day was a so-fresh and so-clean black on tan ~67' Mercedes 230SEL convertible. The owner was cool as sht, as was his son, and I took plenty of snaps and a little video (coming soon).


We won't be hitting this event up every week, but when we do I'll post up. Here's the album location to check for going forward. And yes, this will be the only capacity in which american cars will show up on this blog ha.

Our small crew.

This day actually got a little better after the GTG was over. My friends and I grabbed breakfast at Chick-Fil-A, then I bombed up I-83 to Hershey (PA) for the CPA-PCA Porsche Swap-Meet. Look for a post on that in the coming week.