Looking Out From the Garage

101 Cars... the Vector!

When I was a kid, there was one car that took "Bad Ass" to a whole new level.  Forget the Lamborgini Countach and anything coming from Ferrari...  The car that took the look straight to "fighter plane on the street" was the Vector W2 Twin Turbo.  Never mind that it started and failed more times than a beat up VW Bug...  They were COOL.

Vector W8I can still remember the road test of a pre-production car by one of the magazines back in the early 1980s mentioning that top spped in 1st gear was 90mph... 2nd gear was 155mph... 3rd gear was 220mph... and that was as many gears as there were.  It was powered by an American GM 350 putting out 650hp.  In those days, that was astounding.

And it looked like it should be shooting the other cars off the road.

The look hasn't calmed down in the last 25+ years... if anything it is even more slickly sinister.  And despite the rarity, I ran across one in a gas station.  There was a cop there looking at it... and it was fun telling him that the helicopters in the department couldn't keep up with it...

I'll take mine in flat black...

from LaneBailey.com

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3 commentsLane Bailey - REALTOR & Car Guy • June 21 2009 11:37PM

101 Cars, Part 67...

1987 Lotus Turbo Esprit HC at the Bonhams & Bu...
Image via Wikipedia

Lotus may be tops for the most cars on my list.  And here is another, the Lotus Esprit.

While it certainly changed from 1976 to 2004, it didn't change all that much.  Only the Lotus 7 and Porsche 911 have longer runs... ok, maybe the Morgan Plus8... probably some others, but the point is that the Esprit went for 28 years with only minor tweaks to the formula.


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0 commentsLane Bailey - REALTOR & Car Guy • May 24 2009 10:42PM

101 Cars, Part 52

Second Generation Renault 5 with 3 doors
Image via Wikipedia

Take a seriously weird and boring... and very economical economy car, and take it completely to the other end of the scale.

For those that were around in the early 1980s, there was the LeCar...  The suspension was NOT even close to sporting... the car cornered on the door handles.  The power was disappointing... 0-60 was measured with a calendar.  And it only had 3 lug nuts... seriously.

But just to prove that all it takes to make speed from ugly is money...

The Renault R5 Turbo.

Never mind that it was only related to the LeCar by the furthest of stretches... The LeCar was actually the R5...

Klik hier om het video filmpje te bekijken

4 commentsLane Bailey - REALTOR & Car Guy • April 25 2009 11:18PM

101 Cars, Part 58

I have had a lot of Fords, ranging from my Mustangs to my current F-350. And I think this is one of the coolest rigs Ford has put out in quite a while.

Lane in the raptor before security arrived

Think of it as a vehicle for racing in three dimensions. It has 13" of travel in the rear and 11+" of travel in the front. It can bomb down bumpy roads at 100mph with its 400hp Boss 6.2L engine.

It is the F-150 Raptor... and it is a pretty cool rig. I got the opportunity to hang out with some of the guys from the Raptor Project at the Atlanta Auto Show, as well as the opportunity to hop into the truck and see how it felt. I couldn't fire it up and drive it, though... security was too quick.

This thing has power and a really cool suspension... and you can buy one at your Ford dealer... in July... or November if you want to big Boss engine.

from LaneBailey.com

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0 commentsLane Bailey - REALTOR & Car Guy • April 25 2009 11:09PM