Crystal Cove

I love cars. I love everything about them... the sound, the styling, the speed. I get chills down my spine when I hear a lumpy cam, a big V8 fighting to stay at idle. I love loud pipes, the smell of race gas, the whine of a supercharger, I love going to sleep at night knowing that tomorow morning, there is a car show. But most of all, I love race cars, because from race cars - we get race technology. Porsche borrowed from their 961 racecar to build the 959 supercar which ultimately was the inspiration for the 993 TT (featuring twin turbo chargers and all-wheel drive), BMW built the E30 M3 for the street in order to homologate the car for Group A Touring Car racing... the list goes on.

But what set's the greats apart from the rest of the automotive landscape is history. You can learn a lot about a person from their history. Where they went to school, where they grew up, who they dated, and why - it all plays a part in the end result of who that person becomes. Cars are no different - a lot can be said about the automotive scene of the future by what is on the market today. My own fascination with sports cars has skewed more often than not towards auto makers with a rich history, I love the legend, the stories that stem from their hits, misses and all of the things that came in between. Take for example, the story from my last installment in which Ferruccio Lamborghini took a chance encounter with Enzo Ferrari, and turned it into a power battle that has spanned five decades.

Another car born out of spite for Ferrari is the legendary Ford GT40. The story began as Ford made a bid to buy Ferrari - in fact, Henry Ford II and Enzo Ferrari had all but committed to an agreement when at the 11th hour, Ferrari backed out. Ferrari's savior, Fiat, tried to negotiate with Ford, but when the stakes were raised, Ford lost interest and instead went the direction of building a Ferrari beater. Ford chose a partner in UK based Lola and in 1963, launched the GT40 which went on to not only end Ferrari's six year win streak at LeMans, but create it's own four year streak spanning from 1966 to 1969.

And this brings us back to history - a car that was created to beat Ferrari's on the race track... it's got to be great... and it is. In the pictures below, you can see Superformance's tribute to the original GT40, as well as Ford's remake of the legend wearing it's LeMans winning "Livery" Gulf Racing colors.

Overall, July 4th weekend saw the local crew bring their "A game" - the all new Porsche 997 TT, highly anticipated Audi RS4, two Porsche Carrera GT's, Spyker C8, Ferrari 360 CS, Cizeta V-16, Dodge Viper GTS-R, two Saleen S7's, and on... and on... lined the parking lot. Amazing!

Something you want to see in the future? Got a comment? Want a hi-res copy of the of the pictures below? :Click here to shoot me an e-mail me See you soon! James