 “Git yer goat…”- Upon approach, you’re struck by the fact that the car is not, well, striking. While possessing a clean, smooth and sporty shape, the car is definitely understated, considering there’s a 350hp V-8 lurking under the hood. In fact, the car would not look out of place on a rental lot due to the innocuousness of it’s presence. This is not the intimidating, fire-breathing beast I expected to be presented with. Despite the lack of aggression and intimidation, the car is a very good looking vehicle with flowing, smooth lines and nicely rounded features, with a slight upward rake from front to back. At the rear, the trunk mounted spoiler does a nice job of completing the tail-end of the car. Brand or model badges on the car are noticeably minimal, further enhancing the feel of “wolf in sheep’s clothing.” Panel lines are straight, gaps are consistent and overall, the car gives the feel of a high degree of quality. Read more… |
 “Project R GT”- As our regular readers know very well, FestivalOfSpeed.net focuses primarily on “grassroots” or “niche” motorports events, products and manufacturers. Thus, it may surprise many of you to see an article on the new Jetta and Passat concept cars that Volkswagen rolled out at SEMA 2005. When I first came across these two stunning automobiles on the Volkswagen stand at SEMA, I was absolutely awestruck.The Jetta, in particular, looks as if it is a World Challenge GT car with removed sponsor stickers and the addition of rear bucket seats. The car sits snugly on 19” Avus alloy wheels, while resting tightly on a KW Variant 3-way coil-over racing setup. Even at rest, the Jetta (and Passat, though to a lesser degree) give the impression of incredible performance. Read more… |
 Mercedes CLK-DTM at Cars International - It’s not often we get to experience ultra-rare automobiles “in the flesh” so to speak. Fortunately, we managed to hook up with the gracious gentlemen at Cars International (.com) during my recent visit to the United Kingdom. Oli and I made the trip up to Canary Wharf in early July to enlist the help of the Cars International team in preparing an article on buying race cars. In addition to their invaluable help in the preparation of that article, they were also kind enough to give us a tour of their facility, which included not one, but two Mercedes CLK-DTM exotics. Considering the rarity of these cars (forty right hand drive and sixty left hand drive variants were all that Mercedes produced), it’s incredibly rare to see both editions sitting next to each other.While we didn’t get the opportunity to drive the cars as they were both due to ship out to customers within the month, we did get ample access to photograph the vehicles from every angle possible.. Read more… |
 Birth of a Supercar - This past summer, FestivalOfSpeed.net had the good fortune of speaking with the fine folks over at Farboud Sports Cars about the upcoming GTS project. It’s not often the public at large gets treated to the birth of a supercar – especially one that has a selling price designed to be attainable for the enthusiast, so this was a rare treat to learn about a fabulous new car.For those of you who don’t know about the history of Farboud Sports Cars, the company began only a few short years ago under the guidance of Arash Farboud who used proceeds from selling off his family business to design, develop and produce a revolutionary new car. In 2004, Evo Magazine quoted Arash as saying, “This is the car I designed for myself.” The original car used an Audi sourced V8 producing 385bhp, had a Stack instrument cluster and an F1 inspired pushrod suspension setup. Cost was not a large concern. Read more… |
 “Learning to drive the Lotus Esprit the hard (but fun) way” - Everything was against me this morning, it’d been a long day yesterday with little sleep the night before and a painful haul to Starbucks down at Crystal Cove in the early morning to see the car show and chat with anyone that was there.So yes, I’m running low on sleep and a few coffees in this morning, so I hear you ask what’s the problem? Well you have to put this in perspective, I’m British (sorry), over six feet in height, not exactly slim, wearing huge walking shoes, I’ve never driven in the USA before, I have difficulty getting into an Esprit as a passenger and I’ve just been handed the keys to a good friend’s pride and joy for the drive today (an irreplaceable ‘25th Anniversary’ edition 2002 Esprit in azure blue), and unsurprisingly it’s a car that I’d quite like to return in one piece. Read More… |
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 Zonda F test drive at Pagani Automobili -As we turn out from the Pagani facility, Hannes illustrates both the incredible torque of the Zonda, as well as the well designed clutch by selecting and engaging first without touching the throttle. While we’ve found that most cars can be ‘feathered’ into gear via this method, no car I’ve ever experienced can do it as quickly and easily as the Zonda. Trundling up the road, Hannes short-shifts into second, and I think (for a brief moment), “I thought this car was supposed to be fast.” As if reading my mind, my illustrious chauffeur firmly plants the throttle against the stop, the car unleashes its 602 horses onto the unsuspecting tarmac with such ferocity, I thought we’d just been launched out of a catapult! Read More…
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