Part two of The Boxster Tale.
I told my wife about the car and the story that her father, Michael, told me. She really wanted him to get the car and instructed me to convince him of that. I told her that he may have some reservations regarding the price. While the car is priced well, dumping almost twenty large out of savings for something you don’t entirely need ain’t exactly fun. … Continue Reading
My phone rang on an early Saturday morning interrupting my oatmeal consumption. It was my father-in-law, Michael, and therefore I promptly ignored it. It rang again two minutes later, same number, and sensing urgency I answered. In a very excided way Michael begun describing that this mechanic in town which he goes to twice per year has this great Porsche for sale. I listened while desperately trying to prevent my eyes from rolling into the back of my head: “it’s a 2001, and it only has 14,000 miles on it, it’s a two-seater, it’s in great condition and he is asking $20,000 for it”. Despite my obvious efforts not to entertain this, Michael was insistent that I drive there and look at it. Fine. … Continue Reading
What do you want to be when you grow up? The question all men are asked early in their childhoods. The answer is never a cubicle-bound paper-pusher. At an early age all boys aspire to be someone great, someone heroic, someone inspirational such as a firefighter or a race-car driver. Sadly, most of us end up spending our days replying to email chains or sitting in meetings discussing the next fiscal budget.
Meet Bill Bacon, rally race-car driver for Bacon Motorsport Team and a professional firefighter from Chemsford, Massachusetts. In case his resume does not sound impressive enough add president, and the only employee, of a small garage door installation company. Just for good measure throw in race-car builder, fabricator, mechanic and the guy who sweeps the floor at the end of the day.
My friend Steve is shopping for a new car. Saturday morning he drags me out and makes me go look at some E39 M5. We get to Concord Motorsport somewhere in New Hampshire; a place that not only sales used cars but is also a maintenance and performance shop, as well as an authorized Dinan dealer.
We’re checking out the place and the two E39 M5′s they had in stock. I started chatting with the owner, Mike, about what an cool collection of cars they have for sale, including two E30 M3′s in very good condition, and how the market for E30s has been picking up and how difficult it is to find a non-rusted one. Mike says that he has a nice E30 in the garage and a 2002 race car that I maybe interested in. … Continue Reading
This is the first of three articles on Rally Racing. I intend to cover car set-ups, driver training, different classes, and whatever else I may come upon. This part will show a built of an Open Class rally car, which is essentially a race car based on a production car, but with the least restrictions placed on it. For instance, the engine has to use the original block, but otherwise is only limited by a 34mmx3mm restrictor plate.
Helping me write these series of articles is Bacon Motorsport. Bacon Motorsport is a privateer family race team from Chemsford MA. Team drivers are William Bacon Jr and Peter Watt. Bill has more than ten years of racing experience and Peter was the Canadian rally champion in 2004. The team has recently finished in third place at the Sno*Drift Rally in Michigan. … Continue Reading
Recently, GM started a new marketing campaign titled “May The Best Car Win”. As part of this campaign, General’s top CarGuy, Bob Lutz challenged the automotive journalists “to find a stock production sedan on the planet that could outperform the CTS-V on the track”. This challenge has been accepted by Jalopnik’s Wes Siler who will be driving a Jaguar XFR. The challenge was further opened to other participants and guess what? For the heck of it, my friend Mike and I have entered the contest to take on this challenge in a 2008 BMW M5! … Continue Reading
My good friend Bob Knox is a serious car guy, but not the kind who can recite articles from Motor Trend of why the F-150 is a better truck than the Tundra. No, Bob is a purist, he is the kind of man who can explain design and engineering choices that a manufacturer has to make in order to put a product on the market. For Bob function and purpose triumph form and design. He finds beauty in physical properties and is able to adequately explain their attributes. Below is a short story written by Bob telling of his experiences working on the Ford GT program. Enjoy.
My destiny solidified back at the eighth grade science fair. I made a wind tunnel with clear polycarbonate tubing, my mother’s vacuum cleaner, and a Group C Sauber C9 Matchbox car. My report about how aerodynamics were going to change the world of car design, and how we would all be driving door stop wedges with a coefficient of drag around 0.05 won me first place. That was back in 1986. I guess that didn’t work out quite to plan, then again, no one is flying around with a jetpack either. Now, having spend more than twelve years as a mechanical engineer in the automotive industry, and having been friends with few generous enthusiasts, I’ve been able to work on and drive some pretty impressive cars. … Continue Reading
The fall of 2004 was an exciting time in my life—I was a Bostonian living in Manhattan, and the Red Sox were about to win their first World Series in 86 years. I was a Sox fan, transplanted into the middle of Yankeeville, and thoroughly enjoyed watching the Red Sox pull off their stunning comeback against the Yankees. I was lucky enough to attend one playoff game that fall at Yankee stadium, but the rest were watched from my studio apartment in Murray Hill. It was also in the fall of 2004 that BMW and Apple launched their huge “iPod your BMW” marketing campaign. … Continue Reading
When you spend around six figures on a car these days, manufacturers tend to do something nice for you, for instance: flowers, shirts, watches, chocolate, new transmission, ipods, umbrellas, key chains, etc. It varies by the price of the car, how much of a pain you were to deal with, and how much you’ve actually over-paid for the car itself. However, when you buy or lease a new BMW M5 or M6, you get something very different… … Continue Reading
Let me start by saying that I really appreciate most cars. With each car I drive, I try to put all prejudices aside and enjoy it for what it is. I am not the Dalai Lama of cars, but you get the idea.
And now, like a complete hypocrite to the above, I say this: … Continue Reading
Let’s start off by saying who I am not. I am not someone looking to make money by starting yet another copy & paste website which takes information from other sources and passes it as their own in hope for people to click.
I am following a dream. A lifetime of dreaming about being an automotive journalist, a writer, driving all kinds of car to all kinds of places, photographing, writing about them. It didn’t happen this far, and it wasn’t going to happen by itself. I needed to do it. And one day I have just started writing.
This is a quick story of how I purchased my current family truckster at a dealer auction. It includes everything from decision making to actually writing out the check, all of which happened within about three hours. It was nerve-racking and fascinating at the same time. Grab a cup of coffee and enjoy the read.
This is the first of three articles on Rally Racing. I intend to cover car set-ups, driver training, different classes, and whatever else I may come upon. This part will show a built of an Open Class rally car, which is …
I still remember the day I saw the first one. It was a nice early spring day in 1997 and I was in walking around near Battery Park in downtown Manhattan. There in the corner of my eye I saw it; …
I have recently had the opportunity to drive the new Jaguar XFR on the road and on a race track. With the XFR competing directly against the BMW M5, which I have also had the opportunity to drive on the track …
While you may have already read a thing or two about BMW’s new compression ignition offerings, you may not have heard all the details, and you may have some questions. I sure did, and I did my best to answer them …
French cars; some say they’re ugly, some say they’re beautiful, all agree that they’re unreliable. However, there is something about them that makes you want to look. These pictures were taken in March of 2007, my wife’s and mine last trip …
Do you think your ’02 Chevy Tahoe with 170k miles is at the end of its life? Try driving a ’55 Suburban that you inherited from you father. This is a gallery of car pictures from Cuba, where the only way …
When you spend around six figures on a car these days, manufacturers tend to do something nice for you, for instance: flowers, shirts, watches, chocolate, new transmission, ipods, umbrellas, key chains, etc. It varies by the price of the car, how …
