I've spent the last few years not travelling much or taking many vacations for various reasons. Lately, though, I've had a chance to do some actual travelling. I had forgotten how good it feels to just hit the road and drive.
The other thing I forgot is how many interesting cars you see on the road. When I used to drive to Las Vegas from Salt Lake several times a year, I'd see neat cars like Murcielagos and Ford GTs on the road out in the middle of nowhere. It's been a while since I've made that drive.
I've put about 2000 miles on the LS in the last month, and along those miles I've seen some neat cars.
Last month I saw a Bricklin (admittedly not while driving...it was parked) just sitting in an alleyway. Clearly someone's DD. Awesome. I didn't notice it at first, but there was a kid in skinny jeans taking a picture of something in the alley, so I turned to look. The subject of the photos turned out to be a bright yellow Bricklin SV-1. I stopped and said "Holy crap! It's a Bricklin!" and the kid looked at me and said "I know!" Awesome car-guy moment, skinny jeans notwithstanding. There's probably one other guy in the whole state who would have had any idea what we were talking about, and he owns the thing.
Same trip I saw a black Merkur XR4-Ti. Haven't seen one of those in person in AGES. I forgot how ugly they are. I thought it was a badly modded Jetta as it approached in oncoming traffic, and didn't realize what it was until the grille and side profile with its distinctive rear windows and two-level spoiler became visible.
Driving back home today, I passed a black V8 Lotus Esprit. Beautiful car. Another one I haven't seen in a LONG time.
And there was some Canadian geezer couple cruising in a Mercedes Benz B-Class. Sweet mercy that thing was ugly. It looks a lot like its big ugly brother the R-class. The bodylines are horrendous. I'm glad they don't sell them here, because it means I don't have to look at them here.
The Esprit was definitely my favorite sighting. I had a model of an Esprit V8 when I was a kid, and the body came off the frame so you could check out the suspension (which worked). It was the first supercar I really knew much about. They look GOOD in black. Seeing the car has me wondering what they go for these days. With all my talk of the superiority of tiny V8s, a black Esprit with its boosted 3.5 liter sure sounds like a great way to make a point.
Since I didn't have a copilot to get pictures of any of these cars, here are some stand-ins courtesy of random interwebs:
The Esprit:
Bricklin:
XR4Ti:
And one to ruin your day (and vision):
I can't figure out why someone would buy one. Why not buy a Mazda instead? I don't get it.
