The (extensive) staff here at TCB recently attended a meet from the budding Gruppe Titan euro tuner club, in Durham NC. It was a combination meet/cruise/photoshoot, and there were some rather impressive cars that turned out! This group looks like it’s going to have a nice variety of Euro rides, so if you’re in the Eastern NC Area, it might be worth checking out. Here are some of the cars that showed up!
The further along we got in our trip (which wound up being around 4800 miles round-trip - a long time to spend in a car!) the more I realized the importance of roadside attractions in the upper midwest. You see, driving through states like Montana, Wyoming, and South Dakota - states that a lot of people refer to as “fly-over states,” as in lots of people fly over them but no one lives there - there is literally NOTHING on the highway. Just cornfield after cornfield, with a sprinkle of truckstops, Indian Reservations and weird stuff. So when you’ve been on the road forever and see a sign for a roadside museum or attraction, you’ll probably stop - just to alleviate the boredom of being in I-90 in the middle of a bunch of cornfields for hours on end!
Now sometimes these roadside attractions amount to little more than someone’s garage stuffed full of crap. Sometimes you strike gold. I was lucky enough on this trip to find two very good ones - the museum of military vehicles shown earlier, as well as this auto museum that is literally in the middle of nowhere in South Dakota. It’s in a town called Murdo, which is in southern central South Dakota just off of I-80.
One thing I’ve noticed about car magazines in the US (besides the boring ones like Consumer Reports) is that above anything, they like to emphasize acceleration as a defining characteristic of a car’s worth. It’s not hard to notice. On the front cover of the latest Car and Driver, they have a few headlines. The big one proclaims “The Fast Lane!: BMW 135i, 0-60 4.7s.” Further down there’s “Nissan GT-R 0-60 3.3.” At the bottom, in small font is “The Slow Lane: Smart ForTwo, 0-60 14.4s.”
Let me be the first one to say: Who gives a shit how fast a Smart Car gets to sixty miles an hour? No one’s going to be drag-racing from light to light in their Smart. A Smart is an economical fashion accessory, like a Swatch (imagine that!) It’s a conversation piece. It’s the new Prius. The only people racing smarts are the ones with Smartuki conversions, so all three of them. The 0-60 time on a Smart is about as relevant as the fuel efficiency of a dump truck.
But this is America, where we have (comparatively) cheap gas, the roads are wide and straight, and if you’re not going 80 on the highway, you’re getting run over. So magazines shout about how fast a car can reach 60 - which is a pretty arbitrary number.
There are a lot of fast cars out there. But let me let you in on a secret: some of them really, truly suck.
BMW’s 3-series cars (sedans, coupes, wagons, and convertibles) have long been well-known by the public and well-loved by the media for being the best at what they do - delivering a perfectly balanced mix of performance, luxury, quality, and class. The 3-series has been on Car and Driver’s 10 Best list for at least as long as I’ve been alive, and with good reason. They’re simply fantastic cars. The 3-series has inspired innumerable replicas and wanna-be’s, but very rarely do they ever come close to dethroning the immortal 3 from it’s spot at the top. Since the debut of the E30-generation 3-series in 1982, BMW’s small star has been the one to beat - and only recently have competitors started to come close. Small luxury sedans from Audi, Mercedes-Benz, Infiniti, Lexus, Cadillac, Jaguar, Saab, Volvo, Lincoln, Subaru, Acura and many others I can’t even remember have tried to beat the 3-series at it’s own game, and most have failed in one way or another. Acura TL - too front wheel drive. Infiniti G35 - too loud and unrefined. Mercedes C-class - too boring. Lexus IS - not enough power, too boring. Cadillac CTS - too big, heavy, and American. Ditto the Lincoln LS. While this competition has produced some truly great cars, what it’s ended up producing is some even greater 3-series.
Editor’s Note: This is the second part of an article I intended to finish a few weeks ago. I got distracted. It happens.
Moving along in the dream garage, we come to an absolutely crucial choice:
6) 1995 Volvo 850 T-5R Estate
Patrick:
Toyota Prius. I admit the BMW X6 is close second, however the Prius just sucks so badly its black hole encompasses the BMW. It is the epitome of lackluster design and soulless driving that I hate in cars. It is driven by the Hollywood set for appearances and to seem ecologically friendly. In reality they drive the worst car in recent memory. You can buy a Mini Cooper and get similar mileage or get a TDI Volkswagen and not even use any gasoline, both of which keep you from looking like a tool. The Prius is a posers car if every there was such a thing. Also problematic is the style, or more accurately lack of style. Toyota’s hybrid looks like a Corolla and a Pontiac Aztec mated. A swollen, disorganized conglomerate of styling cues. It looks as if Congress convened a panel to design and implement the thing. A bit of hatch here, gas engine there. A dash of technology in the display sytem and electric motors as a bit of an afterthought. The electric motor and gas motor even work like Congress. (It’s your turn to work some gas motor, not yet electric) Overall, the car is disgusting in its ecological arrogance and design. Just get a diesel or motorcycle for the sake of all things automotively decent.
While I was in Chapel Hill with my mother shopping for her new car, I happened to chance a glance over to the BMW dealer and was delighted to see this beauty parked off to the side of the main lot:
While I would love to write a very Jeremy Clarkson-esque piece on power and why old cars are boring, I won’t. Not because I disagree, but simply because I realize power is meaningless when stuck sitting in a soul sapping surround of gridlocked traffic. In this light, my dream car garage tries to balance street-ability, fun, and hoonage. I admit it is difficult, but I’ll give it a whirl. While we would all love smoke whirling and billowing from the rear tires of our very own dream car it is not practical, so here is my mix of brilliant engineering and old school muscle.
1.) B5 S4 Avant
2.7T Dolphin grey 6 speed with black leather interior. Engine modified with K04/20’s, 650cc injectors, water injection, OFE Southbend clutch, new boost tubing, radiator, and stealthy exhaust. Tinted tails and RS-4 front bumper riding on BBS gunmetal RC wheels and F&K suspension with Porsche 4 piston calipers front and rear. Equipped with front mount intercooler the car will boost 25psi and make 450 horsepower. Perfect for hauling some ass through the twisties, cruising on the highway, or hauling some lumber this car is good looking and quick to boot…
Spend some time on any automotive web forum and you’re bound to run across the ultimate hypothetical question: “what is your ultimate dream garage?” Sometimes 5 car, sometimes 10, sometimes more. Many people like to fill their fantasy garage up with dream exotica, many people like classics. If you’ve been reading my site, by now you know my choices are somewhat odd. So here, friends, is my 15-car dream garage.
1) 2001 Audi (B5) S4
Nogaro Blue, six-speed manual, converted to RS4 engine spec (forged internals, lower compression, K04/20 turbochargers, etc etc.) 450-500whp would be sufficient for a daily driver. I’ve always admired the B5 S4 for a lot of reasons. Primarily, it’s a spectacular mechanical package: 2.7L 30 valve V6 with twin turbochargers, a six-speed manual and Torsen AWD make for an extremely rapidly accelerating automobile…
