La Belle Macchine (Pocono Mini Blog)

[Wheelman13]

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls; it's that time again.

I type this as I prepare to steel my resolve, charge my camera's battery, and stuff some napkins in my pockets, because tomorrow I will be hip-deep in millions of dollars of drool-inducing Italian exotica (as well as a few other nationalities).

Some of you may recall the last time I did this:
Daytona Mini Blog

Now, I'm not going to say I can top a Pur Sang Veyron with regard to all that is new and exciting. This event usually provides a slightly different flavor. Rather than a pure track event, La Belle Macchine d'Italia also hosts a concours-style car show the day before the track event begins. As a result you see some stuff that isn't necessarily at home on a track, but all the same interesting.

Please bear with me as I attempt to use my humble narrative skill, and mediocre photographic talents to attempt to share a bit of what I see. Other than that, set your subscriptions and hold on. I am not responsible for an expenditure of moist towelettes or liquid damage to keyboards or screens.

[Wheelman13]

A short follow-up post to explain a little more what I'm on about here.

Having sojourned northward for two days in a small convoy:


Including a stop at the Hampton Inn in Harrisburg, VA (highly recommended)


We have arrived in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania. Yes, I have ventured into the land of "how ya doin'", "you talkin' ta me?", and other such yankee stereotypes. I've exchanged southern hospitality for some moderately cool weather. Tomorrow morning we will hit Skytop Lodge for car show on a golf course...or excuse me, a "concours on the lawn" to be properly pretentious . (of course, this begs the question of "is it really pretentious if it is actually that high-brow?").

I may or may not have anything else to put in today. If not, look for a much more extensive update tomorrow evening.

-Wheelman out.

[Wheelman13]

We dropped by the host resort this evening to pick up info packets, credentials, etc. I took a quick look around the parking lot and lawn and found a few things:

A Lamborghini (no really...it is):


A-nother Lamborghini:


I think this is now my favorite color on a car ever, hands-down, no contest. The picture doesn't do it justice. It's a deep metallic crimson...all shimmery & junk:


We also had a gaggle of Maseratis and an F-40 rep'in for Ferrari:


We were a bit late for the hors d'oeuvres on the patio.


I was just about to leave, but I'm glad I took another quick look at the next row of cars. I might have missed this gem:





This, of course is just a drop in the bucket compared to what's on the way.

[Wheelman13]

We were up early to commute over to the show field and scope things out. As usual, several regional dealerships were present in addition to private owners and their cars. I spent the better part of the morning and early afternoon taking pictures, eavesdropping, and asking questions to learn about various cars. I took a break at 2:30 in order to watch the U.S. lose to damn Ghana. I took a crap-ton of pictures, so if anyone has requests or wants more of any of the cars, I can probably hook that up.

The photos below are a quick sample of what I ran across. I tried to focus on things that probably wouldn't be at the track the next two days, but I usually get sucked into looking at stuff I haven't seen before so there will be a little bias that direction as well.

Anyway, here we go. If you're still on 56k, just start it loading and check back next week.

Aston Martin brought something old:


And something new:


This Alfa takes the "oldest car" award (those Ferrari badges probably pre-date Ferrari as a company):


There were also a few slightly less vintage Alfas present:


Continuing the theme with a vintage Maserati:


Ferrari had several generations of cars representing:

A ~50s 250 GT SWB. These cars competed in road rallies accross europe back in the day:




aaaand the laptop battery is about to take a dump. more to come.

[Jankenshank]

you are correct!
this was back way before Ferrari had even been formed!

back when enzo was working for/with alfa as a racer/team manager!

speaking of alfa, it was its 100year birthday today!

[Wheelman13]

ok:


moving forward a bit: a 246 Dino




and a Daytona Coupe:


From the '80s:




90's:


Something a bit more recent:


And a 430 Scud' Spyder:

[Wheelman13]

Ok, gotta run to the track this morning, but wanted to dump a few more pictures. So somewhat unceremoniously, here we go:


















Ok, one comment. You know you're trying too hard when you have to put lambo doors on your lambo:



speaking of lambo doors:




Oh yeah, before I forget:







aaaand I'm spent.

[Eric_2jz]

holy shit.

I am still holding my vote on the LP570SL. All the other cars are awesome!

[LexusGSXR]

i just jizzed in my pants... thanks man!!! great looking cars,,

[Wheelman13]

So, the car show yesterday had a few pleasant surprises. It was nice to see Aston Martin take a little interest in this event, and it was cool to see the latest fashion from Santa Agata, but aside from that nothing really knocked my painfully-jaded socks off. I've now seen eleventy-billion Gallardos, Murcielagos, 360s, 430s, etc. etc. I know that's not the case for everyone, hence why I still posted pictures of some of those cars.

Normally speaking, the track day normally brings more track cars, and fewer museum pieces, and certainly the two are generally not interchangeable. However, from (literally) the second I drove through the gates, I understood that this would be no ordinary track day from a car-PR0N standpoint. A detailed account follows:

I can't really move in chronological order here, because that would be akin to an adult flick that featured the money shots at the beginning and then worked backwards from there...it just doesn't flow well that way y'know.

So please, in the interest of keeping things friendly, a little foreplay to start.

The usual suspects all made appearances.

The Ferrari Challenge crew:






Aston was demo-ing a Rapide in addition to the V12 Vantages:



Someone was obviously impressed with the Bentley demo from Daytona:


Lamborghini, as usual, was well represented at and on the track:




This made me want to go put blue painters tape over my headlights....


Some Porsches snuck in:





Even the vintage/historic guys got in on the act:

[Wheelman13]

This is where things start to get a little interesting. As I was watching the "historic" run group, I had a moment of "one of these things is not like the others.

See, your typical "historic" racecar doesn't have one of these:

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No, indeed, only one of THESE has one of those:

[Wheelman13]

Now, it may come as a shock that that wonderfully brutal F-40LM was neither the fastest, nor the most expensive Ferrari present....but we'll get to that in a moment.

First, allow me to back-track slightly. Literally the first thing I saw as I pulled through the gate was a crew of technicians backing this off of a truck:

[usafdarkhorse]

Originally Posted by Wheelman13

The Ferrari Challenge crew:

Nice pics!

I would so throw the yellow 355C, second from left, in the garage. I go back and forth on F cars. I love the way they look, the heritage, the SOUND, but their owners ( as well as Porsche owners.... don't kill me Richard and don't tell your dad ) make me laugh, and their upkeep costs make me lose my mind.

At this point, an NSX is a severe necessity, but if these 355 prices keep dropping, and as the pay gets better with years to come, I may soon find one of those in my garage as well, if not a 360. But I WILL drive the car so I WILL break things. Maybe 360s a better option...

The F car GTO makes me drool.

[Jankenshank]

i am very envious!

bravo! and nice to see the antiques on the track!

+ zonda = sex!

[Wheelman13]

Now, upstart riff-raff out of the way, back to some Ferraris

A very wealthy car enthusiast had recently passed. As a memorial, his son (a competent driver) said a few words and then took a few solo laps in his dad's favorite recent acquisition:








This was easily the fastest car of any type on the track. He turned a 1:32 on his pit-in lap, so figure on something stupid like a 1:27 without the chill-mode to the pit lane.

[Wheelman13]

So, with all of the cars of pedestrian dollar-values out of the way, lets get to the heavy-hitters.

First:
A 250 Testa Rossa (that's right Testa -space- Rossa), of the pontoon-fender variety:


and finally, with a short drum roll because I can feel carpal tunnel setting in:

A no-joke Ferrari 250 GTO (i.e. the most expensive model of car [clarkson]in the world[/clarkson]):

[Wheelman13]

Ok, that's it, I can't go any longer.

........

ok, maybe a few to cool-down a minute after that:













And a back to reality with a tuner car

[Good2GetBlown]

more!!!!

[civilized_drifter]

was a koenigsegg ccx there?

[BURN UNIT]

Absolutely awesome posts/thread! You are so lucky to be able to attend - and thanks for the great coverage of some astounding cars! I love the classics with racing/track history.