You could say it was sort of an ultimate customer appreciation night. Porsche Canada and uber dealer Pfaff Porsche invited loyal Porsche customers to Toronto’s Roy Thompson Hall to meet American Le Mans Series drivers Romain Dumas and Timo Bernhard and their steed, the RS Spyder. A handful of local automotive media types were also in on the evening.
While the current model line up was well represented, the star of the show had to be the bright yellow Penske Porsche RS Spyder. This 500 horsepower sports racing machine boasts the latest aerodynamic and technical details such as Direct Fuel Injection. A prime example of how racing improves the breed, the DFI system will be appearing on production 911 models very soon. Continue reading →
While the Canadian office of The Garage was moving Scooby Doo’s automotive cousins around Toronto, the guys on the west coast were scoping out the 2008 Monterey Historics.
Gary Faules and Jon Emerson hopped aboard Lucky the GT-350 to visit the La Carrera Panamericana gathering at the annual event. They gave us so many cool photos I had a heck of a time deciding what to use as a lead in photo. The Bugatti just seemed too modern. While the Ferrari’s are undeniably sensual, how could I use a Prancing Horse, when there is a perfectly fitting Shelby in the house?
To get the full details of the guys trip, you’ll have to head on over to Gary’s blog where you’ll also find a ton of other great pictures. Gary took so many photos that he had to share some with our readers too and you’ll find them after the break. Continue reading →
While our man on the West Coast, Gary Faules was cavorting at the Monterey Historics this weekend, here in Ontario The Garage was deep in car show land. We helped organize the first annual Subaru show at Willowdale Subaru along with the folks from the Toronto Subaru Club.
With the freaky weather we’ve been having in the GTA this summer, we were lucky to have a bright, sunny day with the exception of a few sprinkles in the afternoon. The sun was more than welcome in the park like setting that we enjoyed courtesy of Toronto Hydro. Not only did the grass and shade trees to keep things cool, but don’t black cars look better in the shade?
The sporting side of the Subaru community was well represented with all manner of street tuned cars and a couple of special guests. Planet Motorsport graciously sent over a couple of full on rally cars to show what the truly hard core enthusiasts have to offer. The 95 Subaru Impreza of Mark Williams is quite a special car, with a very unique history that will be the subject of an upcoming post. It was joined by the Impreza 2.5RS campaigned by MaNick Rally.
With a DJ pumping out tunes, great food, great cars and an enthusiastic crowd. We had all the makings of a great day. Here at Willowdale Subaru, we couldn’t be happier with how the day went and can’t wait until next year’s event.
After the break, we have a huge gallery of the day’s fun. Continue reading →
As traditional media tries to hold on to market share, the old school car mags are doing their best to get with the new media. Old guys are being replaced supplemented by young guys and girls who truly get the virtual world.
In this vein, Car and Driver mag is reaching out to bloggers to get the word out that they are as vibrant and relevant as ever. In other words, they are blogging their hearts out! They’re not just blogging though, as they are tackling topics that are hotter than ever.
Today, they’ve got a list of fuel saving tips to help ease the pain at the pumps.
The first two should be common sense: Tune-Up Your Car
Keep Your Tires Properly Inflated
Really folks, a well maintained car does get noticeably better gas mileage. Continue reading →
The history of sports car is so filled with home builts that one could not possibly have heard of all of them. The west coast of North America seems to have been a hotbed for home builders who wanted to market their creation. So goes the story of the La Dawri Conquest.
From the ebay listing: The LaDawri Conquest was designed and built by Les A. Dawes of British Columbia, Canada and is recognized as Canada’s first fiberglass sports car.
Considering the meltdown we had here in The Garage yesterday, some of you may wonder why things have been so quiet around here. Well, beyond some good old fashioned vacation time, I’ve been deep in organizational mode for our show this weekend.
Willowdale Subaru and the Toronto Subaru Club are hosting their first annual joint show this Sunday. Tuner Subies and the odd rally car or two are just the beginning. There will be a DJ and I’m told that there will be wandering hotties too.
Oh yes, and somehow we’re having a visit from a V8 powered Volvo drift car!
If you are in the Toronto area on Sunday, be sure to drop by for a visit. If not, you know I’ll have photos up in the afternoon.
While we’ve been having a pretty traumatic time today here in The Garage, the stress has been broken up by the continued arrival of text messages from Team Polizei’s Interceptor 144B as it makes it’s way across the continent.
That’s right, the Chief Piloto of Team Polizei has gone completely freakin’ mad and is taking readers/viewers on a run from the Big Apple to San Fran. Live! With the usual cast of co pilotos, including an Autoblog scribe, Roy is following the entire length of Interstate 80 and broadcasting live from the car along the way.
How the hell are they going to evade every trooper along the way when they are sending out a live feed is beyond me. Perhaps the new electronics on board include Harry Potter’s invisibility cloak!
Be sure to check the view below on a regular basis. If the feed is down, check back in a few minutes, as they are just in a dead zone.
Well folks, that software update we have been talking about lately happened today and something rather catastrophic happened: Our complete image file got nuked.
Now that my convulsions have stopped, I can lay that out for all you readers. This means that the images for over 1800 posts, spanning more than 3 years will have to be reconstructed. This is going to be a monumental task. Fortunately, we still have most of the images on file but as you might guess, our filing process is somewhat lacking.
On the really positive side, this will give us lots of practice with some of the features this new version of Wordpress offers. All of our galleries will now be hosted right here in The Garage, rather than using Flickr slideshows. This should be pretty slick, but it will be taking some time to get it all sorted out. Like maybe even months.
Please bear with us, we’ll get all of our pretty pictures back where they belong!
Who woulda thought that finding cool automotive stuff would be tough in a thriving city full of tourist stuff like Ottawa? This being my first visit to Ottawa since a grade 8 trip almost 3 decades ago, I had no idea where to look for automotive stuff. There certainly is a ton of great museums, most with a ton of stuff to keep the kids entertained while they are learning.
It was a bit surprising that the most automotive stuff we came across was at the Canadian Museum of Civilization, where we spotted this cool old workhorse. The Canada Hall follows the growth of life in Canada from the 1600’s through to modern day. Along the way, visitors travel through a cool series of villages and buildings all inside a dome that convinces one that they are outside in twilight. Outside a Saskatchewan granary sat the old beast. Very cool. Continue reading →
Lakeland Raceway was a drag strip and oval track in Florida that resourceful road racing enthusiasts turned into a road course with the help of access roads. The Garage regular Lou Galanos took this shot in the mid Seventies. It looks like the sports racer has just outbraked the Spridget. That era was known for the ingenuity and inventiveness of racers, so I would be curious to know what the idea was behind the two upright posts and cross bar behind the windshield.
