7 thoughts on “Car Photo of the Day”

  4. I know what the car is, being driven..that’s easy! Now, as for the black dot?
    – A state trooper passing you in a big hurry;
    -a fellow rallyist passing you in a big hurry;
    -you, catching up to a fellow rallyist, who’s lost;
    -you, hallucinating that it is indeed a petrol station, given the relative positions of the speed-o-meter and the paucity of fuel left to keep that *beeg* OHC V-8 running at the ton!

    🙂

  5. A Mercedes-Benz 450sl Jerome. Not really that “sporty” nor really that “light” either, but in many ways an excellent driver’s car. My father bought this specifically to run the 2001 Cannonball Classic, which never happened as it was cancelled. Since the E-type nearly self-destructed during the course of the 1999 event, he wanted a more reliable, yet still open-topped GT car for the next time we ran coast-to-coast. We instead attended a Benz-sponsored event in eastern Canada called the “Forza Mille” (also no longer run). The Forza Mille was originally a V-12 only event, but when MB started sponsoring it they allowed any Mercedes in it as well. So we had four fewer spark plugs than most of the participants, but still had a great time.

    The above paragraph has a hint as to what the answer to my “black speck” question above is too. 😉

    My dad loves this car. He took the last payment I made on the 65E and used it to paint this machine. It was, at the time of this photo, mechanically sound, but a bit faded and aging paint-wise. He had it painted in late 2003, early 2004 and it looks absolutely stunning. 450sl’s are not worth that much, as MB sold hundreds of thousands of them (I still see many being used as daily drivers!) so it is odd that he spent 40% of its value on repainting it… but it is now a great looker.

    Like I said, it is a very nice car to drive, and I fully comprehend why they sold so well. Smooth, comfortable, reliable, elegant, and capable of easily maintaining ludicrous speeds for days on end. The American market ones only came with a 3-speed slushbox unfortunately. I’d LOVE to drive one with a stick, as I bet it makes it that much more enjoyable.

  6. Bingo… Paul got it with his second guess.

    It was a black Ferrari 550 Maranello who passed me literally like I was standing still… and as you can see, I am NOT standing still!

    I was zooming along when I came upon a laden logging truck laboring up the long but shallow uphill grade on this arrow-straight road that went on like this… up and down these endless shallow grades for maybe 60 miles. I was doing 90ish. I looked in my mirrors, saw nothing, passed the truck at the ton, and as I was just about finished in my pass looked in my mirrors again to see the Ferrari coming REAL FAST. He went around me with perfect timing as I pulled back into my lane, nearly doing close to 2X my speed! The sound of that V-12 at full chat was remarkable. I continued on at my speed while grabbing my camera, and by the time I squeezed off that shot, he was merely a black speck on the horizon!

  7. And there I thought the speck on the horizon was a rabbit — someone you follow a quarter mile behind so that they get caught and you wave as they’re talking to the state patrol. 🙂

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