The 911 can trace its roots back to sketches drawn by Ferdinand Porsche in 1959. The Porsche 911 was developed as a more powerful, larger, more comfortable replacement for the Porsche 356. The new car made its public debut at the 1963 Frankfurt Motor Show and It originally was designated as the “Porsche 901″. 82 cars were built as 901s, However, Peugeot protested on the grounds that in France it had exclusive rights to car names formed by three numbers with a zero in the middle. So, instead of selling the new model with another name in France, Porsche changed the name to the 911.

(happy birthday k-star!) The 356 was porsche’s first production automobile. It was a lightweight and nimble handling rear-engine rear-wheel-drive 2 door sports car available in hardtop coupe and open configurations. Production started in 1948 at Gmünd, Austria where approximately 50 cars were built. In 1950 the factory relocated to Zuffenhausen, Germany and general production of the 356 continued until April 1965, well after the replacement model 911 made its autumn 1963 debut. It is estimated approximately half of the total production of 76,000 356s still survive.

The Porsche 944 was a sports car built by Porsche from 1982 to 1991. It was built on the same platform as the 924, although 924 production continued through 1988. The 944 was intended to last into the 1990s, but major revisions planned for a 944 S3 model were eventually rolled into the 968 instead, which replaced the 944. The 944 was a successful model and was available as both a coupe and cabriolet in naturally aspirated and turbocharged forms.

you don’t see too many citroën’s in the usa… especially not too many like this in terms of amount of use, condition and running order.. kind of harkens a worn 1970’s chevrolet caprice or something, like something you see all the time on the streets, only this was a banana yellow citroën. a welcome omen perhaps !

the saab 900 harkens back to a period when european cars truly looked european and exhibited certain traits that even revealed the country in which they were built and designed. the saab 900 is an unconventional vehicle that clearly could only be swedish and a saab. i really wish we could have enlightened european automotive design once again…. it seems currently everything is designed by a computer which waters everything down to some lowest common denominator formula…. it is a sad day indeed when a hyundai is hard to discern from a mercedes.

sometimes you see sublime vehicular stories on the road that are so intriguing you find yourself reaching for your camera out of rote. in this instance we find a mind-jarring avacado green oldsmobile cutlass hatchback with a curious red steering wheel piloted by a man who definitely looks the part. straight outta central casting i tells ya! whats the story ? unless i followed him home i wouldn’t know and frankly i wasn’t that curious.

it isn’t very often that you get the opportunity to photograph one of your cars at freeway speeds piloted by an entity other than yourself. but…. by cracky, this opportunity materialized a few weeks ago whilst enroute to the uber dork-fest known as the rose city bug-in. depicted here is my 1960 volkswagen beetle in fine fiddle.

this car may not be in “who’s who” but it certainly qualifies for an entry in “what was that ?!?!” not sure really what else to say, i’m rendered speechless aside from mentioning it reminds me of a tex avery cartoon.

The Volkswagen Type 181 “Kurierwagen”, popularly known in the United Kingdom as the Trekker, in the United States as the Thing, and in Mexico as the Safari, was a small military vehicle produced by Volkswagen from 1969 to 1983, although civilian sales stopped in 1980. It was based in part on Volkswagen’s Type 1 (Beetle), and was a continuation and improvement over the Kübelwagen, which had been used by the German military during World War II. The name Kübelwagen is an abbreviation of Kübelsitzwagen, meaning “bucket-seat car”.

i spotted this single cab on approach to the rose city bug-in. i got me quite a hankerin’ for a nice restored single cab with canvas hoop cargo bay. if anyone knows of a good one for sale, why let me know !

i spied this here ‘thing’ on the way to the rose city bug-in today….. lots of interesting air-cooled german machinery to gander at….. more photos in this series to come. on “the simpsons” tv series, patty and selma drive a Thing with a personalized license plate that reads “manh8tr”.

i spotted this dog taking his old man out for a ride here in portland…… thatsa gooood buoy!! Evoking the mythological creature of Indigenous peoples of North America, the Thunderbird entered production for the 1955 model year as a sporty two-seat convertible. Unlike the Chevrolet Corvette, it was not marketed as a sports car. Rather, Ford created a new market segment, the ‘Personal Car’ to position it.

this cayman was spotted on highway 26 moving east-bound towards portland. on the road and in-motion the cayman really shows its appeal….. a lovely car, but forever destined to be eclipsed by its big brother’s shadow.

while not as rare a sighting as the tatra, i don’t see too many vintage airstream trailers in these parts. my only wish was that it was towed by something more period than the yawn inducing suburban. In 1969, upon their return from the Moon, the crew of Apollo 11 were quarantined in the Mobile Quarantine Facility, a modified airtight Airstream trailer, until it could be determined that there was little likelihood of their having brought back lunar pathogens with them.

i think perhaps the 993 might be the quintessential 911. it represents the last of the revered air-cooled cars, yet it was technologically advanced. my only nit is the shaved head lamps……. the rest of the car looks so pure but the lamp cowls look like they were hastily amputated in a manner that conveys a certain lack of respect for the form. i dunno, maybe its just me……

another venerable brand and iconic car lost along the wayside to prove that as time marches on things do not necessarily improve. if a current car could match the series land rover, citroen 2cv or air-cooled beetle for simplicity, quality, fun and sheer design originality people would buy in droves. i say abandon convention, re-think uni-body and oddly shaped bloated design cues on every panel and build something bloody good for a change.

i initially had “57 chevy” as the title of this post and then realized within a couple of seconds how hackneyed that phrase is….. almost as played out as a rolling stones or beatle song…. do we really need to hear it again ?? anyhoo, i spotted this example cruising down highway 26 with a creepy robert blake looking guy behind the wheel and a six year old boy riding shotgun….. they did not look happy despite the gregarious color of the car, i reckon the burden of living up to america’s expectations of the 57 chevy mystique takes it toll.

i like the cadillac seville with the bustle-back. it symbolized a rare stroke of risk taking by the milque-toast and soul-dead general motors corp. when i was a kid my step-mom had a lemon meringue diesel example that i once drove as a hired 16 year-old chauffuer to a prince concert circa 1984. the car was subsequently sold to a good friend of the family who attempted to drive it back to atlanta…. needless to say it completely shit the bed somewhere around tennessee and after that the friendship kind of soured. herve villechaize would look good behind the wheel of this weird american ‘luxury’ car.

To meet the demands of the post-war market which called for economy cars, the Fiat 500 was rear-engined on the pattern of the Volkswagen Beetle. Several car makers followed this now nearly vanished design at the time and were quite successful, but only the Fiat 500 was used as the template for other car makers in Europe. Despite its diminutive size, the 500 proved to be an enormously practical and popular vehicle throughout Europe. Besides the two-door coupé, it was also available as the “Giardiniera” station wagon; this variant featured the standard engine laid on its side, the wheelbase lengthened by 10 cm (4 in) which yielded a usable rear seat, and a full-length sunroof.

there is no way around it, the volkswagen rabbit was a revolutionary vehicle. the boxy unlikely successor to the revered beetle, the rabbit represented the dawn of a new age of automobile design and technology…. a world away from the mechanical and hand-built aesthetic of the beetle. i spied this rabbit sprinting along and it occurred to me i seldom see nice roadworthy rabbits out and about.

i have been going through a pretty significant air-cooled volkswagen phase lately…… to the degree that i just purchased my 2nd beetle this year, a 1953 standard ‘zwitter’. there is something just so ‘right’ about an air-cooled volkswagen…. the quality, the simplicity, the mechanical nature, the design, the egalitarian appeal. i don’t see too many type 3’s running around, so when i spied this one i knew i had to apprehend it.

i was cruising south-bound interstate 5 during the magic hour when what did i spy creeping through the mist but a very serviceable and nimble looking porsche 928 GT ? this car had a commanding presence and seemed very nice. i predict good 928 porsches in the next 10-15 years will appreciate quite a bit and command a more appreciative collector audience. now the only problem is finding a ‘good one’.

i spied this 1968 volkswagen campmobile careening down the highway and noticed someone took pains to paint “penny lane” on the back of it as well as lower the front end….. Vroooom! “In Penny Lane there is a fireman with an hourglass. And in his pocket is a portrait of the Queen. He likes to keep his fire engine clean. It’s a clean machine”

a sheep in wolve’s clothing, the porsche 914 is actually a volkswagen in disguise. don’t believe me ? the 914’s birth certificate belly-button plate clearly reads “manufactured by volkswagen”. i have always referred to these as the “ice cream sandwich car” due to the horizontal, rectangular flat nature of the design. Volkswagen: There Is No Substitute.

the audi TT is a rare instance of a truly original ground breaking automotive design from an era of retro-this, retro-that PT cruiser and new beetle abominations. classic yet contemporary at the same time, the audi TT has a succinct and appealing germanic sensibility that is even more pronounced when painted silver. this example sports a great green/grey tone and has the smart sport package… truly a striking specimen!

(photo courtesy clive bullian) The Ferrari 308 GTB was introduced at the Paris Salon in October 1975. It showed a similar mechanical layout to the Bertone-styled 308 GT4, but was equipped with only two seats. The beautifully styled coachwork by Pininfarina incorporated some visual aspects of the fantastic Dino 246 GT. Early 308 GTB’s had a lightweight fiberglass body, in 1977 production changed to steel bodies. The powerful 3 litre V8-engine was equipped with four Weber carbs, which made the engine sound superior to all its fuel-injected successors.

(photo courtesy of clive bullian) like the porsche 911, the alfa romeo spider had an extremely long production run relatively unchanged. produced from 1966 thru 1993, the final year of production of the spider was almost like buying a brand new true 1960’s true italian sports car…. er, strike that… you actually WERE buying a true 1960’s sports car, and how cool was that ?? by the time the series 4 was produced, alfa romeo decided that in order to update the exterior, ground flairs and plastic bumpers were they way to go…. but still a very pretty car. i only wish that like porsche, alfa romeo decided to continue refining and updating the spider instead of scrapping it and unleashing the abomination they replaced it with, which was to purists, a spider in name only.

the first generation honda prelude was a curious ’sports car’… merely a sports car in name as surely a true sports car cannot be created based on a honda civic and conjured together with a few stretches of sheet metal, a paper-clip and some chewing gum. most first generation preludes (1979-1982) have been resting in the bone yard for quite a spell by now. this example sported large diameter wheels and was in excellent condition…… a rare sighting of a car whose philosophical heritage at best can be traced to the volkswagen beetle derived karmann-ghia, but that is giving the prelude and honda a hell of a lot more credit than due.

relying exclusively on the iphone to shoot photos has its hazards and can produce random accidental results. i have positively identified the subject as a 1964 cadillac de ville based on forensic research of tail fins. this car was heavily modified complete with a sawzall convertible top and outrageous paint…… so i scrambled to to get my iphone ready to shoot. the iphone can have unpredicatble shutter speeds and though the car was in frame, by the time the shutter opened and closed we were left with just a tiny snippet of fin. but damn it all to hell, i do like it !

the 2001-2006 iteration of the mini cooper was a game-changing automotive break through. with uncanny performance, quality, design and of course the bulldog ‘wide stance’ this car was unlike anything offered before or since. BMW, in its infinite wisdom, recognized that the public was ready for a small high performance hatch-back ‘luxury car’. wait a minute, a hatchback ?? yes! a hatchback. a throw-back to the eighties and continuing in the path blazed not only by the original mini but also by the VW GTI and peugeot 205, this mini was definitely no chevette. who woulda thunk this was possible ? certainly not rover, bmw’s initial partner in the project as rover wanted an economy car, whilst BMW supported a small sporting car and finally prevailed and thank goodness they did !

(Spotted in portland on highway 26 east) When Alessandro de Tomaso acquired Maserati in 1976, he had ambitious plans for the marque. His plan was to combine the prestige of the Maserati brand with a sports car that would be more affordable than the earlier high-priced models that had traditionally made up the Maserati range. In fact, Maserati ceased making supercars like the ones developed under Citroën ownership altogether, like the Bora and Khamsin. The Biturbo was initially a strong seller and brought Italian prestige to a wide audience, with sales of about 40,000 units. Sales figures fell in subsequent years, until de Tomaso sold the company to Fiat. Biturbo is number 28 in the BBC book of “Crap Cars” and is Time Magazine’s worst car of 1984. (from wikipedia)

everyone has their own personal favorite iteration of the porsche 911, the only car i know of that can boast continuous production from 1964 to present, so there are a lot of versions to choose from. for me, i chose the 1994 964. why ? it is the most advanced porsche that still retains the classic porsche look, specifically the front cowls and upright head-lights. this is the quintessential 911 form….. updated, yet classic. i like this version so much that if i found a minty fresh 1994 964 2 with under 35k miles on it, i would be very tempted to sell my 2009 997 S and buy the 964. What Is Your Favorite 911 ????

the E39 M5 has been referred to as “the best motor car on the planet” ….. after owning a 1995 E34 540i with 6 speed manual transmission i can understand how such a claim was plausible and not simply hyperbole. the 540i was as close to perfection as one could expect from a manufactured good. i regret i have never driven a E39 M5 nor the monstrous E60 though i can imagine they are good…. very good. i considered purchasing a E60 M5 but after comparing performance, and considering timelessness, engineering and style i chose a 2009 porsche 997 S as it is a keeper for life where as the M5 will always just be a souped-up sedan, it does not have the pedigree and heritage of 60+ years of direct engineering & design refinement that the 997 benefits from eons of perfecting the 356 and 911…. plus there is something just really cool about having a rear-engined super-car.

immortalized in the films ‘risky business’ and ’scarface’, the porsche 928 is a good design but currently is in that awkward stage between dated and classic. few pristine examples have survived and i’m assuming that in 5-10 years these cars will become increasingly desirable. though who really covets a 924 or a 928 ? the only porsche ever made that people actually want is the 911. if i had it my way from here on out porsche would only build the iconic 911 and the boxster. porsche should keep on refining these cars for another 40 years and kick the cayenne, cayman and panamera to the curb. if porsche wants to make a different car, then i vote for something small and semi-affordable like a hatchback GTI type car or a modern day BMW 2002. the catch is that it would have to be an entirely original driver’s car from the ground up and not a bunch of re-branded VW bullshit like the cayenne.

Most ferrari mondials were painted rosso red, but some were black or silver, and a few were dark blue. At least two, one UK market car, and one now in Southern California, were painted white. The one white unit in Southern Ca was owned by Nicole Brown Simpson who bought it new and drove it often as a daily driver right up until her murder on June 12, 1994.

aaahh, it’s so nice that this car has its make and year printed right on its license plate……. makes for quick and easy identification for feeble car spotters. this car reminds me of Lumpy Rutherford for some reason….. dunno why, must be sort of glitch in my synapses.

being a huge fan of the porsche 911 i can’t help but cringe a little when i see a cabriolet or targa……. from a design perspective the classic hard-top lines are soo much better. and it always adds insult-to-injury to see a cabriolet or targa wearing the ridiculous whale-tail. talk about taking something terrific and making it incredibly douchey. that said, even with those indignities it is still fun to spot a 911 and snap a photo of it while its at play.

spotted this porsche 997 turbo today whilst going into town. please excuse the derth of posts recently, its not really car spotting season and i have’nt been very diligent in posting the back catalog, sorry ! anyway, this here p’turbo oughta tide y’all over until i unearth some more vehicular nourishment…. bon appetite car dweebs!

(photo submitted by molly mcglynn) the german mercedes sprinter van is an inspired commercial vehicle for the 21st century… meanwhile gm, ford & chrysler still try to pass off 1970’s technology vans as new 2010 vehicles. despite suffering from excruciating banality, has the american citizenry become sophisticated enough to reject the big 3’s cynical proffering of obsolete soviet worthy vans ? or could it be that the american cargo van has become emblematic of a corrupt and confused society?

judging by the golden rays of light fondly beaming down onto this 1955 chevrolet bel air, i can only surmise that god is sending his love down from heaven blessing the car and its occupants. the only thing missing from this scene are birds fluttering about and cute juvenile fauna prancing alongside the vehicle. i have to wonder why the occupants of the car have the top up… are they trying to prevent god’s love from penetrating ? are they some sort of ungrateful atheists? or perhaps fearful albino’s who burn easily ?

i like to brand sightings of cars so old they clearly belong to an era that few can remember as “phantoms“….. ambassadors from another time sent to the future to remind us all of our own mortality and impending obsolescence. they help to put things into perspective and hopefully remind us to enjoy life a bit more and not take everything so seriously, for soon we will all be DEAD ! (or ideally ghosts driving phantom classic cars)

a 1967 chevrolet chevelle malibu in full honyak regalia sporting patriotic flags, loud mufflers and a myriad of motor-head stickers on the rear wind-screen. kind of reminds me of a tom waits song………. “and it’s a skid mark tattoo on the asphalt blue….. was that a malibu?”

this late 1960’s porsche 911 was caught tootling up the highway 26 hill, all-the-while shamelessly sporting what appears to be a bogus RS tail spoiler. it was almost getting past the magic hour so i quickly snapped a few snaps in low light and i like the outre’ ‘artistic’ affect the photygiraffes spawned.

another shot of the lovely ferrari testarossa spotted on august 25th….. this time with the experimental tilt/shift miniature faking iphone application. whaddya think ?? yeah or neah on the miniature faking ?? i’m leaning towards NO.

its kind of tricky for the un-initiated to not be dismissive of ferrari’s and their owners….. after all, at first glance they appear to be flamboyant toys for over-grown boys. even i find myself leaning towards this type of prejudice on newer ferraris. though now i have real first hand appreciation of ferrari’s since i recently took delivery of a 308 gtb and have drank the ferrari kool-aide. the stiff tractor-like clutch, the manual steering, the manual brakes, the gated-shifter combined with growly engine sounds and nimble handling equal an uncanny visceral driving experience that has to be experienced to truly understand the allure. it was fitting that i spotted this testarossa gracing the streets this morning as i am now armed with the proper appreciation to realize it was a special sighting….. truly a beautiful car.

continuing the theme started below by the geo metro festooned with trucker smoke-stacks, it is the perfect time to unleash this unholy low-riding creation to an unsuspecting world. spotted parading down interstate 5 on august 8th, this is the automotive equivalent of walking around with your jeans half-way down yer arse and your under wear showing…. you know the look. sometimes i am filled with wonder as to the extent the human race will go to to be deliberately ridiculous in the 21st century.

photo and testimonial provided by mark ford: i was on the freeway when this fairly new geo metro driven by two honyaks with their hats turned backwards entered the roadway and cut across two lanes of traffic. it looks like they bypassed the catalytic converter and ran basic steel exhaust pipe out behind both doors and up the sides of the car and over the roof line… the car had a ‘hole in the muffler’ sound upon acceleration and when I pulled up next to the driver for a closer look, he gave me the ‘rocker’ hand sign…. priceless!

as we live a life of ease, every one of us, has all we need… sky of blue, and sea of green…. and a yellow submarine… so we lived beneath the waves… In our yellow submarine.

beetles, transporters, karmann-ghias & type III air-cooled volkswagens were the coolest cars ever built. they had an irresistible combination of austerity, functionality, affordability, quality, and were ingeniously engineered & designed. these cars appealed to people with brains: professors, hippies, architects, college kids, beatniks, enlightened suburbanites, frugal housewives, design conscious proletariats, etc. an air-cooled volkswagen was not merely an automobile, it became a physical manifestation of ideology, culture, equality and hope for a better world. perhaps the only similar galvanizing product that exists today is the iphone & apple computer…. yet these fall well short in the charm department compared to a minty fresh 1963 vw beetle.

this shot is ostensibly of the new camaro in the lane ahead, though it is also a nice shot of the nether-regions of my 1970 mercedes 280se. the new camaro is a very well executed design and the quality seems good, though i notice that american and japanese cars seem nice when they are new, but after a few years the designs look crude and the cars themselves are falling apart. contrast this with my 1970 mercedes which is about 40 years old and still looks and drives new…. the fact that the design has stood the test of time is really just the ‘icing-on-the-gravy’.

continuing with a second example of the peculiar distortion that can occur when using the iphone for fast motion photography, this bmw was captured merely seconds after the mercedes below. the elongated hood conjures images of an old tex avery cartoon car…. if you squint closely you can even spy a rascally wolf behind the wheel.

one of the more esoteric qualities of shooting moving subjects exclusively with the iphone is that interesting distortion is produced under certain conditions. this passing mercedes benz 450sl was captured in a fleeting moment and the surreal depiction appears as a one dimensional card board cut-out….. yet in actuality it is steel, rubber, glass and man.

i guess this begs the question, are rams really that tough ?? aren’t they related to lambs ? are lambs tough ??? feeble philosophic wonderings aside, this macho looking truck was captured pushing through the highway 26 tunnel. (love the grisly grease drippings oozing down the side of the tunnel wall) i didn’t get a good view of the driver so i don’t know if he was an ironic hipster or a genuine handle-bar mustachio’d libertarian NRA member preparing for the apocalypse.

spotted heading west on highway 26, this car has a lot of appeal, though “deluxe” is a corny american term commonly used to specify hamburgers and what-not. the design of this car is quite good….. the sleek proportions demonstrate a ‘form-follows-function’ sensibility. perhaps this vehicle was a last hurrah of ‘good design’ for american cars before the 1950’s begat superfluous fins and other gimmicks & gewgaws.

The 190SL was also referred to as the ‘Nitribitt-Mercedes’ after the scandal surrounding the murder of call girl Rosemarie Nitribitt. Nitribitt succeeded in getting male attention and acquired a stock of posh society clients. She became very wealthy rather quickly, which she demonstrated by buying a black Mercedes 190 SL with red leather upholstery in 1956 and drove it around Frankfurt to solicit customers. in November 1957 she was found dead in her apartment in Frankfurt, her body showing signs of strangulation and a head wound. She was interred at the Nordfriedhof Düsseldorf….. Her head, however, was kept as evidence in police custody and later exhibited in the Kriminal-Museum in Frankfurt; it was eventually buried in February, 2008.

driving in the lane astride it, i was struck by this car’s pristine condition. the shape of the mercedes SL of this era has always been a favorite, and so impressed by this particular specimen i felt compelled to risk life and limb to recklessly snap a photo whilst traveling at 60 mph. this photo became the impetus to create the “cars i have seen” site.

when i caught up to this car much to my surprise i spied an aging but still stylish tony montana behind the wheel….. apparently he has been enrolled in the federal witness relocation program in oregon all these years. say hello to my lil’ friend !