continuing my journey from stockholm to amsterdam, i entered danish road-space and spied this majestic old mercedes-benz ponton sedan. this shot was taken about 60 kilometers prior to embarking on the ferry which carried me into german road-space. an interesting thing about denmark is the tax on a vehicle is 100% of the purchase price….. a real discouragement to car ownership. on the bright side, denmark has the best modern bridge designs my weary eyes have ever seen.

i spied this porsche panamera in Zürich switzerland attempting to cross the road. is it just me, or does anyone else feel very disappointed in the design of this car ? if porsche was going to go to all the trouble of making a sedan, don’t you think they would have taken pains to make it look a little sleeker and less like some sort of bloated mis-guided hyundai ?? for petes sake !

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.

i hereby declare this specimen a 1966 datsun 411 “bluebird”….. near as i can tell, thats what this contraption is. really, its a bloody miracle that this car is still on the streets….. as japanese cars were semi-disposable and still are. thin gauge body metal, cheap interior materials and hard, careless use has conspired to put these cars into bone yards faster than one can say ‘dextromethorphan‘. with styling cues taken from alfa romeo and lancia, this photo is proof the japanese have aspired to make knock-offs of fine european motorcars for a long time…. the only difference is now they have entire divisions dedicated to making knock-off mercedes-benz and bmw’s…. yes you heard me right….. lexus anyone ? shameful. but a 1966 bluebird that stumbles onto the freeway out of nowhere is harmless and cute…. the statute of limitation for this design infraction has long since elapsed.

in part, the original intent of this site was to display a few esoteric semi-arty images, so please accept this snippit of e28 5-series as a genuine, valid & true car-spotting photygiraffe. honest osshiffer, i tried to get the whole car in the frame, but being that i was in a moving car trying to snap at it, and the subject was in motion too…. well, by the time the shutter opened and closed on the iphone, this here was all she yepped by crikey ! (and i like it)