Exotic or rare vehicle sightings

[larrybuck]

Just thought I'd have some fun and reading what observances you may have enjoyed over the years. For several years, I was right in the thick of the Portland Oregon area, and got to see some interesting stuff. The first one that comes to mind for me was in very downtown portland, I saw a 68 to 72 Ferrari Daytona 365, bright red of course which was a Block in front of me, and I rolled my window down as soon as I could so I could hear that V12. Also at a different time, I saw a Lancia Scorpion, which was a great European rally car that literally has the Ferrari Dino engine. In the suburbs south of Portland, between Southern Tigard and Sherwood, I saw a Lamborghini Espada oh, that was being driven. On a road trip with my family, I once saw a beautiful blue Maserati Indy out on Interstate 80 in the middle of nowhere in Wyoming. In the early 80s I drove with a friend in my 65 6 cylinder 3 speed manual on the floor Mustang all the way down to Long Beach California to watch a Formula 1 race. We got to see a Lamborghini Miura blow past us on the freeway, which half a day later we came across parked at the race event. By the way, the Mustang got 30 miles per gallon at 55 Cruise speed. The sighting over all these years that has shocked me the very most, was when I was traveling on the two-lane Highway between Albany Oregon and Corvallis, when oncoming to me came one of the most beautiful cars I've ever seen in my whole life. I was so blown away, I was almost wrecking off the road craning my neck to look back as it disappeared over my left shoulder. I did a lot of research to find out later on what I had observed, was a light brown Detomaso Mangusta! I fully realize that in those years where I lived near a larger populated area, these sightings are more frequent, and if some of you live in the LA area, you might be yawning as this is everyday stuff to you. But I mentioned rare Vehicles as well. Rare has different definitions for different people. So I'm thinking about you guys like in Nebraska Iowa or somewhere like that, and maybe for you it is seeing a Nicki Chevrolet or a Motion car, a 64 Ford Thunderbolt Etc. Has anybody on here ever seen an actual Z16 Chevelle? Yes I've seen a couple of like a 2006 Ford GT40, and nowadays I see an occasional Lambo Huracan, and one Sunday when the dealership was closed I was traveling through Vegas and looked at a whole bunch of different Lamborghinis and Ferraris that were actually just parked outside on the lot. Which brings me to the statement if you see a lot of number of anyting, how human nature is to turn into a jaded mind which minimulized things!!! I had the treat of being at the 2015 Laguna Seca historic races weekend, saw two Maserati Boras whose owners for literally living out of a tent there for the weekend. I was sleeping inside of my 1st Gen c r x. You can ask me how I made a motorhome out of it! I was able to walk into the pit area and literally walk up the two actual Ferrari GTO in your 1960 to 63 vintage. Nobody was guarding them even. I could have rubbed my hands all over them and then ran for my life is soon after I would have been arrested of course smile smile. Of course, I have to throw in here that one time on a family trip to the coast, we saw Ron Tonkin and his wife in a Ferrari parked staring at the ocean. Ron Tonkin, now long since retired is the big Ferrari dealer in Portland in whose hands are now run by his son. In summary, I got to throw a plug in to the wonderful car museum up in Tacoma Washington that is shaped like an aluminum loaf of bread. If you live anywhere in the Pacific Northwest or travel to this area, it is a worthwhile visit. Car museums are dying like bookstores are! Get to one while you can! I got to see a good one in Mississippi about a year before it closed. Right now Drag strips are starting to close like crazy as well as real estate prices are off the charts! I just now remembered a black Tatra ??that I saw parked at the Portland historic races a few years ago that was all black and has a rear engine helicopter engine.

[freebeard]

Tucker had a flat six Lycoming engine, but Tatra had their own air-cooled V-8.

The coolest hings I ever saw was Ron Courtney's X-51's taillights reflecting off the rainy street of McMinnville, OR, enroute to the A&W.


kustomkingdom.blogspot.com/2013/11/the-x-51-1951-ford-ron-courtney

Do you know the history of Gary Emory at Eola Viillage? He quit out of the NW Porsche dealer chain with a barnload of parts. Every year they had a Porsche camp-out and they let the VW folk in on Sundays. He ran a full restoration shop. People would fly in from all over the country and drive out in their Porsche. www.emorymotorsports.com/emory-campout/ His father was Neil Emory, and had Valley Custom in California in the 1950s.


https://flatsixes.com/porsche-cultur...rsche-campout/

Best thing I ever saw there (2 years in a row) was a showroom-fresh unrestored 1954 VW 23-window bus, Chestnut Brown over Sealing Wax Red. The interior was unbelievable and it was right-hand drive.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Our definitions of exotic may vary, but last Friday I spotted a '84 Jaguar XJS and have also seen a Maserati Biturbo of similar vintage.

[larrybuck]

Yes, our definition of Exotics might be different, but it's always nice to see something interesting. I have never heard of the Emorys thank you for sharing and yes that's certainly would have been a cool sight to see in McMinnville. It's nice to know in the history of serious custom cars, that Southern California didn't have them all! Very interesting about the Porsche parts, it seems to my eye that the 356 seems almost more aerodynamic than the 911 series, but I may be totally off.

[freebeard]

Eola Village is a story in itself. Up to the 1940s it was a horse cavalry post, complete with race track. By the 1960s Amity had a reputation as being 'Little Tijuana', but I think it was Eola Village they were talking about.

Oh well there is still the Bug-Run [maybe]. https://local.aarp.org/event/annual-...odburn-or.html
Annual Northwest VW Bug Run, Swap Meet, Car Show and Drag Racing
Saturday, Jun 4, 2022 at 8:00 a.m.

If that's exotic enough for you.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by freebeard

If that's exotic enough for you.

Considering that even some clearly modded Beetles I see once in a while are still quite conservative...

[JSH]

Different kind of exotic but on my recent drive cross-country this was in the hotel parking lot in Boise.

A Level 4 Autonomous Freightliner Cascadia. That is a LOT of cameras, RADARs, and LIDARs

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Went for a walk with the dog before the rain poured again, and spotted a hybrid Porsche Panamera Sport Turismo. Looks better than a regular Panamera. Odd enough, I see more of the hybrids than the non-hybrids...

[larrybuck]

I thought this was pretty cool to look at. I saw this first hand at a truck stop in New Mexico while I was on my job delivering a truck. I had a chance to converse briefly with two of the three guys that were literally just touring in it as a test. I asked for a ballpark figure of what kind of mileage they got and they would not share that information with me.

[mpgmike]

That's me & my son in the end scene movie #1 Back to the Future DeLorean. Does that qualify?