Pic post: Mercedes SL65 Black Series (with a side of Ferrari 458)

While the misses was getting her hair cut over at Vidal Sassoon this past Saturday, I decided to take a walk over to Park Avenue and 55th. The area is home to a few car dealerships, Ferrari being one of them, and I figured they might have something to drool over. They did...599, California, yadda yadda, and a super clean, super nice 458.



Now, I tend to be a purist for Ferrari colors (red always, yellow sometimes, rarely anything else) but in white this car was pretty jaw droppingly smooth looking.



It had absolutely nothing on what the next door neighbors had on display. This car stopped me in my tracks, and for a Mercedes to do that, well, it's got to be something special.



And special this car is apparently. The 2010 Mercedes SL65 AMG Black Series. One of only 350 to be made (and this one was already sold), twin turbo V12, nearly 700hp and over 700 ft-lb of torque, lots of carbon fiber, and a very W-I-D-E body. 570 lbs lighter than the standard SL, and able to stop you in your tracks faster than any Lamborghini.



And take you to 60mph in under 4 seconds. While zero to 60 times are pretty worthless at telling the real performance of a car, it is impressive. And the car looks like it's worth all that and then some. I've never been a Mercedes man, but this car could convert me...

_WRS

And now, a late update: A Lettuce Slaughter in the Woods

Before the insanity of Waterfest took over last week I had promised a few more pictures of Josh's art opening here in NYC. The passion for the VW is well known by those who are friends with Josh, and as such the curator of the show, who consequently painted on / over / around the pieces in the show, specifically requested a photo from Josh featuring some element of this culture.



The show, A Lettuce Slaughter in the Woods, was orginized by Dave Miko, and is at Real Fine Arts, on Meeker in Brooklyn.



The show closes in 18 days so you don't have a ton of time to go check it out, but if you do, look for the shaved bay Mk1, now officially a part of the NYC art world.

_WRS

To continue the thought

In my last post I touched on some of my frustration with living in a the most metropolitan area in the USA, and being a 'car guy.' Coming from Baltimore, where it was very easy to go from city to perfect, fairly empty and challenging back roads in about 10-15 minutes maximum, to a city like NYC can be frustrating. Here it takes a minimum of 30-45 minutes to get to something other than stop lights and divided highway (and that's being generous) and even then more time to get to a road that you can really wind it out on and be alone with your thoughts. (and not around a million mini vans and taxi cabs) Then another 30-45 minutes (don't forget about traffic at the Lincoln!) to get back home...it's exhausting.

Now that I have lived in NYC for about 5 years, the first three of those years being without any kind of car, I now rarely drive for any sort of reason other than basic transportation. That bothers me. It's a frustrating predicament to be in as someone who has always very much enjoyed the act of driving. I can recall more than one vacation or trip where I enjoyed the route more than the results.



I'm not sure what the solution is. Perhaps I'm just too lazy to find the fun places to drive near my apartment, but I have yet to see anything other than the recently repaved part of the BQE that makes me think anything other than 'this bump is going to hurt, please don't smash my oil pan.' I'm by no means downing NYC car culture and those in and around the tri-state area by the way. Quite the opposite in fact...to be a 'car guy' here requires a diligence like none other, just pure, unrelenting dedication and sacrifice.

To run a modified car in NYC means to subject yourself and your vehicle to any number of hazards that are beyond the scope of 90% of the rest of the country. Baltimore was never a cake walk when you were downtown, but it's definitely not like one of the Boroughs. You break down here, you don't find a nice side street to leave it on until you can borrow a trailer. There will be no spot, no parking lot, no anyplace that will be safe from tow-trucks and tickets. It's rough, and not for everybody. Maybe not even for me.

Had I grown up here I can't say I'd be the same person I am now (obviously) or would even care about cars, but while I'm here I owe it to myself to find out more about what makes the NYC scene tick. I've been saying that for years, now it's time to investigate...watch this space...

_WRS

Whenever someone tells me to lower my car more...

I think of scenes like this. This can happen to you at any time when you drive in NYC, and if it can stop a taxi dead in its tracks, I hate to think what this would do to a poor Mk3...



_WRS

BMW Art Cars at Grand Central Terminal

I really wasn't sure what to expect when I went to see the BMW art cars at Grand Central Terminal. I knew they were BMWs. I knew they were handed over to famous artists for the design / paint / etc, but didn't know much else. I was surprised, pleasantly, that BMW would basically hand over brand new race cars for the purpose. And then they raced them. At Le Mans! The whole thing started back in 1975, and since then BMW has commissioned 16 more. Not all are racers, but a number of them are.

I was really happy to get a chance to see these up close and in person on their North American tour. These are not the sort of thing that come around every year, and NYC is one of only two stops inside the USA. They are not only priceless works of art, but they also have racing provenance. Amazing. Not one but three cars which raced at Le Mans in the 70's were close enough to touch, and in the middle of Grand Central Terminal in New York City.
My favorite by far is the Group 5 320 by Roy Lichtenstein. The car is my style...obviously based around a street car, but fully built up for competition use in the loosely defined Group 5 class. The little 2000cc turbo 4-cylinder made up to 600 horsepower and topped out at 160mph+, so obviously it didn't have anything on the all-conquering Porsche 935s of the era, but it managed 2nd in class and 9th overall in the 1977 event. There are atmospheric versions making upwards of 300hp, but it wasn't clear which this was, and inside info is a bit spotty. The display signs said 300hp turbo, but then they also said 1st in class at LeMans, which is incorrect, so it's either one or the other, and if it came in second behind a monster 935 I'm guessing it has the 600hp turbo unit under the bonnet.

Sadly they are being packed up tomorrow to head to Mexico City, but I took a decent number of pictures. You can check out all of them in my Flickr set. I'll be heading back tomorrow for a second look, and to take a few snaps that I may have missed.

_WRS