<![CDATA[Jalopnik: You Are There]]> http://cache.jalopnik.com/assets/base/img/thumbs140x140/jalopnik.com.png <![CDATA[Jalopnik: You Are There]]> http://jalopnik.com/tag/you are there http://jalopnik.com/tag/you are there <![CDATA[Fairfield County Gold Coast Concours d'Elegance]]> Ahhh, the Gold Coast, that stretch of far Southwest Connecticut where the real estate is lapped gently by the salt water of Long Island Sound and residents' asses are lapped gently by exotic car dealers. In a place where income is as disposable as toenail clippings there's bound to be some hotness, and I'm not talking about Stepford wives and the Postfather's favorite lemon tarts. I mean cars that draw from grown men the same sounds Marcus Vindictus made at Empress Nympho. Falls ends the summer concours season the way a blue light and metal grate end a moth, so I hope this gallery is enough to sustain us all until the next time we can lay eyes on a '27 Isotta Fraschini. More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=313072&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[The Rolex Vintage Festival at Lime Rock Park]]> [Please to enjoy another fine edition of You Are There by Jalopnik stringer and Lime Rock denizen, James Gribbon.] The cloudiest part of this past Labor Day in rural Connecticut was my head. I was winding down after a long weekend, which was ending on a high note. I was entering Lime Rock Park for the Rolex Vintage Festival. The Gatorade was helping too. I heard a distant rumbling that made me raise my head. Just then, a maroon BMW M5 pace car wheeled into view and I heard a Ferrari bark as the driver blipped the throttle. Then, there were dozens of Ferraris, Alfas and a lone Fiat, all emerging from behind the trees to take their parade laps. Not many things can get gluey blood flowing better than a cacophony of Italian engines. My half-lidded eyes opened wider. This was going to be a good day. More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=296766&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[You Are There: The 2007 ALMS Northeast Grand Prix]]> There's a bit of folk wisdom that goes, "It 's not who you are, it's who you're with." Once, in Miami visiting my sister, we went to one of those impossibly hip clubs in South Beach, where her friend knew the staff. We were whisked past the plebes in line to a section of the club cordoned off just for us, while champagne, magnums of vodka, mixers and fresh strawberries were set on our table. Without a connection, they'd have tossed my khakis-and-plaid-shirt-wearing ass into Biscayne Bay. In racing, that kind of access is a rare gift. But buy a grandstand ticket to an ALMS race, and — though you may not get the eye from an Italian countess — you'll get close enough to burn your hand on a sun-baked R10. Sports car racing seems to be on an upswing of popularity, good news due in part to ALMS honchos deciding to grant any spectator with a ticket stub in their hand close contact with the teams, cars and drivers. That is, VIP access for regular schlubs. That's how it was this past Saturday for the Northeast Grand Prix. More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=276449&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[You Are There: Period Cars Spotted at "Indiana Jones" Sequel Filming]]> They're filming the fourth installment of the Indiana Jones series at Yale University in New Haven, Conn. this week, and I stopped by to score some photos of the prop cars used in the production. Producers have run several streets on or near the Yale campus through a time machine, giving the already venerable locations a mid-'50s patina. Period delivery trucks line a street on which a corner Starbucks is now a corner bar, mannequins sport contemporary fashions, and parking meters and streetlights have been removed, while DeSotos, Packards and one very popular, very narrow Crosmobile Super sit idle. Almost all the cars have also been given the daily-driver look via the application of dirty water. I don't know why, but they managed to ruin a perfectly good Evo VIII by sticking a jib on its roof and loading the interior with tubes and electronics. Nothing attracts a crowd like a crowd, so I ambled over to where an earlier shriek from the gathered masses suggested that Mr. Ford had recently arrived in an Escalade parked nearby, but nothing much happened while I was there. I did spy a few extras in plaid skirts and sweaters walking around in saddle shoes and clutching books, though. Something tells me the coeds will be hitting on Herr Doktor Chones once again. Enjoy the gallery ˆ my personal favorite is probably the Continental Coupe, but keep and eye out for the unintentional Self-Portrait Of The Author As A Young Man. – James Gribbon More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=274360&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[You Are There: Forza Showdown, Epilogue]]> So, as you may have already seen, I got my shot. More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=245413&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[You Are There: SpeedTV's Forza Motorsport Showdown, Episode 3]]> The morning of the second mod day rolled around, and I woke up in a good mood despite the insistent nagging of a low-grade hangover. Bourbon's all fun and games until you arise with a steel band around your skull and Technicolor breath. I grabbed a few cereal bars and an energy drink at the set and looked around for ways to make myself useful. The fog was burning off, both literally and figuratively, when I walked outside the main garage to look for some missing gear in one of our vans and spotted Freddie heading towards the set from the Chateau Le Dump. More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=244143&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[You Are There: SpeedTV's Forza Motorsport Showdown, Episode 2]]> I stood in the shower the day after the first set of races and tried to loosen up painfully stiff muscles in the hot water. Today was to be a modification day before the autocross and drifting events. What that meant for me so far was that I'd gotten to wake up a little later than usual, which along with a cereal bar I'd grabbed the night before did wonders for my outlook on life. I'd seen the shiny new go-fast parts hanging on the walls of the "Speed Shop" the crew had constructed in the garage area set aside for us on the grounds of Road Atlanta, and I wondered which teams would take what. I counted off the months in my mind until I could see the production on television and catch Ken's reckless pass of Jace, which had been the talk of the crew the night before. The sun was warm and I could already hear air guns as I walked onto the set. More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=242342&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[You Are There: SpeedTV's Forza Motorsport Showdown]]> It's official. Any idiot in America can to be on reality TV. I'm proof. I was there the whole time Speed TV was filming the new series, "Forza Motorsport Showdown," which premiered last Thursday (11:00 pm EST). And that's why I'm going to be your guy behind the scenes of the show. Here's how it works. Teams of supposedly amateur drivers compete in multiple challenges — from road course and autocross driving, to oval, drag, and drifting — for a shot at $100,000. Each week I'll be conveying what it was like to ditch my office job to get sunburned, shit on and generally treated like the Gimp for an outside shot to drive someone else's car really, really fast. So check out the show, or spoil it for yourselves each week. First episode, after the jump. More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=240023&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[You Are There: GM Product-Testing Party, Colorado Edition]]> Our new buddy Ryan happened by a GM soir e in the Rocky Mountains, at which the company's new, turbocharged Ecotec direct-injection mill was the most honored of guests. Luckily, he brought along his digicam
I've seen a few mildly disguised Solstice GXPs over the last couple of days near Keystone Mountain in Colorado. Then yesterday, I ran into a whole slew of gm test vehicles in a hotel parking lot in Dillon, CO. There happened to be a mechanic working on one of the Solstices at the time, so I asked him a few questions. It sounded like it was actually a Bosch testing program for cold weather/high altitude performance of the direct injection ecotec turbo. Apparently they're already making 280bhp and shooting for 300bhp for next year. And GM is planning to stick the mill in a bunch of different performance models: They had two undisguised Cobalt SSs with the same motor, and an HHR as well.
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]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=151790&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[You Are There: Inside a Ford Edge Focus Group]]> Automakers spend millions on qualitative market research, but few outside the industry really know what goes on inside one of their secretive new-model focus groups (sorry, automotive review sessions). Only those who've made it past the byzantine approval process know for sure. According to one reader, stories of marathon Ouija board sessions, cocktails spiked with brainwave-synchronization drugs and presentations by radical bodypart modification artists appear to be the fabrications of an overactive mind, but that doesn't mean the sessions are any less fun. (Well, maybe a little less fun.) You do see new car models before practically anyone else in the world, and even walk off with a few bucks. Read that reader's account of a recent, pre-market consumer review of the 2007 Ford Edge crossover in Los Angeles. More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=143847&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[You Are There: At the Arizona International Auto Show]]> Our buddy Chris stopped by the Arizona International Auto Show in Phoenix over the weekend. It was 145 degrees in the shade, the peyote was flowing, the Armadillos were trying not to give anyone leprosy, and the locals were shooting at polecats from the portholes of their Gulfstream trailers. Next year, we're going too, if only so we don't have to make up an entire opening scenario based on Jim Jarmusch movies.
Best interior award goes to the audi a6 avant — everything just right, excellent materials, and the seats were a Amaretto color. Just great. 2nd prize went to the s4 cabriolet. Drool.
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