Car Throttle

On the first Saturday of every month, the Porsche Club of America has a morning car show in Briar Creek. It’s always worth going to take a look, because you just never know what’s going to turn up.  Today was no exception, with plenty of drool-worthy exotics present, friendly people, and coffee.  Hey, it’s an early show -- coffee is a must.

The first thing that caught my eye as I walked into the show was undoubtedly this:

Yes, that’s a Porsche Carrera GT.  I apologize for the poor picture quality, as it was a bit overcast and nasty outside.  This is the second Carrera GT I’ve personally seen in my travels, and considering they cost $440,000 new and there were only 1,270 produced, the chances of seeing one ever is pretty slim.

And here’s a quick video of the CGT revving up.  It almost sounds like the car doesn’t have a flywheel at all, which another bystander noticed as you’ll hear in the video.  “Race car for the street” has never been more true.

Speaking of rare Porsches, how about a 959?

Basically a Group C racer for the road, the 959 was Porsche’s last “technical showcase” car before the Carrera GT, back in the late eighties.  Only 337 total were made, and they were never imported to the US -- which makes seeing one rather special.  The original pricetag (back in 1986) was a rather shocking $225,000.

A shot from the rear showing the air-extraction vents.  Let’s have a look under the engine cover…

That’s a 2.85L water-cooled boxer six with twin turbochargers and 444bhp.  This was the fastest car in the world for a while, capable of 0-60 in under 4 seconds and nearly 200mph top out.  It was a showcase of all the kn0w-how Porsche had, back then.

Porsche’s hardcore 911 GT3, looking menacing as usual in white.  What a gorgeous car.

While we’re on the topic of Porsches, how about some with the engines up front?  This 928 S4 was extremely well preserved, and I’m featuring it here because my love affair with the 928 is pretty well-documented at this point.

This Porsche 944 Turbo was absolutely mint, and the wheels were a great choice.  Keep an eye out for a Buyer’s Guide on the 944/968 in the near future here at CarThrottle.

Moving on to some BMW’s here, this (E46) M3 featured enough carbon fibre to choke a horse, as well as a rather nice supercharger setup.  The rumor is 480 wheel horsepower, which seems like… more than enough!

On the other end of the M3 scale, this original E30 still looks quite sharp after all these years.  Boxed fender flares never go out of style…

A rather rare E34-generation BMW M5, actually parked outside the event lot.  These used the last of the big BMW Inline Sixes with ITB’s, and they’re very rarely spotted these days.  Nice car.

As far as the small, mid-engined Ferraris go, none has looked better since the F355.  That’s a bold statement, but I stand by it.

There’s the Acura NSX you could see in the background of the previous picture.  Again, great wheel fitment.

Some more Honda lovin’…  S2000 on 3-piece split three-spoke Advan alloys with rather massive brakes to boot.

And here’s a 25th-Anniversary Lamborghini Countach.  Two weekends in a row I’ve seen a Countach!  Life is good.

With Cylinders, “too many” is usually just right.  I’d say 12 is enough.  Glorious, glorious intake manifold.  I love Lamborghinis.

I still consider the 505bhp Corvette Z06 to be photo-worthy, despite being “just a Chevrolet.”  It’s easy to get jaded at shows like this.

A VERY clean Z32 300ZX Twin Turbo 2 seater.  The sneaky side-mounted intercoolers are a nice touch, as are the 350Z Track wheels.  I think for a 20 year old design, these cars are still absolutely rolling sex.

The turnout was good.  There were a few cars I didn’t even manage to capture with my camera before they left, sadly, including a Ferrari 430 Scuderia as well as a 599 GTB.  Can’t get them all, I suppose.  Enjoy the pictures!