Friday Night Sonic Meet, 9/2/11

The weekly Sonic Drive-In Meet in Raleigh is always good for car spotting.  It's pretty heavy on Import Performance cars, but you still wind up seeing some pretty unique stuff out there.

It's not often you see a Merkur XR4Ti any more; most of them are in junk yards or have been shipped off to China as bulk steel to be turned into a refrigerator by now.  This white one is remarkably clean and wingless.  Our European readers are probably saying "So what?  It's a Ford Sierra."  Not nearly as common here!

Another from the front.  So bizarre to see these days.

An odd pair!  A clean, original Mercury Comet (based on the Maverick) - next to a slammed Bugeye WRX.  That WRX has a 2.5L built STI long-block, by the way.

Sorry for the overblown photo.  A hot-hatch of the 80's that's almost never seen today: The AE92 Corolla GT-S FX16.  These were the first of the front-wheel-drive Corollas, and it has the same 1.6L 4A-GE under the hood as the AW11 MR2 and AE86 GT-S.  Why do you still see tons of MkII Golf GTi's, but no FX16's?  Beats me.  This is probably a fun little car.

Audi RS6 wheels look great on a lowered MkIV Jetta.  I would do away with the LED fog lights, though.  This is a 24v VR6 model, too.

This Lancer Evo looks real mean on the outside, what with all that rubber stuffed under the arches.  The view under the hood backs up the stance, too.

Hard piping, coil-on-plug ignition conversion, GT35 turbo, and around 450whp.  If you speak loudly, you should be carrying a big stick.

A MazdSpeed3 with a front-mount intercooler conversion.  I'm not sure if the additional boost lag is worth the new found ease of changing spark plugs.

Sure, it's got exposed headlights, lost of rust, and big bumpers.  But it's a 244 Turbo!  It was making a distinctly cat-less sound as it rumbled in, too.  Cool to see these still being tweaked with, and out on the road.

Every big Lexus looks better slammed to the floor on some big wheels.

My new favorite wheels: CCW Classics.  I think they look good on literally everything.  Supra's, E36's, Miata's, Mustangs, GTI's, probably even on a Ford Ranger.  Just gorgeous.

Under the hood of a Z31 300ZX drift car.  Rough but functional, these single-cam VG's are a lot easier to work on than their later twin-cam, twin turbo counterparts in the 1990-96 300ZX.

And finally, one last shot: an S13 240SX on Rotas, between a pair of it's big brothers.