More Odd Stuff at Cars & Coffee, 6/4/11

You never know what'll show up at Cars & Coffee in Raleigh. Sometimes it's about 50 late-model Corvettes, sometimes it's a bunch of British cars, but this month there was a good amount of variety.

A quite rare mid-80's SVO Mustang.  I've already done a retrospective on the SVO on CarThrottle here before, so if you want the details you can take a look.  These were basically the more sophisticated cousin of the GT 5.0, replacing the heavy 302ci Windsor V8 with a 2.3L overhead-cam I4, a turbocharger, and a top mount intercooler.  There was also better suspension, brakes, and a few tweaks on the outside to differentiate it from the regular model.  The huge jump in price over the (almost as fast, and faster once they got fuel injection) 5.0L kept sales of this niche model to a minimum, so it's cool to see one in such good shape today.

It seems like the Subaru aftermarket is almost entirely devoted to the WRX.  Considering it's the lightest and cheapest turbocharged Subaru, that makes sense, but I certainly like the Legacy better.  Sure, it's bigger and heavier - but it's much better looking, and no one expects a Legacy to whomp them off of a stop light!  This one had a bunch of Cobb and Perrin aftermarket goodies, including an upgraded turbocharger and a larger intercooler.  The all-black look works well, too.

Cobra cobra cobra cobra ahhhhhh... these cars never get old.  I like seeing one with period-correct wheel and tire sizing.  Huge wheels with low-profile tires look goofy on a Cobra, even if they're a period-correct looking wheel design.

A seriously mint (Z32 chassis) 300ZX Twin Turbo with T-Tops.  This manual-tranny Z-car was showing less than 90k on the odometer; my jealousy is palpable.

A prototype of the next Corvette?  That's so cool, I wonder what...

...oh, come on.  That's not funny.  (Yes it is.)

GM Muscle has an appeal, regardless of generation.  How amazing does this early-70's Camaro look, with the early split bumpers, dumped on big Torq-Thrusts?  Lovely.

It used to be that a DeTomaso Pantera and $3 would get you lunch at Burger King; no one wanted them.  I mean, Elvis shot his, how good could they be?  But judging by the number of Pantera's that turned up, it doesn't appear to be the case any more.

I can't say I agree with the use of 2000 Mustang Cobra R wheels on a 70's Pantera, but at least it's different!

I really hate it when I park my shiny new Aston Martin in a spot, then some jerk in a 30 year old Italian car built in a shed with a Ford truck engine pulls up next to me, and everyone pays attention to that.  But the most interesting of the Panteras would have to be this:

A very rare late-model wide body Pantera.  I really prefer the look of the early narrow-bodied cars - much like the Countach, although the fender flares are part of what makes it such an iconic shape, once you see one near the original design, it's hard not ask "why did they do that?"  Still, I've never seen a wide-body Pantera before, so this is another first.

One seriously mean (E60) M5 - full exhaust, no cats, Setrab oil cooler, twin intakes, tuned, lowered, and north of 600 horsepower at the wheels according to the owner.

A slant-nose conversion on a Porsche 930, in this case the DP935 kit.  This car seemed like it was full of win, from the chassis bracing and fuel cell in the front...

To the twin-turbo conversion with an absolutely massive intercooler in the back.  The turbo versions of these cars used a single turbo siamesed off the two exhaust manifolds from the factory, but this is converted to individual units (that rest in the fenders behind the rear control arms) here - each of those pipes leading into the back of the intercooler are from a single turbo, and it dumps the cooled air into the intake manifold in the front.  Also, check out the tiny pea-shooter pipe between the two cannon exhaust pipes - I'm guessing that's where the wastegates dump.  Lord knows how much power this setup makes, but I'd guess "a lot."

I'm gonna guess this involved a shoehorn and a tub of synthetic grease.  How do people manage to fit LS1's in everything?

Really digging the external-mount oil filter, that has to make life easier.  Also, those long-tube headers are gorgeous.  Very nicely done swap.

All hail the mighty clown shoe!  (Z3 M Coupe.)  Still one of my all-time favorite German cars, so ridiculous yet so practical.

I know I've already shown this car before, but come on: when a Lamborghini LM002 rolls up (not to mention it's the super-rare LM002 America, with the fuel-injected Diablo V12 instead of the carburetted Countach V12), you take pictures.  Still the most badass vehicle ever made, and not a common site with a total production of 328 between 1986-1993.  Also, yes, the tires on this are 345/60/17 Pirelli Scorpion Zero's.  I can't even imagine how much a blow-out would cost the owner, but I can imagine that it wouldn't bother him.

Side note on the LM002: it's worth noting some of the more famous LM002 owners.  Here goes: Uday Hussein (Saddam's son), Muammar Gaddafi (yes, that Gaddafi), Mike Tyson, Pablo Escobar (yes, that Pablo Escobar), Tina freaking Turner, Sylvester Stallone, Hunter S. Thompson(!), and... Eddie Van Halen.  That says it all.  Well, that and the 76 gallon fuel tank that would usually give a range of only about 460 miles.

Uncommon, ungodly expensive: the 250-units-only, €163,900 Porsche 911 Sport Classic.  How did this car get to America?  I don't know, but I'm glad someone did it.  The modern recreation of the classic Fuchs alloy wheels is probably the neatest touch.

An original Aston Martin V8 Vantage, parked next to a modern V8 Vantage - a very cool site indeed.

Another car we've already seen before, a black Qvale Mangusta.  What's even cooler: third-party anecdotes say the owner of this Mangusta (which has California plates) uses it to drive from LA to Raleigh once or twice a month.  High-mileage rare Italian exotics?  I'd imagine the fact that this car is about 90% Mustang SVT Cobra helps keep the running costs down.  So cool.

Following last month's Honda RC30 spotting (which was there again), another exceedingly rare bike - a Bimota SB6.  Bimota was an Italian bike maker that used major mechanical components from bigger brands wrapped in boutique packaging - sort of like TVR for bikes.  The SB6 was actually one of their best-selling models, with around 1150 SB6's made between 1994-1996.  This bike uses the carb'd engine and transmission from the Suzuki GSX-1100R, but with Bimota-specific camshafts and exhausts to make 156bhp - big numbers for the mid 90's.  Other tricks like the super-rigid frame (which you can see through the body), Ohlins shocks, and big brakes made it a better performer than the Zuki it was based on.  Still, this was $35,000 worth of bike - in 1994 - so it's not surprising they didn't sell a ton.  But man is it gorgeous, including the Alcantara seat and the exhausts exiting under the saddle.

My soft spot for the Buick Grand National hasn't changed, and this example was particulary clean and menacing.  The inner headlights have been removed to increase airflow in the engine bay.

...Because it needs it.  I seriously wonder if there are any more "stock" Grand Nationals left, although considering the owner said this one runs the quarter mile in the high-10-second range, I'm not sure why you'd want a stock one anyway.

This is my first spotting of a Nissan Murano CrossCabrio in the wild, and honestly it's as horrendous to look at in real life as it is in pictures.  That's not what was interesting, though: this horrid Nissan had Califonia manufacturer plates, and was driven to Cars and Coffee by none other than WSJ auto scribe Dan Neil.  That would be the same Dan Neil that won a Pulitzer for his auto writing in 2004, as well as being fired from Raleigh's own News & Observer in 1996 after describing the appropriateness of a Ford Expedition's back seat for copulating in a review.  My kinda guy.  Minor celebrity moment, but it was cool to see him there!

Another exceedingly rare Porsche, a 993-generation 911 Turbo S.  Only 183 of these were made in 1997, the last year of the air-cooled 911.  It had goodies including a power boost to 424bhp (in the US; 450 else), quad exhausts, more intakes, carbon fibre trim, etc.  Another car I've never seen in the wild.

A rivalry in yellow, between high-winding mid-mounted Italian powerplants.  Which would you rather have?

And I'll wrap up this month's C&C coverage with this S2000, dropped to the floor on a set of BBS basket weaves.  12 years on, and how fantastic does the S2000 still look?