Testa Rossa

Testa rossa means red head in Italian. Here you can see the red cylinder head covers of the iconic 1980's Ferrari Testarossa.

Hemmings Sports & Exotics show

Today Oliver and I attended the Hemmings Sports & Exotics magazine auto show at Saratoga state park. I look forward to this event each year. There are some many unique and unusual European cars that one doesn't see very often. When was the last time you saw a Gordon-Keeble? or a Jensen? As always great car in a great setting. We also made another pass through the museum to check out the Italian car display before it changes.

I thought this old gas station looked neat. Somewhere outside Valatie, NY

Ferrari F50

First time I have ever seen one of these cars. This was the middle child between the legendary F40 and the Enzo. Only 349 ever built. It was rare when new, even more rare now. Very few of these cars are probably ever driven. This car was parked in the Paddock at Lime Rock Park during the 2011 ALMS race. The car had current NYS registration and inspection.

Covered Bridges Country Roads 2

Today we took another car ride in the country for some sight seeing. We took NYS Rt. 30 south to Arkville, NY. The trip on Rt. 30 through the Schoharie Valley is very nice. Lots of farms and little traffic. We stopped in Blenheim, NY to check out a covered bridge that spans the Schoharie Creek.
In Arkville we took a ride on the Delaware & Ulster Railroad. It is a nice scenic ride along the East Branch Delaware River. The weather was perfect and the trip is nice and relaxing.
After our train ride we took some county roads over Roxbury mountain to Delhi. Along the way we stopped at Fitch's covered bridge near Stamford, NY. From Delhi we took NYS Rt. 10 north to Richmondville, NY. Another great road with lots of farms and scenery. I can't wait for our next day trip in the car(or SUV).

Automotive Media

One of the many ways I like to follow the automotive scene is through print and Internet media. There are a few different magazines I like to buy and read.
My favorite magazine right now is Hemmings Sports & Exotics. It focuses on classic, antique and modern classic sports cars. Keith Martin's Sports Car Marketplace is a great magazine focused on high end classics. It also covers and commentates on recent classic car auction results. Grassroots Motorsports is like the modern day Hot Rod Magazine. It is THE magazine for the person who wants to daily drive, autocross and track day their personal car. Great project cars and car reviews.
On the internet side of things. I check my local Craigslist for cars every single day. You never known what is going to show up. I found and bought my Fiat 850 spider from Craigslist. Speedtv.com for auto racing news and auto industry news is a daily view also. A nice online magazine is Windingroad.com. nice car reviews and discussion forums. I have also bookmarked fiat500usa.com blog to stay up to date on the latest news from Fiat's re-entry in the US market.
These are all great places for the auto enthusiast to get a quick fix.

Top 10 Lists

I thought about doing some more top ten lists. All of them would of course be my opinion only. Some I thought of were ugliest cars, best looking cars, favorite cars from the 70's, etc. It surprises me how difficult these lists are to do. I mean 10 ugliest cars of all time! Cars have been around since the late 1800's and there are thousands to choose from. I might need to narrow the category down some. Maybe ugliest cars of a decade or certain manufacturer. Ugliest cars I have seen. I guess I have some work to do on this.
Doing a top ten list of your favorite cars is tough to do. The list would most likely have cars on it that I have never owned. How does one know something is their favorite if they have never tried it. I will give you an example. Most of my life I wanted a 1967 Pontiac GTO. A few years back the opportunity was there for me to purchase one. After owning the car for a few years I came to realize that I liked the car, but it wasn't what I always imagined it would be. Can I put the car on a top ten favorite list? I still really love the style of the car and driving a 4-speed muscle car is a must do. So yeah, I'll always have a soft spot for the 1967 GTO