Kyusha Meet

May 04, 2019 by Jonathan Chow in In The Moment

Just a few pics from a local car show.

2015 LA Autoshow

November 26, 2015 by Jonathan Chow in In The Moment

Every year around Thanksgiving I try to make it to the LA Autoshow, the best car show in the US. Here's just a brief highlight of some of what was shown this year.

A Volkswagen interpreation of the Mystery Machine

LONDON / PORTOBELLO MARKET

March 06, 2015 by Jonathan Chow in London

It's not too often London gets sun, so when it comes, you gotta seize the day! Off to Portobello Market! First thing first though, the automotive round up!

First we got an Overfinch Ranger Rover. Overfinch is a "tuner" for Land Rovers, best known for make a model with a built-in mohagany gun and whisky storage in the back. Because nothing says manly like shooting little birds in your 4X4 with summer tires...

Next up a Smart Roadster (which has a ton of tuning potential IMO) and an E92 M3 (M's seemed to be a lot less common than AMG's).

Speaking of, there were these two GT bruisers. A CL63 AMG and a Bentley Continental GT (Bentleys everywhere!).

You know what's unfair? That Europe gets the best version of an American icon. Give the US Wrangler a diesel already Jeep!!!

This sweet little GTV was a nice sighting. Even with that dent, Alfa's cars are easily some of the best looking "consumer cars" around. Pretty might not be the best description, but they definitely all have a style that most other cars in their range lack.

A cool Morris Wagon looking properly British.

A 135i M Sport getting buried under trash. Kinda ugly little thing, but a Golf R/S3 killer.

And the best for last, this classic 901. Black exterior, tan interior and Fuchs wheels: simply perfect.

Heh, little white socks on his back feet. Here's some more pics.

Paris Day 2 / Pt 3

February 17, 2014 by Jonathan Chow in Paris

Now we cross over the river into the Latin Quarter.

In this area was a lot of little alleyways and shops.

Ok, this is the first time that a Smart and iQ really do make a lot of sense.

Seeing this 2nd gen 4Runner here brought back some good memories.

And here we are at the Jardin du Luxembourg.

Doggie butt.

This poor Citroen CX has seen better days. They look pretty slammed though when the air suspension fails.

Man, Alfas do look good in black.

The final part coming up soon.

Paris / Day 1 Pt. 2

February 08, 2014 by Jonathan Chow in Paris

After beginning to get the ins and outs of the city, we began heading towards Sacre Coeur.

Old school Saab 9000 with old meshies somehow fit really well here on the Parisian streets.

At first glance, I thought it looked like an Indian temple at the top of the hill. Maybe because it was so much cleaner (whiter) than most of the other churches and temples we saw. The domed tops helped the Taj Mahal affect too.

Look at these punks causing a ruckus with their skateboarding and scootering. Actually, the real delinquents was the scum at the base of the hill that'd grab people's hands (mostly women) and try to put a piece of colored string on your finger so you'd be "forced" to buy their crappy excuse of a souvenir. Despite the police being in clear eyesight of the activity, they just kept at it the entire time we were there. If you happen to see them, don't be shy to physically push them away and tell them to [shoo] off; it's the only way they'll understand you're more trouble than you're worth and they'll just move onto the next victim.

Once you move past that unfortunately scum though, the rest of the area was really pleasant. Even the pigeons, which look a lot healthier than those in London/SF/LA, were friendly.

It's really refreshing how clear and open the city feels compared to London. Even with the local smoking and the weird smelling grocery stores, the air here is just so much cleaner.

It even managed to get Michelle to crack a smile.

And have I mentioned that I miss hills and breaking up the monotony of the flat, featureless slab of land that is London? Yeah it may be a little bit of an exercise to get up to the top, but I enjoyed every moment of it.

Finally we arrive.

And what a view!

Through the trees and buildings, we even got our first sighting of the Eiffel Tower. Definitely a great area to live for the view, though I'd try to avoid the bottom of the hill.

Because when you think of Memphis, you think of palm trees? Gotta love the crazy MKIII Golf specials.

Alfa Romeo may only have a collection of fwd hatches and saloons/estates (if you exclude the 8C and newly introduced 4C) but man these things are lookers. My favorite looking modern fwd hatch for the longest time has been the VW Scirocco R, but the Alfa Romeo Brera is a very close second.

Peace brah!

The local ads tend to have a fun vibe about them compared to the serious and clean ads of London.

I know this is considered to be the city of lights but it feels like the city of color coming from the bleak streets of London.

One thing that I've noticed these past 3 days is that Paris is the sheer number of scooters and motorcycles, which makes sense when there's almost no parking and the traffic is crazy. What this means to me is plenty of great 60-early 90s bikes to spot, like this Yamaha and BMW.

This wraps up the first day. Stay tuned for the next day as we go to Notre Dame and Pompidou.