Winter frosts can produce some great patterns of ice on objects. This shot was taken of a wing mirror of a car that had grown some lovely looking ice crystals. RAW can be your friend in situations like this because the reflectivity of ice can glare detail out and RAW gives you the latitude to pull back some of the details. This was taken on the phone, but the detail survived quite well.
This car sits in the Lyon Air Museum. As you get close, you realize just how sturdy a vehicle it is. It was used to inspect the Polish front by Hitler. Weird to think that someone as infamous as that sat in this car in front of me.
Here is one for those of you that know your vintage cars. How much is a Gull Wing Mercedes worth? This one is kept in the Lyon Air Museum in California. It seems to be in great condition and I assume it is worth quite a bit but I have no idea how much. It was tucked in amongst lots of valuable aircraft so is not the most expensive thing on display. Since the planes are generally airworthy, I would guess this is a runner too.
America’s Car Museum in Tacoma is a tribute to automobiles of all sorts. While the internal combustion engine is dominant throughout the museum, they do have a section that is focused on electric vehicles. This includes the sort of car you might expect to see and some that are a touch more exotic. The research/competition cars are strange looking things. Aerodynamics dominate in vehicles that are clearly aimed at maximizing efficiency while not worrying about things like handling or utility. Having a whole roof section of solar panels is impressive.
Not all of the vehicles are that extreme though. Others are the sort of thing you are used to seeing on the road. Some of the original electric road cars (including those from the Victorian era) are there and also some concept demonstration vehicles that are likely to lead to something in production before too long. These already look just like any other car on the road today.
Since I didn’t grow up in the US, a lot of the older cars in museums are not ones that I knew about as a kid. However, a Lotus Esprit is one right out of my childhood. I fell in love with this car as a result of The Spy Who Loved Me when Bond’s Esprit morphed into a submarine. From then on, I dreamed of owning this car. The America’s Car Museum has an example of the pre-turbo Esprit in its collection and, while it certainly is dated by the styling, I still think it is a great looking car. Just don’t pay attention to the switches and knobs pinched from the parts bins of the major car manufacturers of the time!
If you want to get to the mainland from the Cowes area, Red Funnel are your main option. They have two services to Southampton. The car ferry operates from East Cowes while a fast catamaran provides a passenger only service from West Cowes. Both types of ferry came by while I was on the seafront. The car ferry headed out while the cat waited outside the harbor. I guess the strong winds meant they were looking for a bit more space. Once the ferry was gone, the cat came in to the harbor.
After Hobbo had finished his talk and was setting up for autographs, I took a quick wander around the main floor of the museum. Some exhibits were gone to make space for the presentation but there were still plenty of cars on show. Things have been rearranged since my previous visit which I wrote about here. I knew that time was tight for me and I would need to go but I did get a few shots of some of the cars before calling time and heading home.
Okay, I will freely admit that this is not going to be the most informative post. We were walking through Port Townsend and a car came by. Nothing unusual in that. However, out of the sunroof was a dog wearing goggles, presumably to protect the eyes from dust and debris while on the road. This is not the sort of thing I normally see so I thought I would share.
I have had a few visits to Cars and Coffee over the last few months. Plenty of cool vehicles to check out and justify getting up early on a Sunday morning. This time I figure I will just share a bunch of pictures of what has been there. Of course, these are but a small fraction of the total number of cars appearing but they caught my eye.
The dinner at Eagle Field was held in the large hangar. Not only does this accommodate planes but it also seems to be the home to a lot of cars. Jaguars of a variety of vintages were kept there in various states of repair. Out the back were even more cars. These were not usually looking too healthy but there were some things I have not seen before. Whether it was an old Renault or and Armstrong Siddeley, they were there gathering valley dust and withering slowly under the harsh sunlight that this area has a lot of!
