Tag Archives: automobile

Car Restorations

The number of cars on display at Dream Machines was amazing. Vehicles of all sorts were there. Some were in immaculate condition and other looked like they probably hadn’t had any work done on them since they were built other than what was necessary to keep them running. The variety was what was cool. There were old police vehicles, sports cars, luxury cars, off roaders, heavily modified vehicles and even a jet powered truck. Vintage racing cars were alongside old Fiats and VW camper vans. They were all there it seemed. I am not going to pick out any special ones for mention. Instead, here are a load of pictures of what was there.

Ferraris at Blackhawk

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I am certainly partial to a modern Ferrari. In recent years, Maranello has turned out some really gorgeous looking cars and I wouldn’t mind having the chance to play with one or two of them if the opportunity were to present itself. However, if you go back in time, they came up with some cars that, for their time, were really quite special. It is this vintage of Ferrari that you find in the Blackhawk Automotive Museum.

The variation is styles is quite marked. Some are simple looking roadsters but you also have some touring cars that, without a badge might not be obviously a Ferrari to those who are not experts of the marque. The choice of colors for some of them is also a little different from what you would see now. There are a number of cars in the main exhibition area but there are also a couple that are in the entrance foyer to the museum. I guess Ferrari is a brand that has earned to be given a prime spot in any collection.

Blackhawk Automotive Museum

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A short distance north of us is a shopping development that also includes a car museum. The Blackhawk Automotive Museum is something I have been talking about checking out for a long time. Initially, I didn’t assume that it would be terribly impressive so marked it down as something to do when I had a day with nothing much happening. Then I ended up chatting to a colleague about it one day and he told me it was a great collection so Nancy and I decided to take a look. As it happens, the place is outstanding.

The collection of vintage cars is extensive. They are a number of types that I will give their own posts in due course. The location itself is very nice with everything laid out in a very elegant fashion. We spent a ton of time looking around. What amazed me was the number of people that came and went while we were there. There are obviously lots of visitors. However, given how much there is to see, they don’t seem to spend much time looking at all it has to see.

For now, I shall share some shots showing the whole collection as well as a few of the individual cars. There will be more to come focusing on some of the manufacturers that are well represented.

Petaluma Cars

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The California climate is certainly good for preserving things. There is no shortage of old cars in the state and many of them are kept in great condition. The fact you can use them year round probably doesn’t discourage the effort to restore them. I suspect only being able to get them out for half of the year and having weather that rots them reduces the incentive for some would be restorers.

A day in Petaluma provided quite a selection of old “motors” to look at. Some were heavily modified vehicles that would have looked interesting whenever you would have seen them. Others were just nicely preserved versions of standard cars that would have gone unnoticed when they were relatively new. Now they all catch your eye and the owners seem to appreciate the cars being appreciated. Plenty of nods and waves were exchanged and raising the camera to my eye resulted in a positive response too.

Porsche Club

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Weekends are a great time for coming across events that you had no idea about. Our jaunt to Sonoma for the long weekend yielded just such an event when the local Porsche Club showed up in the town square to show off their cars. Nancy had a few things she wanted to see that left me a bit of time to wander around. It wasn’t a huge turnout but the quality of what was there was impressive. The majority of the vehicles were 911s of varying vintage but there were some 928s and a 924 or two. Some Cayennes also showed up but that seemed like cheating to me!’

The owners were generally happy to discuss their cars and what they had done to them. They also didn’t mind the occasional photograph being taken. A number of the cars caught my eye but two are worthy of a special mention. One is the restored racer in a metallic blue which was in beautiful condition and had an interesting racing history.

The other was a 911. The name for this type varies depending on your country but back in the UK they were known as Flat Noses. I wasn’t sure that I had ever seen one other than in a magazine so was really pleased to see it. I am not particularly a Porsche guy (not that I am any brand of car specific to be fair) but I do appreciate a nice car of any sort and these certainly counted. Given that Sonoma has a fairly healthy number of people of means, I had hoped a Carrera GT might be there but sadly not. Only seen one of those before and that was driving down a street in Chicago – a brave thing to do with a vehicle that valuable!