Tag Archives: Redmond

Vintage BMW Style

When I go to Exotics@RTC, I just enjoy the vehicles and occasionally know something about them.  Most of the time, I don’t know much about them at all.  Some of my friends are far more knowledgeable about cars than I am and they can recognize what is significant and what is not or even what is genuine and what is not.  I don’t have that knowledge.  Instead, I see something that appeals to me or doesn’t.

German day, earlier this summer, included a vintage BMW.  This car looked like the sort of thing that would have appeared in old movies.  The sweeping lines of the car, the suicide doors, the shape of the windows – all of these just looked really elegant to me.  This was a car that had a certain something and I was drawn to it.  The fact it got a central position in the display must suggest it was not an average vehicle but I don’t know why.  Maybe some of you will instantly recognize it and point out I was looking at something amazing or something decidedly average!

Renault 5 Turbo 2

Exotics@RTC provides cars of many vintages but I always find myself drawn to cars from the 80s.  Since I was a teenager in that decade, they were the cars that I was paying attention to – assuming they were available in Europe at the time.  US cars of that vintage are generally a mystery to me.  The appearance of a Renault 5 Turbo 2 was a really nice surprise.  The Renault 5 was not a particularly wonderful car.  I drove one for a while and, while it could go quite quickly in a straight line, it didn’t have great grip.

However, the similarities between that car and the Turbo version were basically the name and nothing else.  The Turbo was a monster of a vehicle in comparison.  It went like stink and it was so wide, it was basically a different car.  There wasn’t even a back seat because the engine had been put there instead.  The owner happened to open up the engine cover while I was walking by which was a lucky break.  It showed up again at a following meet so I was able to get a few shots of it from various angles.  I was back to being a teenager dreaming of a hot hatch.

Off Road Style

More from Exotics@RTC with this one, a Pinzgauer.  This was a beast of a vehicle.  Looking at it the idea of Paris-Dakar sprang to mind.  It looked like it would be capable of taking on any number of adventures.  It’s entirely possible that the owner doesn’t go further afield than local car meets but maybe they really do put it to the test.  Either way, it was quite a cool looking vehicle.  From what I understand, this is an early generation of the vehicle and, while they were sold to militaries around the world, they were also sold to the civilian market.  A newer generation came along but this is the older version.  Production has stopped at this point.

Liquid Carbon GT40

This car was getting a ton of attention at one of the Exotics@RTC meets.  It actually took me a while to realize that it was a Ford GT40.  It was called Liquid Carbon and was carbon fiber everywhere.  I don’t know how much a normal GT40 is carbon fiber, but I didn’t think it was too much.  This was very different.  Everything from the body panels to the wheels was carbon.  It was quite an impressive looking machine.  I imagine it takes a lot of weight out of the car.  No doubt it also takes a lot of weight out of your wallet.

Getting Rid of the Visitors at Exotics@RTC

This was not something I really made a proper effort at during a visit to Exotics@RTC but I did have a brief go just to see how things might work out.  With all of the lovely looking cars on show, there are plenty of people checking them out all of the time.  This does mean the chances of getting a shot without someone in it are limited.  I figured I might play around with using a bunch of shots and Photoshop to blend out the people and get left with the cars.

To do a good job of this I really could use a tripod to keep the shot identical and take way more photos than I did to give the algorithms something to work with.  However, I didn’t have the tripod and wasn’t too keen on staying in exactly the same position for ages trying to hold the camera in place, so this was always destined to be a feeble effort.  With limited data, people aren’t going to vanish but become ghostly.  Added to that is that a few people were chatting with friends for ages so didn’t move much at all during the time I was shooting.  They clearly were not going to disappear.  Still, it was a good thing to play with and might encourage a more planned approach next time.

I Learned Something About Karmann Ghias

The Karmann Ghia is a vehicle that I have known of since childhood.  A teacher at my primary school had a white example and it looked amazing to me as a small boy.  They turn up at car event pretty regularly and I occasionally see one out on the road.  However, I was caught out at Exotics@RTC recently when I saw another car parked next to a Karmann Ghia that was also badged with that name.  I had to google it when I came home and found out that there was a different platform used for a newer design during the 1960s.  These are apparently known as the Type 34 whereas the original version is the Type 14.  I had no idea until this visit.  I guess that makes my excursion and educational exercise.

Testarossa Brutish Elegance

The mid-80s was very different to today when it came to expensive cars.  Now it feels like a new super car or hypercar is being unveiled every other week.  The market for big cars was obviously a lot smaller back then.  One of the cars of that era was the Ferrari Testarossa.  It was a beast of a car with conspicuous grilles on the side and, in an early iteration, only one wing mirror on the driver’s side.

When I come across one these days, it is always a nice reminder of my teenage years.  There is one that is a regular at Exotics@RTC.  It was there on a normal day and returned for the Italian Day along with some other examples.  It is a car with a muscular look to it with a very wide and low profile and some flaring at the back to emphasize its features.  I still think it looks great.  Whether it is a fun car to drive, I have no idea.

The Littlest Campervan

America is the home of the RV.  The size of vehicles which people live in while out on the road is enormous.  Exotics@RTC attracts the more unusual vehicles, though, and this little thing showed up.  It was in excellent condition and the interior was fitted out for picnics although whether it would be okay for more than day trips is a trickier question.  Quite a cute little vehicle, though.

A Pair of Alpines

If you follow Formula One, you will have seen that the Renault team recently changed their name to Alpine.  This is an old brand that has recently been reintroduced by the company.  I popped down to Exotics@RTC recently to see what was showing up and came across a pair of Alpines of differing vintages.  One was a new one to me but the younger example did seem rather familiar.  I guess I must have seen them in the UK when I was younger.

A few people were hanging around them but I thought they weren’t getting the attention that they deserved.  Exotics@RTC has a never ending supply of McLarens, Ferraris, Porsches and Lambos but these were something that definitely deserved the title exotic.

German Day at Exotics@RTC

The improvement in the pandemic in our region has meant that certain gatherings that were cancelled last year have been able to restart.  That includes the Exotics@RTC car gatherings in Redmond.  The first of the year that I was able to attend had a German theme to it.  The theme days do not exclude other car types but they provide a focus to the theme cars and give them pride of place within the center.  The other cars are out in the parking lot.

It won’t surprise you to learn that there were plenty of Porsche and Audi vehicles on display.  Mercedes was also represented but not in such large numbers.  There were some nice old Porsches to be seen including a pair on display which are owned by a father son team – the son being a neighbor of ours.  I was really pleased to see a nice selection of older BMWs and a Z1 which I recall from my teen years.  I had assumed the Audis would be more around the R8s (and there were a few of them) but to see a Quattro from the rallying era was a cool addition.

I had ridden down to Redmond on my bike so I wasn’t carrying heavy gear with me.  I went with the M6 which shows how useful it is for such a situation.  It is nice and compact plus, it has the folding screen which is great for getting low or high angle shots.  Waiting for people to move out of shot is always problematic in this events but they have as much right to be there as I do so I either wait a long time or just accept that the shot will be more cluttered than ideal.

I hope to get down there a lot more this season and see what they have to offer and what fun cars show up.  I will also share a few of the non-German cars from this day in another post to come.