Down On The Street

Whenever I ride through the north end of Solana Beach, my eyes always take in the cars sitting on the lot of California Import Auto. I've shot a number of cars in front of this shop and featured them here. Including this crusty VW Bus and this Renault R8S. Here's another rear-engined Renault that I captured with pixels on Saturday morning.

Even cooler than the R8S is this Alpine A110, semi-obscured by a wind-blown car cover.

This is only the second of these storied rally machines that I've laid eyes on. The first one I saw in person was last year in Stuttgart.

Tidy tail...

...with great vent scoops:

 Great gauges in an otherwise minimalist interior:

Only the French can pull off three-lug wheels:

 

But my favorite details were the vintage (or at least vintage-style) decals:

 Both would make great t-shirt art. Hint, hint...

 And two cars down was this Doka.

 Look familiar? I posted it back in Feb '11 when I caught it out at Elfin Forest. Pretty sure it's owned by an employee/owner of the shop as it's frequently out front.

RIP Maurice Sendak

In tribute to the great illustrator/author, I present his classic work, Where The Wild Things Are, as read by Christopher Walken.

Down On The Street - Air-Cooled German Two-Fer

This was sitting in the parking lot of the Encinitas Community Center on Saturday afternoon.

It's a 23-window deluxe Samba, but way overdone for my tastes.

Metallic paint just ain't right in this application. It was nicely applied though. And the owner did add some über-cool "safari" windows.

Yep, this Bus is definitely Leucadia material. Surprised that I haven't seen it out and about until now.

The seats and door panels need a good coat of fire.

Blech, too much contrived junk in there...

 ...but the luggage rack is cool

 Up next is a sweet Porsche 914 that I parked next to this afternoon.

 It's definitely a sharp ride, both inside...

 ...and out:

Not considering the much-higher value of the Bus, I'd rather have the Porsche in my garage. Which German air-cooled VW (or glorified VW) would you prefer?

Who's Your Daddy?

Pretty sure that Celeste's real daddy is Richard D. James (aka Aphex Twin). I submit these photos as evidence:

(reading Chaos Walking: The Knife Of Never Letting Go)

And the less crossed-eyed Richard (the cover of his 1996 record):

Bob Baker VW Show

Some hastily-shot iPhone pix from an air-cooled VW show at a local dealer last weekend.

 

glorious Ghia

 pair o' things

 pre-'58 pressed bumper 23-window Samba

 baja Ghia

 hacked splitty

 brick paneling - WTF??

 1970s paint job

ratty splitty...

 ...riding on Porsche "phone dials"

 patina

 clean Squareback

 beefy Beetle

 ovals

 912 motor (?)

 '68 Westfalia, showroom fresh

 Puma kit car

 Speedster and 550 kit cars

 another oval

 well-accessorized (over-accessorized?)  '51 split window

 cool spotlight/mirror combo

 down-on-the-street doka