Canepa Motorsports Museum review and pictures (Part 1)

As I fell asleep last night, I counted in my head the number of car museums I have visited.  I have been to nine.  Some have magnificent collections of rare and extremely polished cars costing many millions of dollars.  Others have dusty and neglected displays that were just plain sad.  Canepa Motorsports Museum in Scotts Valley, just a few miles north of Santa Cruz on Highway 17, is, in my opinion, one of the best museums I have visited.

It is wonderful because of the cars.  They may not be the most expensive or have the most history or provenance.  Rather, they are all cars with the perfect balance of beauty, function, and animal magnetism.  Every guy, whether a car nut or not, has coveted at least half of the cars in the collection.

Presentation also makes this museum world-class.  The cars are flawless.  There is not a speck of dust on any of them, and yet they don't look overdone.  The lighting is also perfect.  At the Imperial Palace collection in Las Vegas, cheap fluorescent bulbs (!) are used.  At the Blackhawk Museum in Danville, everything is pitch black, with the exception of sharply focused 2000 watt light bulbs flooding the cars.

The other minor touch that added to the experience was the floor.  Yes, the floor.  I have no idea what the material is.  It may be just painted concrete.  Visually, it felt like a warm, soothing, hard wood floor.  It softened the loud and powerful machines which sat on top of it.  It made the overall experience complete.

Enough chit-chat.  On with the show!

The museum is on an anonymous street in the middle of nowhere.  You would never guess what was inside this modern yet non-descript building.

When we pulled up on a Saturday morning, we thought it was closed.  There were only two cars in the parking lot.  Fortunately, it wasn't.  I would suggest calling first to make sure it is open though.

I thought the first floor was the museum.  It wasn't.  It's just the showroom!  I came to see the Porsche 959s, which Canepa is famous for.  And that's exactly what I ran to first.

This is one of two Porsche 959s for sale.  It's a 1988 U.S.-legal model selling for $475,000.

Though the place is definitely Porsche-centered, there was a black Ferrari Testarossa.  This is a shot of the window with the standard Schedoni luggage in the background.

Trademark Testarossa mirror.

There is no discrimination here.  American muscle cars make a strong presence, along with a sprinkling of Datsun/Nissans.  This is a 1969 Dodge Hemi Charger R/T, which is about as long as the garden hose in my patio.

This is my favorite American race car of all time, the 1969 Dodge Charger Daytona.  It's got a 426 cubic inch (7,000 cc) engine and the iconic rear spoiler.

This 1970 Porsche 914-6 GT placed second in its class in the 1970 Nurburgring 1000km.  

This is the other 959.  It's an S model.  Only 29 were produced.  They have roll cages and special suspensions, seats, and seat belts.

This is the end of my tour of the showroom on the first floor.  I have only described a fraction of the cars.  There are also a 289 Cobra, a 300SL roadster, an AMX Javelin, Mustangs, a Pantera, a Fairlady Z,....

(Part 2 is here.)

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Matchbox Superfast Datsun 128X

Matchbox Rolamatics Wild Life Truck

Hot Wheels Airport Rescue Fire Engine

Hot Wheels VW Hare Splitter

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Cars of Supreme Court Justices

Obama will probably nominate Sonia Sotomayor next week. With all this buzz about the Supremes, why not look at what our honorable justices drive?

1. Scalia drives a blue/silver E39 BMW.


2. Chief Justice Roberts drives a Honda Odyssey. He also has a Volvo and a PT Cruiser.

3. Justice Souter drives to and from his home in New Hampshire in this VW Passat. I'm quite proud to say I stirred up quite a minor storm in the blogosphere earlier this month when I raised the issue of Souter's car.


4. Clarence Thomas owns a black 1990 Corvette ZR-1. He raised a few eyebrows when his financial disclosures showed "extravagant" gifts to him like a performance chip and a set of tires. He also drives around the country in his Class A 40' RV. Here is Justice Thomas with Trump and his lovely wife. I believe the Daytona 500 jacket was a gift too.


5. Alito and his Dodge Grand Caravan. Exciting.


Bonus: Retired justice Sandra Day O'Connor drives a silver Buick.

I'm searching the rides of Breyer, Kennedy, Stevens, and Ginsburg. Rumor has it that Breyer drives a jalopy.

CKY

Cars of St. Pierre and Miquelon

While leafing through the Newfoundland chapter of my Lonely Planet Canada, I found a couple of islands belonging to France. Saint Pierre and Miquelon, population 6,125, consists of mostly Basque and Breton fishermen. It has an interesting history. During WWII, the governor was a Vichy sympathizer and Canada considered invading it because it was rumored to be helping German U-boats.

The above picture, found on flickr, captures the Territorial Collectivity's geographic location perfectly. It's taken outside the treasury building (the people use Euros). That all the vehicles in the picture are blue may be a coincidence, but they may also be official government cars. All the license plates say SPM, for Saint Pierre and Miquelon.

On the left is a Dodge truck, signifying the U.S. influence in the NAFTA countries. The middle car is a Renault Express, signifying that even though this is a remote North Atlantic outpost, France still reigns supreme. To the right is a Pontiac Sunrunner, which is a Canadian version of the Geo/Chevy Tracker.

CKY

My Favorite Flying Buttresses

As I meandered through a dark alleyway on this St. Patrick's night, I spotted a Jag XJS with a smashed up taillight. Of course, what caught my eye was its c-pillar flying buttress. Here are some of my favorites-- on cars.

Jaguar XJS flying buttress. This is THE flying buttress of flying buttresses.

Ferrari 599 flying buttress. This understated, almost vestigial flying buttress evidences that Ferrari's designers continue to be peerless.

Corvette C3 flying buttress.

Dodge Charger flying buttress.

Maserati Merak flying buttress.

CKY