Las Vegas Imperial Palace auto car collection review

The car collection at Imperial Palace is an institution.  I've been going there since I was a wee boy in the 1980s.  Back then, the highlights of my trips to Vegas involved visiting the collection and being given a $10 roll of quarters to use at the video game arcade at the oh-so-pink Circus Circus.

Most of the cars on display are for sale.  If you visit once a year, I guesstimate the turnover of cars is around 20%.  My biggest complaint involves the display.  This place seriously needs freshening up.  The fluorescent bulbs and ugly 1990s high school classroom blue carpeting have got to go.

Without further ado, here are my favorite cars:

1963 Ford Thunderbird Italien concept car

Engine bay of 1987 Buick GNX ($95,000; 5,480 miles)

Lancia 037 bought new in Guatemala

1 of 2 RHD Ferrari Superfast Series II ($1.8 million) (and look at that atrocious lighting!)

1968 Toyota Corona RT-52 Coupe with 2,274 original miles ($25,500).  I love the diversity of the collection.  So long as the car is cool and interesting, it's in!

Yugo!

1980 Peugeot 505 sedan with less than 8,000 km for $39,500

1954 Rolls-Royce Silver Wraith Vignale Saloon ($450,000)

Ford RS200 traffic jam

1956 Lancia C10 Appia panel van ($65,000)

1954 Alfa Romeo 1900SS Ghia coupe ($325,000)

Jaguar XJ220

Ferrari Daytona and Datsun 280ZX

1961 Aston Martin DB4GT Superleggera

1966 Bizzarini P538 Spyder prototype (red) and 1967 Bizzarini P538 Coupe (white)

Grace Jones Toyota Celica ad commercial

And you thought she only hucked Citroens:

Classic Lexus wine glass commercial ad

First generation Toyota Soarer

The 1981 Toyota Soarer was a high performance, luxury grand tourer.  (It later became the Lexus SC300/400.)  The car was significant enough to make it onto the 240 Landmarks list.  A family friend imported a white one to the U.S. in the oh-so-lax mid-1980s.  He soon parted with it and I'm convinced I saw it parked in front of a Korean BBQ in Berkeley in the late 1990s.

Here is one of the original ads for it with a purty lady:

Here is a review.  The car shown is almost identical to the white Soarer that ended up States-side.

1979 F1 Toyota Celica pace car (Long Beach, Watkins Glen)

I really hope this car is still around.  I'd much rather see this than another yellow and purple limited edition Oldsmobile Indy 500 pace car.

Here is footage of the Celica pace car at the 1979 Long Beach GP (@2:19).  Bonus: The broken down Ligier is the basis for Transformer Autobot Mirage.

Lexus LFA ad

Jerry Brown's cars

I miss election season.  Fortunately, it is about to start here in California.  So who is going to replace Arnold as our governor?  Well, it looks like it will either be former governor (and former Oakland mayor and current California Attorney General) Jerry Brown or former Ebay head Meg "I supported Barbara Boxer but am now endorsed by Dick Cheney, and oh, by the way, I neglected to vote for decades" Whitman.

Brown is an interesting guy.  When he came into office as governor in 1975, he saved money by eschewing the governor's mansion and moved into a small apartment.  He refused to use a limousine, riding instead in two blue 1974 Plymouth Satellites (one for Southern California, one for Northern California.)  Here, he is reminiscing about the car's bench seat and his then girlfriend Linda Ronstadt.

His newer car, a Toyota Camry Hybrid, made news recently when two of its wheels were stolen outside his Oakland home.

My prediction is that if he wins this November, he will keep his sensible Camry Hybrid as his official car.  We'll see.

My third Kiva taxi cab driver

Kiva is a micro-lending site that hooks up 1st worlders with 3rd worlders.  I, along with a dozen or so other people, each lend an entrepreneur $25 for their business.  Over the span of a year, that person pays us back.

When I signed up in 2008, I decided to focus on cab drivers because, if you have not noticed, I like cars.

The first person I signed up to give a hand was Salom in Tajikistan.  He paid all the money back on time.

After he paid me back in 2009, I lent the same $25 to Fayez in Lebanon.  He paid it all back today.

Now, I am on my third cabbie-- Carlos from Bolivia.   Would you join me?

1993 Toyota Supra Turbo review road test

Go ahead and skip to the 1:30 mark.

Here is a comparo between the Mitsubishi 3000GT Turbo, Nissan 300ZX Turbo, the Supra Turbo, and the Mazda RX7 Turbo, just before their collective demise.  Go ahead and skip to the 0:55 mark.

Rally driving lights galore: Cibie, PIAA, Hella, and Viceroy!

If there is one thing I love more than vintage rally cars, it's the arrays of frisbee-sized driving lights up front.  These are from a guy named Ariel on Flickr.