classic car

Amidst the confusing Chrysler/Maserati/Jeep/Fiat/Dodge/Ferrari display at Detroit, a Lancia hatchback stood out. It's not every day that a Lancia gets major attention at a U.S. auto show, but the reason this stood out was because of blatant badge engineering. As you get close to this automobile, you notice the lack of the middle Lancia strike of chrome down the grille and Chrysler logos on the wheels instead of Lancia. What...?

As I picked up the duPont Registry I bought while grocery shopping today, I thought the same Asanti ad for its latest ultra-exclusive wheel set, the Asanti Black Series, would appear. As I paged through, I saw the same ad, but something was different. There were three other sets of wheels at the bottom, which turned out to be their uber-ultra-mega-expensive Diamond Collection. The base wheel, made of cubic Zirconium, was priced at $250,000, a quarter of the price of the wheel we all know of, the famous $1,000,000 Diamond/Sapphire wheel set that was displayed at SEMA and comes with a free Bentley. But there was also another wheel on the page, which hasn't gotten any of the attention of its $1 Million brother. The Asanti AFS 103 Series, made of nearly six times as many Diamonds as its brother with 1,200 Rubies sprinkled in, is priced at a monstrous $2,000,000! This is the flagship wheel set of the top series of the most expensive brand of an ultra-lux wheel company. In other words, Lexani makes Asanti which makes the Diamond Series which makes the AFS 103. These wheels eclipse their half-price brother to become the most expensive wheels on Earth. According to many reports, the Diamond Series is dead, but this ad in the January issue of the duPont registry tells otherwise. I wonder if it comes with two free Bentleys...

Have you ever been distracted by a relatively interesting car when a Lamborghini or Maybach speeds by? This has happened to me in many instances, such as the time I photographed a custom two-tone Mustang on a Chicago highway, and later found when viewing the photos that a Ferrari 612 Scaglietti was about 50 yards away in the background. In another instance, I was taking photos of a '68 El Camino that was driving in front of me, when a 2005 Ford GT supercar pulled up on the other side of the intersection we came to. I've now named this nature's "Distraction Effect".
Even just today I saw this phenomenon in action. I was trying to get a photo of the '84 Capri RS I told you about before, when we pass a driveway with a Freightliner Sportchassis RHA114 AWD, which is a $200,000 truck, sitting in it. This effect is somehow inherent in many car-related occasions, as it has happened to me and many others I've talked to before. You could be looking at this little 1994 Honda Civic Del Sol (later known as simply the "Del Sol"), found at www.coneslayer.com, when an Audi R8 or something else much more expensive goes by. There must be one way to stop this from happening without being forced not to stare at lesser, but still interesting cars, but I couldn't think of a solution for the life of me.

Today we headed to Moyock, NC to visit two locations that had classics and projects for sale (more on that at a later date). It was raining (as you know if you are watching the NASCAR Tuck Series practice right now) and puddling up near the beach road, so we decided to take a shortcut through a neighborhood that was shielded by trees. As we were going through the neighborhood there were tons of large trucks and utility vehicles going around, so when a Freightliner pulled up oppostie us at a light, my insticts were screaming at me but I didn't whip out my camera. I said something like "If this is the SportChassis (the very expensive civilian model), I am never going to forgive myself." And guess what? It was the SportChassis, a humongous pickup truck. This version was one of the P2 or P4 models, which carry a regular-style pickup bed instead of the other models, which come with flat beds and shorter sides. It was Flame Red, and I didn't pull out my camera because most of these Freightliners have strut grilles and this one had a regular one like the one in the photo. So you can't blame me for that, huh? Photo is from the Freightliner website.