Today was a nice day. It was nice because, after a dull time at college, I decided to visit Vaigra (or Asif, to some of you…) and go see some prospective automobiles. He had let me know about a Koenigsegg that was hanging about, not too far from him. I couldn’t really give a toss about some Swedish upstart, so I said no, but then he showed me some of the other stock- one thing that caught my eye in particular was the new Superformance Le Mans Coupé. It’s been updated for the 21st century, so you’re looking at classic looks coupled with modern underpinnings. I like that in a car. I also wanted to have a look because, some day, I wouldn’t mind one of these to either complement or replace a car.
So, I drove down to Brunel (made it quite quickly!) and met the great man outside his halls. Lazy git. We went upstairs, chatted for a while, met a corridor-mate of his, then proceeded to bundle down to the unique dealership.
We got there, and were told by a nice woman to go round the back, as the owners were presumably out for lunch. Crikey. Alone, by ourselves, in a showroom full of exotica? We didn’t know the half of it. Walking in the back, we spotted a Mercedes CLK having its bumper resprayed, then some nicer vehicles- a Mercedes 450SL, the hard-top, an Aston Martin DB7 Volante having its batteries recharged, an ancient Bentley, and a Mercedes 280SL with the pagoda roof. Then we stopped dead, because there was some big, weird, orangey-type-thing in our way- a Gillet Vertigo. Christalmighty above, it’s insane! I dismissed it for being left hand drive, though. Baha, Asif’s corridor buddy, kind of fell in love with it, and wanted to climb in- though shenanigans were stopped, for now.
Proceeding through, the Koenigsegg was only just visible, peeking out from underneath a dust cover. The silhouette’s quite nice. Then around the showroom… a Porsche 911 Targa from the ‘80s. The ultimate yuppy car, finished in black with that insane whale-tail spoiler… then next to that, an LHD 360M finished in a stunning blue. Behind that, a 996 Turbo, then an S320CDi LWB, then an MGBGT, then the real piece de resistance- an Aston Martin DB4 Superleggera. Just wow. Seeing a legend in the flesh was quite something! Parked next to it was the Superformance Le Mans Coupé- I’ve fallen in love. What an awesome car! Although it has no outer door handles (fob-operated), it’s just stunning. Amazing haunches, sleek lines, and purposeful to boot.
Next to the Daytona was a Land Rover that had apparently taken part in the Paris-Dakar- dirt and all. You’d think they’d have given it a quick wash and a valet. Next to that was… a BMW 7 Series. Whoop. Never seen one of those before. Behind that, the Bentley Mulsanne S- a real old steamer!- and then a manual Jaguar XJS convertible. Real rarity. Behind that sat 2 nice Hawaii 5-0 throwbacks- a 308 GTB, x2. Behind those, there was a nice 360 Spider in silver, with one funky interior, and then in front of that 360S there was a beautiful dark metallic blue F355 Spider- manual, with grey leather.
More to follow… give me a couple of hours…