Saturday afternoons are, from this moment on, reserved for car spotting. There will be no Saturday afternoon from now until school ends on May 14 in which I do not travel to Buckhead, specifically the corner of Lenox Avenue and Peachtree Street to spot cars, except when I'm back home in Denver. So folks - mark your calendars - Saturday nights/Sunday mornings are going to mean lots of cars in this thread.
Once again, I'm going to go in order, and once again there's a lot of stuff so allow images to load, etc. I hope (promise!) you appreciate it...
All pictures were taken on October 7, 2006 within a four-block radius in Atlanta, Georgia. To show just how many cool cars there are in Atlanta, I'm going to display the time each photo was taken under each photo.
First. Shuttle to Buckhead's Lenox Mall (noon), eat at food court. I walked outside and to my absolute amazement:
12:49p
You guys probably aren't as amazed as I am, but that vehicle came out last May and this is my
FIRST SIGHTING - a full five months later (or a full four months - and some half months). I'm still not sure why someone would buy one, but he/she did. I admit - I hate the 6-series, but the M6 won me over - I
love those alloys. Next to the M6:
12:50p
911 Turbos are a rare sight in the area for various reasons. It's nice to see two next to one another. I see a lot of high-dollar cars in Atlanta, but I've seen no 911 Turbo Cabs yet - people with that cash tend to get Ferraris, since Atlanta is all about looking good (not that the Ferrari isn't just as capable as the Porsche). Seconds later I spotted one of my favorites, about fifty feet away:
12:52p
Gorgeous as ever. Best-looking German car ever?
The only thing it shares with the next vehicle is country of origin, and speediness:
12:56p
Not only is it a G55, but it's the supercharged one (more common, yes - but a LOT faster than the naturally-aspirated one). I actually saw three G55s today - in fact, the badge shot is from an entirely different G55 seen later. Two were black and supercharged, and one was silver and naturally-aspirated. Decided against photos of the others - how many G55s do you really need...? (none
)
It's an eight-minute walk down to the Intercontinental Hotel, and, as always, this was out front:
1:04p
I know I post it every week, but I just can't pass up photographing that vehicle. Just like last week, it was accompanied by this:
1:05p
Not quite sure on the trim of that vehicle, but either way it's rare and expensive.
Walking back to the mall, I saw this:
1:14p
All I know is it's an Aston-Martin V8. They were made for a long time (late 60s to early 80s), but they're quite rare - 1500 produced, maybe. Does anyone have any idea which generation this is? WikiPedia says there were five but doesn't go into enough detail for me to figure it out. New York plates say "DYSLEXIC" and are five years out of date. Passenger in the vehicle was a young kid. Any idea if this is a good sighting, or a great sighting, or an unbelievable sighting...?? I had no idea what the vehicle was until I looked it up tonight - based on the design, I was ready to call it a Maserati, but I saw the Aston badges in the photo.
EDIT: After a lot of searching on the Internet, I can't figure out which model this is. It looks like a Series 3, but it has reverse lights, which didn't come out until the Series 4. But it can't be a Series 4, since it has no spoiler on the rear (which, normally, I wouldn't consider a deterrent - except that the spoiler was built into the bodywork). Either way, the production figures are these:
Series 2 (72-73): 288 [small possibility]
Series 3 (74-78): 967 [most likely]
Series 4 (79-85): 291 [somewhat likely]
Presuming it is indeed a Series 3, it's one of just 967, and who know how many survive. There were only four model years from 74-78, as Aston took '75 off. Very cool, regardless of which one it is.
At a nearby hotel, still walking back to the mall:
1:19p
At first I thought it was a BMW M1. Oklahoma tags on this one, if you can believe it - not too incredible, but imagine driving a late-70s Esprit 1000 miles (
EDIT: it's an Esprit Turbo, so it's at least a 1980).
After about an hour of shopping I decided to head over to my favorite corner. Leaving the mall, this occurred:
2:20p
Seeing Phantoms parked is one thing, but seeing them drive is really something else - in fact, this is only the second one I've seen driving. This Phantom is the sixth unique Phantom I've seen in Atlanta, and my thirteenth Phantom sighting. Seconds later, in the parking lot:
2:21p
Hummers aren't too rare, yes, but the H1 is quite a bit rarer and more expensive than its H2 counterpart. This particular one lists for around $110,000. This one had Vanderbilt University license plates (from Nashville, Tennessee). Wonder if it sees the use it's designed for?
I got to the intersection (Lenox and Peachtree, for those of you who weren't paying attention before), and in the very first light cycle, caught this:
2:30p
Not sure if it's a 308 or a 328 (the only way I can tell is the wheels which, in Atlanta style, were removed) but either way it was gorgeous (
EDIT: definitely a 308 GTS). Drew a honk from a passing car. I'm hoping it (the 308) will be the first car I buy with my own money, so I was very interested. At this point, I was calling the day "'80s supercar day" after seeing the Aston, the Esprit, and now the 308. And of course, after making such a statement, this occurred:
2:35p
2:47p
That's not really fair though - the top one is actually quite new - I pegged it as a '98 or so - the precursor to the Phantom. Runs an '80s design, yes, but a very rare and expensive vehicle.
EDIT: it's a Silver Spirit III, made in the early 90s, and
only 211 were built according to WikiPedia. Wow! Both are Rolls-Royce Silver Spirits, for those of you not up on your Rolls knowledge - the Silver Spur was similar in design but ran a stretched wheelbase. By the way - in the top photo, you'll notice a Plymouth Prowler behind the Silver Spirit. At the time, I did not notice that vehicle - not until I was uploading the images to my computer.
In between the Rollses was one of my favorite sightings of the day:
2:43p
That's a W124 Mercedes 500E, the precursor to today's E63 AMG (which I saw today - being driven the way it was meant to be!). It was co-developed with Porsche and is extremely rare and fast. Used ones go for $15k despite it being 15 years old (and deceptively boring-looking); only around a thousand were ever made and this is just the third I've seen. For Mercedes guys, this is a very, very, very, very cool car. Also caught an E34 M5 today, but no photo. I'd rather a photo of the 500E anyway - it was better in nearly every regard.
2:59p
I soon realized that was sitting in a nearby valet. From about 1000 feet away I was able to tell that it was a Ferrari and either an F430 or a 360 (though admittedly I incorrectly guessed F430). Very cool - I love how those look. Back at the corner, the whole F430 thing negated itself when this happened:
3:15p
This vehicle was sitting at the lights for probably fifteen seconds before I picked up on what it was - lesson being, black Ferraris blend in, whether that's a good or bad thing. Not long after, this happened:
3:25p
Atlanta plates - didn't see the driver, and no speculation on whose it is on my part. I don't know any pro sports stars (in Atlanta) and I definitely don't know any rappers, so even if I saw the driver it wouldn't be much help. Next:
3:34p
I take pictures of every XLR-V (like that one) and many XLRs that I see. I love the car. Look at it - can you blame me!? Next up:
3:40p
Not that crappy H2, but the real deal once again - and the full wagon model means this one goes for about $125k. Very cool. Florida plates from the Miami area - again, I wonder how often this one sees the terrain it was built to see...
At this point, I was ready to call it a day and give up, given what I had already seen. My girlfriend and I went into the shopping mall to eat and shop for a bit, the theory being we'd catch the 6:30 shuttle back to school. Indeed we ate and shopped, but decided to spend a bit more time at the intersection before going. Coming up to it, I saw this:
5:24p
5:24p
Now, I was content with those shots. It's obvious what it is, and even though it's not pretty, no one could claim I hadn't seen it. Yeah, I wanted better, but you can't always get what you want. But - I got my wish minutes later:
5:46p
5:46p
Now, I
really wasn't content with those shots (who would be - seeing the same expensive vehicle twice and getting just those?!) but I had at this point obviously seen it and I was basically just happy to have been in the presence of the vehicle. Unbelievably, though, it turned into the mall right next to us. I "stalked" it and, alas, got the money shot:
5:48p
The most expensive 4-door car ever manufactured, folks. Driven by two 20-something black guys - again, no comment on who they were, not that I'd be able to tell anyway (though obviously, they'd be well-known). By the way - the most incredible part came later as I reviewed the pictures and noticed that the vehicle had
Oregon plates. The only Maybach 62 registered in Oregon, no doubt...
Between the Maybach sightings:
5:30p
5:33p
Not bad... After the Maybach, we were ready to give up and get on the bus. We walked all the way to the place where we had to catch the bus (a quarter of a mile) when we realized we'd left a bag at the intersection where we were car-watching. I dashed back to get it before it was stolen and, thank God, because upon retrieval I saw what many would consider the sighting of the day:
5:58p
That's the
third Murcielago Roadster I've seen this month. Not done yet. Finally, coming back to the mall where we were to catch the shuttle, they had, in valet:
6:04p
I posted a picture of that particular vehicle next to a Lamborghini Gallardo on September 23, but I felt it necessary to re-post as it's not only my favorite Phantom color, but it's ... the ...
third Phantom I saw today.
I'm not all about high-dollar supercars, though. ultrabeat requested STS, and STS he got - every generation, and I even caught an STS-V today:
Sure, it took four days, but no doubt it was worth it.
As usual, my Continental GT collage:
You can't walk around in this city without seeing those. I actually saw six of them today, but only photographed four, because, well, they're not exactly in short supply. What's odd is that I haven't seen a Flying Spur in two weeks!
I like regular cars most of all, though - these were big thrills for me:
The top one is Saturn's new sedan, the Aura - I first saw one of those last weekend but couldn't get a picture; I also saw one this week to the same effect but I was able to photograph one of two I saw today. The bottom one is Honda's new CR-V. Not a great picture, but I saw three today so I get the feeling they'll be popular. I actually like them a lot better in practice than in early pictures, but I unbelievably think they're too bland - you'll agree when you see one, I think. Also saw the Jeep Compass today, but I've photographed those before (though this was the first privately-owned one) so I didn't find it necessary.
What do you guys think?