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Jul
11
Trundling along the beautiful Norwegian back country roads at a leisurely pace of 80 km/h is relaxing. Cruising around a corner and finding a classic Bentley Corniche Coupé next to the road instantly turned the attention from sightseeing mode to Drive-by Snapshots excitement.
Jul
11
On our way from Oslo to Rakkestad, we drove through a quaint little town named Tomter. This town featured a rather classy Bentley Corniche Coupé at one end… and a vehicle called sad solution in German on the other. Sad solution? Yes, the Volkswagen Type 3 1600 TL was nicknamed Traurige Lösung. It’s easy to see why, as it wanted to play in a higher class than the mighty Beetle, but somehow just looked like a big one with the proportions way off and not to it’s advantage. Mean people even say, that it looks like a Dackel taking a crap. Oh well, this might not have been what the ‘designers’ intended.
Jul
11
A winding back country road in rural Norway on a beautiful summer day. The sun is shining, the bees are flying and the birds are singing. Well, they might be singing but… what actually reaches your eardrums is an entirely different symphony. One featuring sounds emitted from fresh air rushing through the carbon fiber intake system, feeding the engine via individual throttle bodies, exploding ferociously and being emitted through an exhaust system, finely tuned to trigger daydreams of an era long gone.
Jul
11
The pace on Norwegian roads is slow. You have plenty of time to look around while driving – which slows you down even more. But as long as the reason for traveling at such a snails’ pace is such a clean Ford Cortina Mk1 GT… we don’t mind at all. Having a smile on our faces was well worth the taking a little break. So, as you would expect, we stopped and took a couple of pictures. Enjoy!
Jul
06
“You recently posted a picture of a beige car on Facebook. I don’t know what kind of car it is, but the picture is so beautiful that I looked at it more than once.” Daniela Stühler
This quote is from a friend who isn’t really interested in cars – but has a professionally trained eye and lots of practical experience with equilibrated color combinations. When we met a couple of days after posting the preview shot on Facebook, she told me that she loves how perfect the color and style of the car correspond with the background. The way she spoke about her impressions of the picture catapulted me back to that very hot day in 2014 when I portrayed Stefans’ Volvo. Daniela, this article is dedicated to you for putting my previously unspoken feelings about these photos into words. Thank you.
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Jul
06
My friends from Passau Classics sent me an invitation to their 3rd annual Classic Car Day, held at Schloss Freudenhain. The one-day event is open to all classic and vintage cars and does not require booking. Therefore the organizers don’t know which and how many cars are going to show up. This might sound odd, but is a proven concept by now. The surprise factor is something unique, and when a rare car rolls up to registration the smiles on the faces are unbeatable. I really like the concept and wish more events would be like that. Informal and friendly are the words best describing the beautiful day 🙂
Please find a selection of detail pictures below. You might also want to visit Passau Classics on Facebook for more pictures and information.
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Jun
24
Le Mans 2014. Three generations of awesome LMP1 race cars from Toyota are displayed in front of the Toyota hospitality building. That’s actually a good chance to compare how the design of the vehicles has evolved over the years. They might become faster, sleeker and more aerodynamically advanced with each generation. But honestly, don’t you also think the oldest car is the most handsome and good looking?
Jun
22
Being regular exhibitors at the Abenteuer Allrad in Bad Kissingen, the Off Road Center guys always showcase their skills with a couple of great Land Rover Defender builds, parts and accessories. This year they had, amongst others, their Janus-style Defender “Lotte” on display…
Jun
20
As promised in the previous post featuring the Snatch Panda, there are going to be a couple of posts containing more sport-orientated vehicles. First one up is the Porsche 935 Kremer K3 in the famous Vaillant livery. The car was parked in the fenced-off area where members of the Porsche Club Great Britain camped, a mere hundred meters away from the famous Porsche curve of the Circuit de la Sarthe. Unfortunately the security guard wasn’t the most sympathetic person and was neither understanding nor especially helpful. Therefore, I could only snap a few pictures through the fence 🙁
Jun
19
Camping at the Beauséjour campground in Le Mans near the Porsche curves provides a constant stream of interesting cars. Porsche, Lotus Seven, Aston Martin and other fine machinery are plentiful there. However, I choose this cute little FIAT Panda 4×4, nicknamed Snatch Panda, for my first LM 2014 posting. Why? Because it really stood out amongst all the high end cars and features lovely details, mimicking properly equipped larger scale 4x4s. You just gotta love the desert sand paint with the flat black accents. The camouflage nets in the rear windows are also a nice touch. Props to the builder/owner and thumbs up!
Jun
16
All of you have have been in this situation before: a long distance, cross-country journey by car. If you happen to be driving through France, make sure to stay away from the Autoroute and use the Route Nationale instead. I bet you – it will never be boring! Driving home from the 24 Heures du Mans, we stopped at a red traffic light in Sedan (Ardennes), not far from the border to Belgium. The low sun cast an interesting shadow on the wall, in front of which a FIAT Panda was parked on the sidewalk. Not really interesting, you think? Well look closely, and you will see what instantly hit me.
Jun
15
In the 1960’s the internet wasn’t invented yet and only a few people had a black and white TV. Apart from advertising in newspapers and cinemas, companies had to come up with different ideas to get the attention of potential customers. In France, many companies ordered special re-bodied vehicles from coach builders to gain attention at events like the Tour de France and the 24 Heures du Mans. These vehicles drove along the circuit before the races began. Concerning the Tour de France, the tradition lives on even today, but unfortunately most vehicles are not purpose-built solely for advertising duty any more.
Jun
15
There are many reasons why I love France. One of them is the fact, that the French do not immediately dismount the pumps after a petrol station goes out of business. Instead they just display the lowest possible price on the signpost, call it a day and wander off to play a game of Pétanque with their friends, enjoying a glass of red wine.
Jun
14
Everybody know about the starting procedure of the 24 Heures du Mans race. The cars are lined up in an angle in front of the pit lane wall. But… theoretically knowing about it and seeing it live are two different things entirely. All the buzz on the starting grid is quite interesting…
Jun
12
One of quite a few Porsche 919 Hybrid LMP1 models in 1:1 scale that graced the Michelin booth at the 24 Heures du Mans 2014. A stunning car and engineering masterpiece… but not particularly pretty. It might have looked a lot better had it sported a Martini or Gulf livery. Maybe next year?
May
25
The big portal crane in the Regensburg harbor didn’t only make a great location for the BMW E30 photo shooting, but also paid hommage to the 3-series predecessor by sporting the correct number.
May
24
My friend Gerd and his wife Claudia started the drop-top season rather late this year. After collecting the Volkswagen Beetle convertible from storage and giving it a good wash, we decided to quickly snap a few pictures before officially starting the season.
May
20
Sleeping Beauties | Golden Brown
Drive-by Snapshots / Germany / Matching Backgrounds / Mercedes-Benz / Mitsubishi / Peugeot / Spain Posted by Sebastian
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Frequent readers know that most posts here at Drive-by Snapshots feature multiple pictures of a certain subject, most often accompanied by a little story. However, my archives are brimming with those lonely single pictures. Until recently I wasn’t really sure how to post them without boring you. A post containing one picture just isn’t really going to cut it. Last week, a good friend of mine had a great idea and suggested that I could group them for posts. While digging through the archives, I actually found many pictures that have something in common: a matching background, color or theme. Today, Drive-by Snapshots presents: three sleeping beauties – golden brown.
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May
11
Found this a couple of years ago in Berlin, in front of the MeilenWerk. The place is now called Classic Remise. The BMW K100 motorcycle sculpture itself is worth taking a closer look. Just by chance, a matching Ford 20M Coupé was parked right next to it. Speaking of interesting contrasts…
May
02
Taking pictures of the diamond black 318is beauties on Sunday reminded me of something. A couple of weeks ago, while looking for Drive-by Snapshots in Strasbourg, I found an almost immaculate BMW E30 324d in an industrial area. The sign on the roof pointed to a used car dealership I would have otherwise missed. The silver car was for sale, but an old diesel isn’t really desirable to own in Germany due to high taxes… unless it is 30+ years old. Well this particular birthday will be celebrated in the not too distant future.
