Back in Time: The day I finally got to meet my hero car

Before I begin I would like to say an enormous thank you to all 1018 viewers that have viewed my articles. Nothing in my life has got such an attention, not even me listening to music loudly in the traffic. This number gives me an encouragement to just keep going and bringing you some more interesting content.

And today I have really something special.

 

Yesterday (13th September, 2014) I went to see a “youngtimer” hill climb race. For those of you who don’t know what a “youngtimer” is, it is a car that is at least 30 years old (so 1985 was the upper limit for entrants) but not too old to be afraid to thrash it up a hill to set up the best time. As for the hill climb, you have definitely seen it on Top Gear India Special. Let me remind you:

This all happened near Sigulda – a city about 30 km east from Riga – on a road called “Lorupes Grava”. It used to be the main road into the city until 1968 when a new higher and straighter road just next to it was opened up right across the alley next to it. No idea why they did it but my guess is that Soviet cars and mopeds weren’t powerful enough to get up the hill on this beautiful road. Luckily for petrolheads, this road unlike other “works by Capitalist pigs” wasn’t abandoned or destroyed. It has now a wonderful smooth tarmac on it. And this place is a petrolhead’s dream. It is 1 km of driving heaven with a couple of S-type curves and a rapid descent and a sudden climb straight afterwards.

 

As I was told by one of the entrants (you will see him and hear his name quite soon, but let me get there) told me that the reason for this is because in Soviet days there used to be an actual rally stage through there. This event was started just 2 years ago and it did attract quite a crowd even though it wasn’t advertised much. However, by judging how friendly and open they were with each other, my guess is that those guys already knew each other long before this rally. Not sure how many but you will be the judge by looking at these photos.

 

Brands that were represented? Well the Nº1 brand for sure was SAAB. There were a couple of brave guys in SAAB 96 (the blue car in the picture above), there was a SAAB 900 turbo, a SAAB 99 and even a SAAB 900 cabriolet. One of the marshals even drove a SAAB. Seems like all of them are in love with SAAB’s rally heritage.

The next big group was a group of Porsches. There were quite a few 944, one 924 from Lithuania (who seemed to laugh in everyone’s faces with his performance) and a handful of 911 Porsches. I have seen 911 races on TV and in pictures but to see and hear it in reality was quite an occasion. The noise vibrations from that Flat-6 went through my body. That is a feeling that is hard to describe how good it feels until you experience it yourself.

In fact this has been my very first ever such event I’ve attended and, after this, definitely not my last one. The experience of being at a car event itself is magical. First you have the feel of the event. The smell of burned tire rubber and exhaust fumes, the wonderful track, all these great cars around and nobody’s cocky. Everyone’s open and friendly. And FINALLY a place where there are guys who genuinely know things about cars. They don’t pretend and don’t talk trash. They know what they’re talking about. Then they allow you to properly scrutinize the car and even tell their side of the story on why they bought this car, what’s its history and what have they done to it.

Then there were some hard core fans of their cars. There was one guy with the only one running Alfa Romeo Spider in the Baltics…and he wasn’t one of those losers who buy their cars and then lock them up in garages, being afraid that a small stone could put a little dent in car’s rims. This bloke had his Alfa restored to the best condition possible. He re-chromed it, repainted it, cleaned the interior, did an engine overhaul and voilá. I suggested him to take part in one of those car perfection competitions where cars are ranked on how mint they are. I am more than sure this guy would get the first prize.

 

There were also a handful of some quite interesting LADAs. In one LADA (in the 3rd picture below) there’s something one of the track marshals told me about and something I am quite proud of that we have in our country – more and more young girls nowadays are becoming passionate about cars and some who don’t have licenses yet are desperate to get them so they can get some of that driving action. Not just as a very beautiful, smiling passenger like in that 3rd picture, but also as a driver. AT LONG LAST! THANK YOU, JESUS!

 

But the main reason why I went to this event was not just to see some sexy cars and smell burning rubber. I came there because a guy called Ints Indriksons told me he is going to be there. I am quite sure none of you know who he is but I found this guy on the internet and later – on Facebook. I first met him (briefly) at a classic car show during Riga city celebrations back in August but that was just too brief. Then I contacted him again and he told me about this event and said that I could see him and his car at last, with no rush and we could chat away as long as we wanted. Got my camera and my mum’s permission to get there with her car. Away I went, having “The Power of Love” by Huey Lewis and the News blasting on car’s stereo. I was nervous because at long last I would get a chance to meet my dream car. I finally arrived at this event and asked guys at the start where is it. They said that it should be back from the run any second. So I went back through the grid desperately trying to catch a glimpse of the beauty.

And there she came. All in her silver stainless steel glory. She stopped and Ints opened her doors which rose up like a greeting. I finally got to see one in action. After all these years looking for her, reading about her, watching documentaries about her and a Hollywood blockbuster with her in the starring role finally she was right in front of me. I am talking of course about DeLorean DMC-12.

Do you remember how you felt when at Christmas you removed the wraps and saw there the toy you’ve been wishing to have? That is exactly how I felt seeing the DMC. I have seen it only once before and that was in a museum. But seeing it in public is a completely different experience. It is like I’ve never seen it before. It blew me away. It is a very low car to start with. As you can see in the picture above it is as low as a Porsche. And it being in stainless steel it is mysterious. Like nothing else you’ve seen. It is like nothing you’ve seen. There hasn’t been a single production car that’s covered in stainless steel. Even more, there are no more than 17 000 cars made with gullwing doors (Mercedes 300SL and SLS, Bricklin SV-1 and the DMC). And those DeLorean and gullwing door critics can just shut up because they are talking nonsense.

First of all, as you can see above (that’s Ints, by the way. The owner of this DeLorean which happens to be the only DeLorean in the Baltics), there is no problem getting in or out of the car. I got in and out without any trouble. It is easy. Secondly it is absolute nonsense that the space needed for doors open up has to be large. All you need is mere 10 cm of space. That’s it. So the gullwing doors are the most practical door solution on the car there is. Thirdly and this is liked to the main idea why John DeLorean introduced the gullwings in the first place, is safety. Not because you have a high door sill, but because the roof  cut-out in some physical way makes the car more rigid (see Channel 4 “For the love of Cars” for more info).

It is a very comfortable place to be too. The seats are soft and the driving position is the best! The door panel and the centre console are high enough so you can control the steering wheel with your index fingers. Well, maybe on a highway, because this car has no power steering. Also, as Ints was so incredibly kind to allow me to roll the car a bit forwards along the queue for the rally, the clutch is stiff too as you could expect from such an old car. It was hard to judge the brakes because the car wasn’t running. The rev counter you see in the picture above is always in that position when the engine is off. It’s only when you turn the power on the rev counter needle drops to zero. Why? I don’t know. Forgot to ask. Another thing worth talking about is the gearbox. The shifts are incredibly precise, almost like on a German car.

So far the car failed to follow the “never meet your heroes” principle. Quite often you hear people getting into cars that they’ve dreamed about of having since young age and find out that they don’t quite fit or it is breaking down every 500 metres or it is just rubbish in whole. But my final bit for this all came when it was time to shut the doors, because I have heard stories that some people over 6ft3 (about 190cm) could not fit. So I pulled the door down. It was surprisingly easy to do it. Towards the end you’d have to pull it a bit harder. When the door shut there was a sign of relief. I CAN FIT IN A DELOREAN! And not like I’d have to bend in some weird way, I sat like I normally sit in a car and I had space for my head, my feet and my hands to turn the steering wheel. That was lucky. But also it should not be a surprise, because John DeLorean himself was 195 cm tall.

 

As you can see, the boot is in the front. The 2.8 litre PRV V6 130 hp (enough) engine is in the back. Ints told me that the boot is big enough for two airplane sized luggage cases. That and you have some space behind the seats. So this car could be practical enough to be usead as a daily driver. There is only one problem as shown by the picture below: as I shut the bonnet and removed my hands, even though I had clean hands I left some finger prints. But Ints said it is easy to get used to. And it is easy to get rid of them. Just clean it with a wet sponge or wait for the rain to come.

 

Now a bit more about the history of this particular DMC. It was built in August 1982. It is interesting because this was one of unfinished cars that was shipped over to America and it was completed there. The factory in Belfast closed in May of 1982. Then it was registered in 1991 and then that owner left it in a barn in Texas in 1995 and forgot about it. It was not until 2005 when it was discovered by some Dutch DeLorean enthusiasts and brought over to Europe. They put up an advert on the internet, asking anyone to come forward and buy the car, therefore financing its restoration. It was Ints who did it. It was finished and brought over to Latvia.

 

It’s not like Ints has put this car away in the garage like these purists do. No. When there are DeLorean events in Northern Europe he drives to them. He said he’s driven it to Sweden and to Germany. He even got a congestion charge disk bought so he can get into any German city center without being penalized. It started a discussion between the guys at the meet because they were not sure if this applies to foreign cars. But Ints rightly said “it’s better to invest €15 than to check and in the end pay a fine of €40”.

 

This was a fantastic day with some fantastic people. I am extremely grateful to Ints Indriksons for allowing me to take such a close look of my dream car. Thank God this car is not a case of “never meet your heroes”. It had an opposite effect – it made me want it even more. Now I see my goal after getting a job after university – buy a DeLorean. I will do just that.

And as the last picture I could not resist to have one similar to those Mr. John DeLorean himself had. How cool is that?

 

 

About Cadillac ELR and road rage

In the first “comeback” article I would like to talk about Cadillac ELR’s failure and road rage.

OUT OF JUICE WITHOUT LEAVING THE HOUSE: CADILLAC DEALERS REFUSE TO TAKE ON ELR

This is it, ladies and gentlemen. Cadillac’s answer to Tesla, Nissan Leaf and Toyota “Borius” – Cadillac ELR. It is supposed to be the “upper class hybrid car”, representing the new, high quality direction of GM and Cadillac as a brand. Expectations were high, reviewers loved this car…but just after they began to be shipped to the dealers in December, 2013 (pictured above) more than half of Cadillac dealers in ‘Merica looked at the car and said “NO! We don’t want it.” Why such sharp change of plans?

Well…it turns out that dealers in question (410 out of 940 dealers in the States) are ones located in areas where electric cars is a rare sight. They said that this car will be as had to get rid of as an Edsel because of low popularity of alternative energy and bad infrastructure for rechargeable cars. They justified their claim by saying that areas where most of ELRs will be sold are California (the hive of flower-kissing environmentalists), New York, Miami and other densely inhabited states.

If they do decide to sell ELRs, there’s also quite a lot of costs involved in tooling the dealer’s services, adding charging stations and other tools that would make these Caddies roll.

Personally, I think ELR is a waste of energy and steel. Why? Simple – first of all it is based on Chevrolet Volt’s (Vauxhall/Opel Ampera in civilized world) platform. That means the engine and the electric drivetrain is the same of the “cheaper-badged” sister. The similarities don’t end there because Caddie engineers weren’t bothered on changing the infotainment system a lot which, according to reporters from pages like “Wired” (http://www.wired.com/autopia/2013/02/cadillac-cue-update-coming/) say it is an absolute, irresponsive and slow joke of a system on which Chevrolet’s system is based on.

Also, I do not see the point of Caddie putting this car into production. What is it’s direct rival? Leaf? That’s a cheap city car. Tesla Model S? COMPLETELY out of the league in looks, drivability, emissions and value for money. Fisker is dead…and there are no more cars that could be related. What idea did Cadillac’s Marketing Department came up with to put this pointless brick on wheels into production will remain unanswered…for now. For it to sell well you need a miracle and a couple of people who have lost their mind.

GET OFF MY LANE: Road rage

My friend from Uni Alex took me for a spin in his Mini yesterday and we were talking about how us two react of those people who, by an utter miracle, have received a driver’s license and ruin our days by their absolutely ridiculous maneuvers. And we both came to a conclusion that every time there’s an idiot on the roads, our faces turn red, we suddenly know how to do sign language and there’s a bit of steam coming out of our ears because they “sinned in front of God Asphalt”. But we don’t feel guilty for our rage. And our rage doesn’t lead us to “aggressive driving”, we just love expressing ourselves to help other motorists…at least that’s what I thing.

Judge this…

It happened last Summer in Riga. I was driving into town centre to go to the cinema with my sister (yes, she’s 14. No, I will not tell you her name). We had a great time, listening to music, playing “seat heater game” and looking forward to our film. Then, suddenly, music stopped, fun was interrupted and my hands started to play the game “show all of the signs you can” when a black, second-generation Porsche Cayenne with Estonian number plates and tinted windows (on a new car, tinted windows could mean: 1) you’re a politician; 2) you were bullied at school or 3) you think you see too well) suddenly pulled right in front of me without turning turn signals about 8 inches from the front bumpers.. The horn of the BMW I was driving squeaked into life, expressing my overall “love” towards the driver. There was no reaction, not even a “thank you” sign (i.e. flashing hazard lights for a little bit in order to express your gratitude. There are nice drivers in Latvia).

After a second, the Cayenne saw the traffic in the lane we both were in, so it went back into the right lane where it came from, again…without flashing turn signals. The thing is that intersection we were at, the right hand lane goes right and straight on (in Latvia they drive on the right-hand-side. So does 90% of the world) and the lane I was in goes left. I had my eyes clicking once a second towards the ridiculous Cayenne. At the very last moment, before I had to turn off left, guess what…the Cayenne changed its mind and came back in my lane. This time…driving painfully slowly. I honked and again no reaction. We turned into the street on the left and the grand finale came – the Cayenne was driving RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD, on the lane-dividing line. I thought the driver is deaf, because there was no reaction from my horn and my Italian-like hand gestures.

After pulling up next to this evil Porsche my all emotions died down and feeling of helplessness kicked in, finding out that the driver of the Cayenne was…Paris Hilton-looking blonde. Seeing all those videos on the internet where their “intelligence” have been reflected by their chihuahua rat dogs and utterly pathetic general knowledge, I decided to drive on.

Is it fair that people like this are let on the road? So us, nice, polite and respectable drivers get our moods ruined by some truly questionable maneuvers. I am not talking about people who cannot concentrate until the music is turned down to 2 or who’s steering wheel is in their face. It doesn’t matter what is your driving position and your personal habits. If you are on the road, please, respect others.

The other problem on the roads is when someone is the other type – sneaking into your congested lane, overtaking people in the city on the oncoming lane, not letting you out of the street etc. The most common drivers that I have noticed of doing this have been driving BMWs, over-tuned japanese cars and cheap European hatchbacks who’s appearance is sacrificed for no good reason (in the automotive community we call them “Ricers”), van drivers and all of Bentley drivers. But I have noticed that the most polite drivers out there are SAAB drivers. Almost every time I see a SAAB driver I see a Halo over the car and they ALWAYS have let me go through. Makes me smile. ^_^ Also all of Ford Mondeo and Hyundai drivers. Probably because they are pensioners.

Anyone’s had any examples or views on road rage? Any idea which other car drivers have a terrible road rage? Or views on such “Barbie” drivers? Please, share it in the comments.

I’ll see you all next week. For now, I’m out of here!

GUESS WHO?

HEEEEELLLLLLOOOOO, MY DEAR FRIENDS!!!To all of you who wandered “is he dead or did he just give up?” I am still here, happy and well. I, unfortunately, stopped at my 8th video because:

a) my video editing program decided to be a teenage girl and just wouldn’t let me finish exporting the final thing;

b) as I’m trying to be a good student, I have had SO MUCH to do, so after failing to make the 8th episode I didn’t have any time to sit on the couch, film the thing and then spend days finishing it as it takes a minimum of 3 days for 1 episode. Some might say “omg, he’s slow”…but try and film/write/present/edit/publish/promote your own video blog yourself;

c) I couldn’t get hold of my camera again.

So, to make up for it I have decided to have a post about cars every week on Sundays as it is way easier to do so and I could express myself without making ridiculous mistakes in English.

So…without further ado, I’M BACK!