Four relatively interesting car spottings today

Interesting to me at least:

First, visited a couple local junkyards to pull some e30 parts. At one, in the side pen (apparently cars available to buy whole, not parted), I see this. Never heard of or seen one of these before. Certainly not something sold in the US....I grew up loving Volvos here as a kid....I would have remember it!

Volvo 343

Near the second junkyard I noticed a small shop and outside appeared to be a couple of 993s in racing livery. DIdn't get a good look but shot a quick pic

Then driving down I-95, this oddity rolls up next to me and promptly floors it and takes off to show me just how fast it is. I was tempted to run it in the WRX, but was already doing 80. It seemed to be pretty quick from an 80 roll. John Cooper Works Mini Cooper Couper? Never seen one before..

Then, coming onto the double-lane exit from I-495 to I-95, nobody behind me and as I always do I slid to the inside lane and took it fast (it's fun at about 75mph, can't do it much faster in a WRX w/suspension and good summer tires). Halfway through the sweeper, at about 75, I glance in the rearview because I notice a blob of yellow RIGHT ON MY BUMPER. I get over right fast and this guys steps on it and absolutely takes off mid-corner. I'd say he was doing 110+ by the end of the corner, and the car sounded amazing. Caught up with him in traffic and snapped a shot....

Ruf Turbo R, I believe. about 500hp/550tq IIRC. And still had its race numbers on. Wow.

oh, and I found some good e30 parts as well :)

Damn! I got excite to see a stock 240SX coupe and a 3rd Gen Camaro 'Vert yesterday. Your day was much better!

Best car I've seen was a Fiskar last week

irish44j wrote: Near the second junkyard I noticed a small shop and outside appeared to be a couple of 993s in racing livery. DIdn't get a good look but shot a quick pic

That is TPC Racing. Mike Levitas owns it. Previous Grand Am Champion, 24 Hours of Daytona Winner, competes in the Ultimate Track Car Challenge. Currently, I believe he is competing in IMSA GT3 Challenge. He is a real nice dude. Builds insane turbo kits for Boxsters and Caymans.

Here's that same car. Out front of that same shop!

It's actually a Ruf R Turbo (the Turbo R was a 993). 520 Horse, 546 Torques, 1.1 bar of boost.

DukeOfUndersteer wrote: Builds insane turbo kits for Boxsters and Caymans.

Among other things. He has a sweet supercharger setup for 964/993 that I would probably kick someone in the nads for.

awesome, lol. Funny coincidence that I see that shop, and then 50 miles away I see that car an hour later down in Virginia.

Here's his Cup Car on his dyno (where the yellow 996 GT3 is sitting in the pic with the red 964 behind it)

Theres a couple of R35/37 GTRs that run around up here in CInci, and I see a gorgeous blue Evora about every 2 months (pretty sure its the same guy). Thats about it. Ive never seen a RUF in the wild, thats a pretty cool find!

I saw a guy driving a Noble P400 when I went out for lunch today. I can't imagine there very many of them in the US, let alone in Minneapolis.

The funniest part was that while giving my daughter a bath last night I was browsing through a several-year-old GRM sitting in the basket in the bathroom. And I was reading about Ruf Porsches, which I didn't previously know anything about and had never seen on the street. Then I see one today. sooo random.

That Volvo 343 is awesome! You should go buy it NOW!

stuart in mn wrote: I saw a guy driving a Noble P400 when I went out for lunch today. I can't imagine there very many of them in the US, let alone in Minneapolis.

There's one here in Fairfax. I talked to the owner for about 15 minutes last year. He was parked 2 spots from my GT6 at a local muscle car show. We were like the only 2 cars there that weren't American Iron, haha....

93EXCivic wrote: That Volvo 343 is awesome! You should go buy it NOW!

No idea what the deal on it was....it was in a little fenced-in side lot with about 20 cars that were in running/driving condition and marked "do not touch" and "not for parts." Also in that lot was an old mustang vert, a couple corvairs, a studebaker, and some other random older stuff. And a nice-condition Subaru Forester, oddly.

It's at Crazy Ray's at Hawkins Point (Baltimore, MD) if anyone wants to inquire.

The thought of a rear-transmission volvo with no parts available in this country really kind of scares me, honestly. Hard enough to get parts for the GT6, and it was actually sold here!

I saw a Mazda RPU today in a parking lot. Haven't seen one of those for an eternity. Funny how my first reaction was "The boys on the GRM board would kill to see this".

^^ The guy I was with at the junkyard was like "why are you taking a pic of that old car?" and I replied "because the guys on Grassroots Motorsports will love it"....true story.

I saw a BMW ActiveE yesterday. I think he's actually one of my neighbors.

Only 700 of them in the US.

In reply to Grtechguy:

A Fiskar Karma was at Caffiene and Octane in Atlanta last weekend, Rolls Royce Drophead Coupe, Mercedes SLS, even a near perfect execution of a SHO-gun. I have to say though the styling on the Karma was AMAZING...

In reply to Raze:

Really the Fisker I saw sitting at the Fisker dealership here is ugly as hell

93EXCivic wrote: That Volvo 343 is awesome! You should go buy it NOW!

They are very cool. rear wheel drive, rear transaxle (like the 944) and a deDion rear suspension. They are supposedly decent handling cars that can swallow the Turbo engine from the 240 series

Today I saw a BMW 2002 tii TOURING with flares and Kosei K1s.

Pics on the phone, no idea how to get them to here.

i saw a stellar red Alfa GTV on panasports and a Mercedes 190SL ragtop (about 1960), both in Plymouth MI.

I saw a classic Mini, some sort of nice looking pontiac muscle car (not sure what it was, just saw the front foot of it or so), and a 2 door panel truck from the 50's. Had a Saab 9000 tailgating me for a bit on the way in. It really seemed like he was going to ram me a few times. This was in a residential street with 30 mph limit.

Volvo 343 is what would happen if a Volvo 240 and an Alfa Milano got drunk and had amazingly awkward sex.

I knew it was Crazy Rays when I saw the first pic. Is that sad or awesome? Last time I was there a dude got caught trying to steal stuff. Cost him $200 for some tiny little trim parts that he didn't even get to keep.... Dumb ass.