Another fairly quiet Cars & Coffee event on May 5th, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have anything special in store.

It may have been small, but I’ll start right off with the show-stopper: this beautiful 1986 Turbo-look Carrera. She’s one of five that were built in 1986 like this, and the ONLY one without the spoiler! Yes, she’s quite rare, even if she doesn’t look it… And just immaculate. So pretty. I want.

I snapped this photo of one of the 991 911s with the roof open and the spoiler up — Looks pretty good I think, and not sure how many people have realized how far the design has come in terms of going from a traditional sun roof to a fully opening one and the now integrated spoiler on the decklid. The little things in the evolution of the 911.

One of our regulars showed up AGAIN in a different car! This time a cute Plum Crazy MGB.

She wasn’t alone in terms of MGs, as another MGB showed up along with the second appearance of this MGA.

Our STi even got some company, with this World Rally Blue STi hatch and this white WRX showing up. Believe it or not, the STi has a TON of money put into the engine and is pushing 550 HP at the crank. Sadly, the BOV up and quit and she was relegated to severe-grandma-driving. Hopefully she’ll be back to normal soon.

Lastly, this adorable 911 SC. Ever since driving one I’m head over heels for them and really can’t wait to get my own classic Carrera…. For now, I’ll dream and admire everyone else’s. (Though the only thing I see changing is my dream becoming a reality, as I’ll always admire other people’s 911s!)

Oh, and I took this super quick video of the 991 Cabriolet’s top going down! As I always say, I’m not much for video but I am beginning to dabble a bit more…. It’s pretty cool to see the top in action, especially as it now has no ribbing whatsoever and when it’s up looks very close to the 991 coupe!

While it was a quiet Saturday for the most part, I didn’t entirely mind because Sunday was the first local drift event I’ve been able to go to. I believe it was last year that some of the guys got together and found a track willing to let them hold drifting events there; the days last year didn’t quite match up with my schedule, though.

I’ve been wanting to try my hand at drift photography for quite some time, and this event was my first time having a decent vantage point to shoot from. I didn’t end up staying for too long, but I’m hoping to go out to more events and shoot some more. I now have some better ideas of what to try and where to shoot….

Of course, taking photos of cars sitting still is almost a specialty of mine, haha. Of all the photos of the drift cars I snapped before they got started, I liked this one of this 240sx the best.

This Audi A6 was out at Cars & Coffee a week or two back, but I figured nobody would mind seeing her again. She seems pretty popular on Flickr….

There was also this Audi A6 out. Not as crazy with the fitment but still pretty nice.

Naturally, I’ve got a shot with my STi in it…. But only because a friend of ours showed up with this white Evo VIII. I love getting pictures with Evos and STis next to each other, and it seems that other people like the photos too.

Okay, onto the actual photos of drifting. This beautiful old Toyota Corolla was one of the best looking cars out there, if not the best. Not sure I’m happy with the first photo, I had upped my shutter speed after getting frustrated with panning…. It would have been so cool if I hadn’t. :/ Ah well!

There was also this Corolla GTS out there.

Not sure what was powering this RX7, but it added some variety to the lineup.

This RWD WRX wasn’t looking bad out there either…. But he ended up blowing his differential. Ooops. Subarus don’t seem to like not being AWD…. Save for that odd BRZ.

Aside from those cars, and a fox body Mustang that showed up later, it was all Nissan 240sx’s. Not surprising really…. I’m pretty sure the 240sx is the most popular drift car in the US, if not everywhere. As pictured earlier, here’s the grey coupe getting sideways.

There was also a black coupe.

And an RB20DET powered red coupe.

And a multi-colored coupe.

As for the hatchbacks, there’s this black one with a white hatch.

And this green one that I seemed to really like. Well, that my camera seemed to like at least. Of course I was digging the cage setup, I love cages in cars….

These were the ones I felt were the best and that I thought were worth sharing. I’d like to have a well-rounded motorsports photography portfolio, and drifting is something that should be a part of it.

Even if they aren’t that great, I know the drivers appreciate seeing photos of them driving and it’s going to be a great way to make sure I finally catch onto panning… I’m looking forward to future events and taking more photos, hopefully with some warmer weather though!

Even though Cars & Coffee is every week, I try to keep the cars different so it’s not always the same thing over and over. Besides, I’d like to think that eventually I’ll get better at taking pictures and the weekly practice is really nice for that!

Anyhow, I have a special treat from this particular week’s meet: a brand new Porsche 991 911 Cabriolet! Isn’t she pretty?!?

Here’s some more shots of the Ferrari F430, I think these are finally better photos of her…

More BMWs showed up, too! There was this Dinan M3 that’s driven a regular.

But there was this e46 ZHP 330Xi that showed up for the first time!

And this very nice e30 325i as well. I really like e30 BMWs…

It was a very quiet Cars & Coffee, but it’s always fun hanging out and the Cabriolet was a real peach! Afterwards we went and helped out the Porsche Club with a charity penny drive, which was pretty fun too. Sadly it was cloudy and felt pretty cold. :/ I didn’t take too many photos from that of the cars, but I did spot this Shelby GT500 that showed up towards the end of the drive:

Yup, parking lot stalking at its finest. It’s just what I do. (Sometimes.)

As it was the third Saturday of the month, after Cars & Coffee there was the Porsche Club meeting. However, I pretty much dropped the ball and hardly took any photos of the Porsches…. So I’ll just be adding them to the Cars & Coffee photos. Heh. My bad.

However, it was another great turn out for Cars & Coffee! Yippee! Had some new cars and faces out and everything.

This time I made sure to get at least one photo of the Ferrari F430 with my camera. I don’t care how many times I see them, I love them!

The dealership decided to have fun torturing tempting me with this beautiful Guards Red 1986 coupe. Only thing missing for me would be a whale tail, but those sport seats are ridiculously comfortable…. I really wanted to take her home. :/

There was this adorable MGA out. What a fantastic little car, she’s a full restoration and was acquired through a trade off a property in Montana, where she was left out for four years with the top down. But you’d never know that just by seeing her now!

Our friend had his Porsche 944 out, since he was joining the Club on their poker run and lunch activities later in the day.

I ended up bringing the S2000 out again, which is nice because I’m slowly getting some decent photos of her as she sits now. Still need to install the coilovers though…

And our STi was sporting her new Hella lights. They need to be wired up yet, but they look great I think!

This Jaguar XK150 was at the British Detailing Session, but I don’t mind seeing more of her!

We had a small group of two BMWs and an Audi roll up — some very nice looking cars.

This 750iL had a GoPro attached, and I believe the guy was also taking video with a camera too. Not sure where it will get posted, but I’d love to see how it turns out! (If he ever finds this or someone who knows him does.)

The Audi was sporting one of the craziest wheel fitments I’ve seen in person to date. Quite the number of stickers, too. Wonder if she’s been on any of the sites?

My favorite of the group, though, was this M3 convertible. The BBS CH-R wheels fit perfectly under the fenders, and the whole car was just really clean and well done. Major props!!

Another quick shot of another bimmer and the VW Corrado that’s been posted in Cars & Coffee here before.

And a nice old school Japanese car for y’all — a Datsun 210. This one was new to me, as I really don’t know Datsuns other than the 510 (which came after her) and the Z cars. Clearly a work in progress, but that’s just how projects go as I’m sure most of you know.

I always give some love to the classic 911s that I find, and these two sitting off by themselves looked great. I’m not sure if the cream one is an SC or a 3.2 Carrera, but I know the black one is a 964.

Another SC or 3.2 Carrera, this time a black Targa. I’m working on differentiating the two. For now, I can only narrow down the years by the fog lights and they overlap between the SC and the 3.2.

Lastly, the Boxster S belonging to the president of the local chapter of the Porsche Club. It turned out to be a fantastic day for convertibles, even though the top is up here.

Saturday’s fun didn’t end with Cars & Coffee! In addition to the weather that made me think spring, the fact that car events are starting to happen again means it’s definitely getting closer to summer!

This was new for me, too, as I’ve never gotten to hang out with the British car club around here. I had met one of the guys at Cars & Coffee that morning for the first time (the MG BGT) and tagged along with my detailer friend as his photographer/assistant. (For the record, I make an awful assistant IMO… Good thing I work for free!)

Instead of heading out to a shop, like I figured we would, we ended up at a gorgeous property of one of the members. Even though I was an impromptu guest, I was still graciously welcome and didn’t feel too out of place at all.

I see the evolution of sports cars from this MGB to my S2000 (above). So, while my S2000 isn't from the same country or era, we fit in with the spirit that was there.

I did my best to photograph the event — I really like doing this sort of thing because I can capture the event and not feel bad for not being more of a participant, since I wasn’t going to be either way! I’m wondering if I can’t start doing this for more car clubs, honestly…. It’s fun for me!

Of course, with the gorgeous weather came my photography enemy, the sun. D:< It was pretty frustrating for me, partly because I’m shooting with a lens I haven’t used very much yet… Clearly I am still learning!

However, the weather was great for the event and a ton of beautiful classic British cars were out. While I myself am looking for an older German car, I still have a huge soft spot for old British cars…. I just don’t know nearly as much about them as I should!! (I know Lotus, that’s about it…. Heh.)

Thankfully, everyone was still nice even though I hardly knew anything at all. I’m hoping to see them again at some point! It was a real treat to see there cars and meet all the owners.

And who knows….. Maybe automotive event photography is more of what I should be doing. Lucky for me, there’s the Porsche Club to photograph, too! I should get plenty of practice this summer, hehe.

This particular Saturday was really the first one here that made me think, “Spring is here!!!” The weather was great and the cars were out!

So while I had next to no photos for the 7th Cars & Coffee, I hope to make up for that now.

For one, I had my own S2000 out! I don’t have her KW coilovers installed yet, so until then no super good photos…. But I couldn’t help getting a few while we were out. She got to have this cute MG BGT parked next to her.

Some new faces and cars showed up, too! Which is good since I didn’t think everyone wanted to keep seeing the same cars over and over, haha. This Ford Mustang was really nice, definitely loved her.

This Challenger SRT8 was pretty nice as well.

Not usually a fan of the Magnum, but I liked this wagon.

Of course there was a bimmer…

And a couple of Porsche 356s showed up, too!

This 1978 Porsche 911 SC of COURSE got my affections — not only is she from some of my favorite years, but her owner was kind enough to take me for a ride & let me drive her! If I had ANY doubt about whether I’d like to own an older 911 like her, it’s GONE! I can’t wait to really start looking for mine!

Oh, and of course there must be iPhone photos now. The sun was out, but that’s not always great for photos. This gorgeous Ferrari F430 is in the showroom on consignment for a client for a GREAT price. If only…. *Sigh* She’s a real manual, too!

Yes, I’m skipping from the 3rd edition of Cars & Coffee to the 7th… I missed quite a few weeks from my lovely vacation. As much as I hated to miss it, vacation was awfully nice.

I also hate to say it, but this is going to be a VERY short edition at that! I didn’t take many photos at all, mostly because there weren’t many cars there. I don’t think you really want to see the same cars over and over and over at the same place, do you? (Well, I know *I* don’t!)

So here it is, a very brief post on another week of Cars & Coffee! I promise things get more interesting this month and there will be longer posts, haha.

The Corvette guys finally showed up with a Corvette!

I'm not sure why, but I hardly ever see NSXs around...

Still pretty to see! She got to be my 14th photo in my Project 52.

Of course, there's going to be a Porsche photo....

Shortly after getting home from Florida was the Auto Boat Speed Show here in Spokane. It’s not a huge show, and almost all classic and muscle cars, but to me it means that spring is here and progressing and that car things are FINALLY starting to happen again.

Lucky for me, there were a few cars there for me to oogle and get excited over. I also had a car of my own to show — a little Porsche 911 slant nose Turbo model that I put together just for the show! I had to rush to finish it in the two days before the show, but it was worth it to see it on the table in competition, even if it’s not the greatest. (It was my first finished model car, though! So I’m very proud. I’m already working on my next model.)

My finished model! This was taken before the final decals were applied though.

The first thing I tend to do with this sort of thing is walk around, see what there is to see and then decide what I want to take photos of. As much as I like my old classic American cars, they don’t make for interesting photos to me…. They all start to look the same, especially at shows like this where everyone does the same sort of things. So I just pick out my favorites and/or the most unusual to showcase.

First up, I was excited to find something right up my alley — A Ferrari 550 Maranello. Not only the one that I want to buy someday, but in the color I want, too!

The lighting was awful for photos... So I had to resort to having some iPhone photos for the show.

iPhone photo, from the back.

LOVE gated shifters. So classy.

Then there was this really nice 1988 BMW e30 M3. This car had quite the collection of trophies, plus a fully rebuilt engine plus a crazy restoration — the car looked practically brand new!

You can see part of this car's trophy collection in the lower lefthand corner of the photo.

Aside from the 550 Maranello, my favorite cars there weren’t actually part of the show, but they were beautiful. They were all Porsche 911 GT3 race cars, of course. Two Cup Cars (Rolex 24 at Daytona competitors, this year!) and one heavily modified GT3.

This is the modified GT3, the other two are the Cup Cars.

The body shop also had two boards on display, one with one of the Cup Cars having work done and the other showing a new project they’re working on, a Cayman R race car.

The GT3 Cup Car board.

The board for the Cayman R project.

Then there’s the old classic cars I did want to share. Such as this 1967 Shelby GT500 Mustang, which had an insane set up for the show.

The blue on this 1966 Chevelle SS was perfect!

And while this ‘Cuda wasn’t hiding a Hemi, it was still absolutely gorgeous to me.

This 1970 Pontiac GTO Judge was impressive to see, a complete numbers matching car.

Lastly, I love seeing Factory Five Cobras. I always have to snap pictures of them when I see them!

For my random photo, one of the setups included gumball machines with Ford gumballs.

Overall, it was a nice show and it was great to see my little model on the table! I’m hoping to build more and maybe show in another event sometime, after all, I came home with this certificate!

Not much, but it was great to have. I can’t wait for more car shows this summer! (And more other car stuff, period!)

I really didn’t want it to happen, but it did anyway (not that I REALLY thought I could get away with it not happening) — I fell in love with the Ferrari 458 Italia. Hopelessly in love. It is such an amazing car that you can’t help it.

The Gallardo Superleggera is behind the black and red 458 Italias.

The entire time we spent at the Exotic Driving Experience was great. We got there early enough to watch some of the people from the session before us and see the cars before we went through the class. The class itself was alright — definitely nothing that I haven’t heard before. To me, a track day is a track day and is familiar — don’t do anything dumb, here’s the track layout, here’s the cars we have, etc.

Shot of the two cars we drove that day -- My husband took out the Gallardo Superleggera and I got the 458 Italia.

It was kinda weird, because I don’t think most people that do it have the experience my husband and I do. We were in a group with two other guys that have NEVER done anything similar to it before. Not that having experience helped that much — it’s still a bit crazy to see the track layout for the first time, and then fifteen minutes later get into a rather expensive exotic car for the first time and then go out and try to drive a new car on a new track at speed.

I was happy to get to drive the red 458 Italia. Everyone knows red Ferraris are the fastest Ferraris.

Then again, my experience probably helped in that I was fairly relaxed about the track part. I do autocross, and autocross hinges a lot on your ability to quickly learn a course and master it in a short period of time. After that first easy lap, it was a matter of working to shave off the seconds and feel comfortable in the car. (Shaving off the seconds isn’t too hard, but getting used to pushing a car that cost as much as they did? Yeah, that’s the hard part!) I did get a kick out of the part where the instructors asked, “Where’s my Ferrari guy?” and I raised my hand, hehe. I was the only girl in my group driving and I was driving the most powerful car there.

The crazy steering wheel of the 458 Italia. The guys there were great and let me get this photo after I had my laps in!

All in all, it was a FANTASTIC day! Pricey, sure, but it wasn’t that bad compared to other similar events I’ve seen before. It’s great to see them doing so well, too, since they have just started this in January of this year! And, if neither the Porsche Carrera S, Audi R8, Lamborghini Gallardo & Gallardo Superleggera or the Ferrari 458 Italia get you going, don’t give up hope yet! They told us that they’re working on adding more cars to the experience.

I had to giggle at the 997 Carrera S, since we had driven the 991 Carrera S only two weeks beforehand. The R8 was the V10 one, so pretty close to the Gallardo, save for the sound when they were driving. (Gallardo > R8)

Honestly, my words can’t do it justice. Lucky for me, I don’t have to try! I have the video of my entire drive. Just please forgive my weird dialogue, plus I sound off since I was sick… But I still managed to lay down one of the fastest times of the day at that point, and they may have been the fastest times of the day overall but I don’t know that for sure.

Bottom line from me: If you get the chance to do a drive or day like this, DO IT! I would love to go and do this again if I go back to Disney World, and I want to do more at different tracks as well. I mean, I gotta go and drive a Lamborghini myself yet….

While I’ll talk more about my overall race experience at Sebring in this post, the photos I’m sharing today are of the various other cars I saw at Sebring other than the race cars and, what race cars I do share, were there on display and not running. (Well, some were racing, just not during the 12 Hours!)

Absolute dream come true getting to see one of these!! Also got to see one of the retired 935 race cars!! <3

Like I said in my last post, we spent a lot of Saturday seeing everything else there was to see and not really watching the race. We had practically no cell service whatsoever, so it was practically impossible to keep up with the live timing and scoring… It’s not as much fun watching a race when you have NO idea what’s going on!

Thankfully there’s a lot to see and do other than just watch the race!

For one, there was a little midway with booths, including a bar set up by Patron Tequila. Yup, I had to go and have a drink! I also failed miserably at Forza 4 and we got a funnel cake. Yummy.

I think this 904 was a kit car, but I can't be totally sure...

There was my little version of heaven, the Porscheplatz, or Porsche car corral. It really made me want one more seeing so many older 911s from the years I really like! Someday I’ll be able to pay to park in the Porsche corral.

Not surprising at all that Porsche had a large presence there, including some of the cars from one of the local dealerships like this beautiful yellow 991.

One of the fun things to do was to walk through the garage area during the race. Any damage suffered on the track and the cars go back there to get fixed. Early on in the race we were walking through this area and had one of the 458 Italias blow past us, less than a foot away. It actually scared me! With all the noise on the track I didn’t even think that the car was right behind us… I never made that mistake again, though.

Which was good, because later in the day we were in the garage area and I turned around just in time to watch the Number One Audi pass by us. The R18s are eeriely quiet for how deathly quick they are, it’s almost like watching ghosts pass by and you only really hear the air moving for them…. It was a pretty cool moment, even if it wasn’t thrilling to see the Audi in the garage area and not out on the track!

She was hiding by the Corvette Racing truck, but no surprise there -- she's the "street version" of the C6Rs!

I have learned that I really need to get a mobile charger for my phone…. Battery just does not last! I’ve had it pretty much die at the end of the day when I’ve gone to Formula D, but it was pretty much dead this day. So yeah, I need to invest in one bad!

One of a group of Club Racer Z's. As I mentioned, there were some race cars that were there, just not racing during the 12 Hours! I think they had events going on during the week before the race.

I also cheated and ended up taking a nap for an hour or so. We had only been in Florida for a few days and I hadn’t yet reacquainted myself with the heat and humidity, so I got wore out pretty fast.

I did manage to sit and watch the last hour or so of the race…. I got to see Audi take the checkered flag.

Pretty cool to get to see one of these in person! I also got to see a Ferrari FF in person, so it was a great day for unusual cars. (Plus like four or five Bentleys, haha.)

All in all, it was a very long, very overwhelming day. We got there at about six in the morning, and all of the teams were already there and working when we arrived! So it is a VERY long day for all the teams and anyone else involved with the race. I really got an appreciation for all the work that goes into it from going.

Sure the GT 40 is cool, but I totally love the Daytona Coupe!!!

I also have an incredible desire to get involved on some level….. Someday maybe I can figure out a way to do it. I really hope I can.