Ferrari 458. In purple. It was not a good thing.
My drive to and from work takes me through a fairly exclusive area… an NFL owner, the inventor of voice mail, etc. so I tend to see some pretty exotic cars on a semi regular basis (including an Enzo once).
The last couple of days though I saw a couple that caught my eye. There was a nice blue car in my side mirror approaching that I saw and I was trying to figure out if it was a Ferrari or a Lotus. It got along side of me and I realized it was a Pontiac Fiero GT from the mid 80’s. Say what you will about the performance, it was still a pretty car. I did laugh a bit though when I realized that my “exotic” spotting was an old Pontiac. Looked just like this http://www.motortopia.com/cars/1986-pontiac-fiero-12004
The other was only a few blocks from my house, and I don’t know the exact make or model, but it was a Japanese Mini Truck… complete with the right hand drive. It had writing on it which I couldn’t read as we went past, but I figure this is the definition of a “small business.” It sounded like a moped.
I spotted an interesting car yesterday, in traffic. it was some kind of 1949 Ford, with mat black body and sparkling gold roof and dash.
On the way home today I saw a red first generation Lamborghini Countach… the ones with the pointy front end. It looked great from the side but very dated from the front. Of course it was parked in front of a mechanic’s shop so that isn’t the best sign.
The only Maserati I’ve ever seen on the streets was on a tow truck hook, FWIW.
I’ve seen two today. One is this 1968 Mercury Meteor and the other is similar to this link aVW pick up which I have learned is a Type 3 . It needs some work but would it ever be a fun project car.
The Fiero was the cause of my first bout of car envy: one of the other girls at my high school drove one (I graduated in '89), and I thought it was totally rad. ![]()
Not today, but Friday on my afternoon run I saw a very nicely restored Chevelle SS in Arrest Me Orange. The owner must have been putting it out on the streets again after the long winter.
We’re currently visiting friends and family in the Bay Area, and today we drove from Santa Cruz to San Francisco along the coast on Highway 1.
Being Sunday, there was plenty of traffic, and the nicer cars were generally a predictable mix of BMWs, Porsche Boxsters, late-model Corvettes, and Audis.
At one stage, though, we were in a line of traffic, and three cars ahead was a low-slung car with massively wide rear tires. At first glance i thought it might be a Ferrari or Lamborghini, but i’m pretty familiar with the rear profile of those cars.
Then i worked it out, and had my suspicions confirmed when it pulled off to park. It was that classic mix of Euro styling and American muscle, the De Tomaso Pantera. It was an earlier model, without a wing and without the wide flared wheel arches of some of the later models.
It explained the fat tires. IIRC from my teenaged, car mag-reading days, some of the Pantera models used the same 345/35 Pirelli’s as the Lamborghini Countach. That was about as wide as you could get.
Today, I saw not one, but two vintage VW Beetles – both convertables, both with the top down and enjoying the fine weather. Not two traveling together, mind you, I saw a blue one in the morning, and a white one in the afternoon, about 50 miles from one another.
On Friday, I was behind a 1982 4 Porte w/ historic plates, brown like in the link. The best part was I was behind him as we drove past the Maserati dealer & 20 of it’s newer namesake in the lot.
I saw an early '80s baby blue Coupe de Ville, for sale. It looked clean as I drove past the lot.
A Bentley
Yesterday at the supermarket saw a light green Austin-Healey bug-eye Sprite in great shape. In chatting with the owner about things vintage (I’d ridden my '78 motorcycle and was next to him), he suggested I could easily fit into one. I’m 6’1", 190# and a bit broad-shouldered. That experiment didn’t work out for either of us… 
Neighbor across the street just got himself a '56 T-Bird. Those will never look old.
A newish Corvette painted U of O yellow, complete with the big green “O” logo.
There was a Ford Fairlane parked next to us at lunch yesterday.
It wasn’t in great shape. 
I’d seen this car last year but it must have been in storage all winter. It was 1960’s era Fiat 500 in this color. It’s amazingly tiny, just hard to imagine how small it really is by looking at a photo.
On the drive north yesterday we saw a beautiful silver split window corvette cruising on the highway. Lots of people were taking their babies out in the perfect weather but that one took the prize.
Yesterday, while driving past a small car show (sometimes restaurants put them on in their parking lots) I saw a '69 VW bus pickup fully restored and painted in bright pastels.
Actually, it was hard to drive past and not see it.
Saw my first real life Tesla S in a parking lot in Edmonton; Daddy like!