The 2015 Hemming Sports and Exotic Car Show

Mary Ellen and I recently spent a week in Lake George, NY on a wonderful vacation trip. Very relaxing, and lots of good food and interesting top-down drives in the BMW Z4 on the shaded mountain roads. And of course, no vacation would be complete without a car show. On Saturday we drove about 45 minutes to Saratoga Springs, NY for the Hemmings Sports and Exotic Car Show, on the grounds of Saratoga Spa State Park, adjacent to the Saratoga Automobile Museum. It was a hot, clear day, so we enjoyed alternating between the show field and the air-conditioned comfort of the museum! Here's an example of the quality of car that was there - a gorgeous Jaguar XK120:

Another Brit that I would love to own: A 1964 Morgan Plus 4. Out of reach, unfortunately - the owner of this nicely restored example told me he had just bought it for $45,000:

How about this interesting V4 engine of only 1100 CC - the smallest V engine I've ever seen. It was in an open-wheel single-seat Lancia racer.

There was a pretty large Japanese contingent too, including several models we had owned previously. These two, for example: a first-gen Toyota MR2 (the first brand new car I ever bought for myself) and a Datsun 240Z, in the same blue worn by one of the three I've owned.

But, the car that I gave my personal "most interesting" award to was this Brunton Stalker kit car. The Brunton is an American version of the Lotus Seven, grown up a bit to fit wider American butts, and engineered to handle some serious American horsepower. I talked to the owner/builder at length. He told me that the quality of the fiberglass was not good, so he used the 'glass body panels as molds to form his own carbon fiber body. He said that because of the lousy aerodynamics, the car was most fun in the "street car" realm of 50-80 MPH, and it was also a hoot to autocross. I'd love to build one!

On a previous Hemmings visit a year or so ago, I was contacted by one of their editors, a man named Terry Shea. On that trip, we were in the Z3 Coupe, and he left me a note because he's an M Coupe owner. This trip, I left a note for him to call me, and we were able to get together after the show. We stood in the hot sun talking cars for probably 45 minutes. Mary Ellen took refuge on a bench in the shade, and was able to get a couple of good shots of the lunatics standing in the sun. Here we are next to Terry's 2002 M Coupe, which is his daily driver.

Our two BMWs had the show field to themselves!

The Hemmings folks have already posted a gallery of pics from the show, some of which were presumably taken by Terry. Here's the link - enjoy!

http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2015/08/04/gallery-a-fine-day-for-fine-automobiles-at-the-2015-hemmings-sports-exotic-car-show/