Raleigh Cars and Coffee April 2012

There’s a local gathering of car guys every first Saturday of the month in the Brier Creek Shopping Center here in Raleigh, NC. It’s our own version of Cars and Coffee put on by the Triangle Italians Club. Even though it’s put on by an Italian car club, everybody shows up with all types of cars and motorcycles and the event continues to grow stronger every month. Don’t be afraid to correct any of my captions as I’m sure some of them are wrong. The whole point of events like these is to check out cars you’ve never seen before.

: Gotta love the classic Mustang

: Shelby GT350

: Unfortunately Lotus has decided to move away from the ultra lightweight sports car approach for their future models

: There was a couple more Lotuses.

: Porsche Cayman on the modern Fuchs wheels.

: Instead of a transfer case in the middle of the car, Ferrari put a two speed transmission on the front of the engine for the front wheels to save weight.

: They call this body style the “Shooting Brake” which is basically another name for “wagon.”

: The FF is not quite the looker the 458 is, but it’s the first four wheel drive and four seater car that Ferrari has ever made.

: There’s no bad angle of this car. The pearl white was stunning, too.

: The 458 is a magnificent car. It looks amazing and was a giant leap in performance over the 430 that it replaced.

: Here are the Ferraris. FF on the left and 458 Italia on the right.

: Nice green Chevelle

: This clean 240sx has a turbocharged KA.

: Very unmistakable styling on the old SL’s

: I think this SL550 has the Maybach twin turbo V12.

: 2013 Mercedes C63 AMG. While the rest of the AMG line moved to the 5.5 liter twin turbo V8 for gas mileage purposes, the C63 stayed with the snarly naturally aspirated 6.2 liter. The engineers though the C63 was too light for the torque made by the twin turbo engine.

: Only the RS models had the split bumperettes

: Late 70’s Camaro RS

: BMW 1M. This car is a BMW parts bin Frankenstein. It uses the rear axle from the E46 M3 and the twin turbo engine from the current 335. Despite of its origin, the 1M turned out to be a very fun driver’s car. Unfortunately BMW decided to only make it for one model year and they have officially all sold out.

: Another one of my dream cars: Cadillac CTS-V Wagon

: Pretty cool intake on this Corvette

: V12 BMW 8-Series

: Classic M5

: I thought this Camaro looked nice in metallic orange.

: The Corvettes are usually the largest group

: Twin turbo V8 of the McLaren

: This car uses linked hydraulic cylinders in the place of anti-roll bars. A valve between the cylinders on each side of the car provides infinite and continuous adjustability.

: The McLaren MP4-12C. Boring name for an amazing car.

: Right next door was the V10 of the Carrera GT. Unfortunately my picture of the front of the car didn’t turn out.

: It uses the classic Porsche flat 4 but in the middle of the car

: Another rarity: The Porsche Carrera GTS

: Very cool little car

: You can see some of the Fiat influence that Abarth brought to the car

: Luckily the owner had this info card

: This is a rare car made by Porsche and Abarth

: This is high on my dream car list: The Porsche 911 GT3 RS 4.0 liter. The car makes 500 hp at 8250 rpm thanks to a racing crank that bumps the displacement to 4.0 liters. This car was brought to the show by http://road-scholars.com

: I’ve never seen another 911 in this color.

: I’ve always loved the color of this 911. It’s got the original version of the Fuchs wheels that were on the silver 911 earlier.

: The Pontiac G8 (aka the Holden Commodore) Club was also out in force.

: The Mustang guys parked together including two generations of Bullitt editions.

: Porsche’s first production car, the 356

: 996 Porsche 911

: This 1967.5 Ford Mustang project was for sale.

: BMW R1000: One of the first bikes with an integrated fairing. It was tested in Ferrari’s wind tunnel.

: Triumph Speed Triple

: The first and last V8 M3

: BMW K series with the Boxer Cup paint scheme. This is the same bike that most Police departments use. BMW started off making motorcycles after WW2 and would have switched to cars except for almost every Police department in the world was using BMW bikes at the time.

: Fuchs retro recreation wheels on this 911

: Exotic Italian styling with Ford V8 power

: Tomaso Pantera

: i don’t know what model Panoz this is

: Ducati Monster. This is the bike the two wheel terminators in Terminator Salvation were built on.

: Trans-Am on the Year One 17″ snowflake wheel replicas

: Martini Racing livery on this classic 911

: The compressor was HUGE

: This S2000 had a Paxton supercharger kit.

: The NSX’s were directly across from the 300zx’s

: The 300zx guys parked together

: Acura Integra with the Japanese market front end.

: Another nice C3 convertible.

: Clean Jetta wagon lowered on BBS wheels.

: The mighty Corvette ZR-1. This car was code named “Blue Devil” because the president of GM at the time was a Duke alumni.

: The Elise is powered by the Toyota 2ZZ engine found in the Celica GT-S. Lotus and Toyota have helped each other since Lotus helped with the suspension setup of the first MR2.