As I was piloting David’s Clueless-spec YJ into his parking spot at Galpin I spotted a little bit of magic out of the corner of my eye. I nearly broke my neck snapping around to see one of my all-time dream cars getting in position for tomorrow’s Galpin Car Show. The amount of greatness here, now, early in the day is incredible. Let’s look at what we’ve got so far.
As a reminder, there’s going to be a car show at Galpin Ford tomorrow, October 15th from 9:00 AM to 2:00 PM. The Autopian will have a section that includes the YJ, some great microcars, and a few of your favorite Autopian writers. Here, have a little video with some information (stick around for a blooper):
But back to the first car I spotted. None other than the Ford Escort Cosworth RS that Mohammed Ben Sulayem ran with Morgan Ronan in the 1993 round of the WRC’s Rally Argentina. The light pods! The Marlboro livery! I was trying to park that as fast as possible when, out of nowhere, Ken Block’s stellar Ford RS200 was being unloaded from a trailer.
Here’s an extremely clean JDM Acura Integra Type R.
Do you like Meyers Manxes? Does your heart still function? There are three of them (and a Koenigsegg with diamond dust paint, if you were curious).
What about a Mk II Lincoln Continental? This one was owned by Liz Taylor. Apparently, this Lincoln always brought her luck.
Micocars. So many microcars. These aren’t even the microcars that are going to be in our section. Can you identify all the cars?
I did not expect to see the George Barris Plymouth Fury from the Frankie and Annette movie “Fireball 500.” 
Hey, it’s a Robby Gordon Speed UTV. I’m not a huge UTV guy, but this one is cool. 
This street-legal MK III Ford GT40 is one of seven ever built, and only four that were made to be left-hand drive. It’s being presented by the Petersen and it’s unbelievable. 
I went across the street to Galpin Land Rover Jaguar and there’s a whole Lotus section. I’m a big Evora Stan and this particular color is great.
A Cygnet! It’s impossible not to be excited about a Cygnet.
So many Lagondas and this Jaguar XJS-based shooting brake. 
Of course, there’s gotta be a section for “Get-It-In-The-Good-Color” Porsches, including a RWB.
These are just the cars I saw setting up before lunch. There are hundreds more to come. Please come out tomorrow if you’re nearby.
Love the Lincoln Mk II. Apparently a great-great Aunt of mine had a white one, bought new, back in the day. My dad loved it.
I’d watch the video, but it played an ad, I hit skip, it played the same ad again then finally started playing the video in about 360p, then 20 seconds later it played 2 more ads, so I gave up.
The Integra is a fake. Real Type Rs had 5 bolt wheels.
https://www.pcarmarket.com/static/media/uploads/galleries/photos/uploads/galleries/20121-fl-jose-flores-386-216-6312-1997-acura-integra-type-r/.thumbnails/A-001_RyZJEOQ.jpg/A-001_RyZJEOQ-tiny-2048×0-0.5×0.jpg
Good eye. I spotted a neighbour’s Integra with 5-bolt wheels in his garage, and asked him if it was a real TypeR – he confirmed it was and that it ‘runs’, but said the interior was in rough shape so unlikely to be worth headline auction prices.
He also, sadly, admitted that he’s gained too much weight to actually sit in the car comfortably drive it; so it stays parked. Too sentimental to get rid of it, as he’s had it for years.
96 JDM ITR came 4-lug, so its real
Incorrect. the early championship white type-r used a 4 lug 4×114.3 wheel.
“It’s impossible not to be excited about a Cygnet.”
The buying public certainly disagreed.
I so desperately want one. Also digging the MkIII GT40 and the Lynx Eventer (assuming that’s what the XJS shooting brake is and not some other conversion).
I mean I am very excited to see one, but there’s no possible way I would have ever even considered dropping the $35k or whatever they were for an upbadged Toyota iQ
Ooh – that GT40 and that XJS shooting brake are giving me feelings in places.
Fuck me! I hate living in Europe right now, would love to be there.
Oh wow, is the Jaguar XJS shooting brake a Lynx Eventer? I love those!
I wish I could come! I’d be willing to travel 2,000 miles for this show, but I would want to link it to a longer vacation. As a teacher, I get lots of time off, but zero choice when those days are. That’s not a complaint, just a fact. So alas, maybe if the next one is the summer I’ll make my way out there.
“and this Jaguar XJS-based shooting brake”
That would be a Lynx Eventer
https://www.aronline.co.uk/the-converters/lynx-eventer/
It is, in fact…possible to not be excited by a Cygnet; doesn’t do anything for me- would rather have any other Aston Martin. Also looks like a Smart car (more like “stupid” car ha ha) which I don’t like at all (Actually difficult to write because I like most of Mercedes’ other cars…also she’s an AMAZING writer!)
Too late to edit (why have that?)-
Glad that Mercedes likes Smarts though and all kinds of “planes, trains and automobiles” and motorcycles/busses, etc because that’s what this site is all about, right? The best site ever!
Wish I could be there- looks so awesome and amazing!
I love reading Mercedes’ articles in spite of her Smart preferences, not because of them. We’ve all got a quirky love or two hiding somewhere.
Yes, so true…I actually didn’t like my wording and it was too late to edit…I try not to judge and want to be a true Autopian…I love her writing and she’s actually my favorite writer on here!
I want that Jaguar/Lynx Eventer. Well I want everything in this post, but those always do something special for me.
I think I just fell in love with that thicc purple Porsche.
“so many Lagondas” is not a phrase that is often uttered.
It’s so ugly, I need both.
I don’t understand how Cygnet’s are not coveted collectors items. They could not be more loveable and they’re rarer than a 918
I waaaaaunt it.
(They’re shockingly out of my price range, though. That sucks! As noted, I waaaaaaaunt ittttttt.)
Stef responded to my comment!!! I wish I could pretend that didn’t make me feel like a giddy schoolgirl lol but I can’t
I also waaaaunt it. Literally the best DD ever created
iQ, but SEW FAUNCEH? Count me in.
Right?!? Tiny=maximum fun but minimum luxury. This car literally righted one of the great wrongs that has beset our time. After this back and forth, I spent far too long imagining if Lexus had made a fancy manual IQ, but priced it reasonably. Genuinely think it would have sold massive. It’d be the only car in the segment
I don’t understand why they are special at all and not very interested in wanting to- maybe it’s just this model since Aston Martin has so many other ones I’d rather have- but everyone has different tastes & that’s why we come to The Autopian- the best site ever!
Because everyone knows that they are a Toyota iQ, and they’ve just put lipstick on a pig.
Not that the Toyota is a bad car as such, but it’s not an Aston Martin is it?
If Rolls Royce put their grille on the front of a Chrysler PT Cruiser and trimmed the interior in leather and wood, would they be worth $300,000? Would they be “coveted collectors items”?
No, they’d be seen for what they really are : a car that is NOT what it claims to be.
“Because everyone knows that they are a Toyota iQ, and they’ve just put lipstick on a pig”
So? Badge engineering has been a thing for a long time now. Lexus, Lincoln, Acura, Buick and Cadillac owners have been driving tarted up Toyotas, Fords, Hondas Isuzus and Chevys for years! Why can’t Aston Martin owners join in the fun too?
i have no problem whatsoever with badge engineering, but have you *SEEN* the difference between a Toyota iQ and a freaking Aston Martin?
Your other examples are all 1 position above/below each other in the market/brand hierarchy. But the iQ is a million miles away from an Aston, and that’s why it failed. Everyone knew it was a laughing stock.
I disagree. This wasn’t some mullet headed yokel slapping Fauxrarri badges on a clapped out Fiero and trying to pass it off as “just as good as anything from Maranello”. This was Aston Martin themselves slapping THEIR badges on a Scion Toyota and calling it an Aston Martin. They have the final say on what an Aston Martin is. If THEY said it was an Aston Martin it was and still is an Aston Martin regardless of what anyone else thinks. Most car makers have a range of products widely ranging in price and features. No Corvette owners cared when Chevrolet stuck their nameplate on a Daewoo to create the Chevy Spark. No Ford GT40 owners raised a stink about sharing their badge with Ford’s economy lineup including the Pinto.
The Cygnet failed not because “it wasn’t an Aston Martin”, it failed because Aston Martin charged 3x the price of an iQ for a Cygnet for little more than a few bucks worth of badges. Every product has a “giggle price”, AM simply exceeded it (grossly) on the Cygnet. Had AM charged a much lower premium for the Cygnet over a standard iQ they’d have hit their sales target of 4000 units and their EU emissions targets too.
Didn’t they offer the Cygnet with a V8? The ultimate sleeper.
THAT would be the one to get, and worth the premium.
It was a one off, unfortunately.
https://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/a22713713/aston-martin-v8-cygnet-drive/
OTOH AM showed its possible . Now its up to someone else to stuff a 327 LS4 into an iQ and do some trolling.
The base car is one of the best most efficient fun city cars ever, that weighs almost nothing and is available with a stick. Then AM made it beautiful and cute and opulent. I don’t understand how any enthusiast couldn’t be enamoured with it
And no, it wasn’t available with a V8. That was a one-off in house custom. And I genuinely wouldn’t even have mine with the V8 if I could. How great a DD is the Cygnet? Perfect, is the answer
look, some of us have a Cimarron fetish and this is right in line with that
That’s only a five minute walk from my hotel, but a sports team I like is doing battle on the gridiron against a sports team I dislike at the same time tomorrow.
Guess I’ll just have to chalk this one up on the ole blackboard as another missed opportunity.
(That looks awesome! Wish I could visit. If y’all ever do an event up the coast a ways…
(Somewhere in the PNW (“LeMay Collections at Marymount” in Tacoma, Wa. rents out its grounds for car related events (it’s an awesome automotive time capsule to visit)))
… and if someone invents an anti-misanthropy medication between then and now)
Looking forward to reading about this.
That place is awesome! I visited by mistake when attempting to go to the other LeMay museum. I was blown away by the scope and content of the collection as well as the sheer size of the facility. I still haven’t made it to the other one, but I hear that’s super cool as well.
They used to give Model T driving lessons, not sure if they still do. Haven’t been in a while.
Really cool place though.
Well, that’s a cool bucket list item that I never knew I had! I’ll have to keep an eye out to see if those might be offered again because now I can’t live without learning how to drive a Model T!
Go Birds
Man I wish I could make it! I’m on a family trip to Seattle!
I wish I was out in LA — this looks so cool! That RS200 is a dream car of mine for sure.
Absolutely gonna be there (considering my car made it on the Interesting List). I hereby state any burnouts are unintentional, and the result of putting a 350 with a not-quite-right idle tune through a 2.29 open diff and a 175/70R13
ZÜNDAPP JANUS! I see a Zündapp Janus!!!!!
POST MORE JANUS
If you were to just make it official and start writing here you could bring us all the Janus all the time!
I hope they hire her.
NO NEED TO ADJUST THE RV SEARCH. I WOULD SLEEP IN THE JANUS, AN INCREDIBLE MICROCAR WITH BACK-TO-BACK SEATS THAT ACTUALLY FOLD FLAT INTO A BED.
I misread that
Haha
So jealous. Wish I could’ve made the coast-to-coast trip to see the show and meet you all. I’ll have to be content with your write-ups. Keep them coming. Finally, thanx for the Manx!