It's motor sport time!

I know this blog doesn't really do motor sports, since I don't personally know much about it. But still, it's a huge motor sport weekend so it will be noted even here at TheSeatHeater. Today it is the Monaco Grand Prix and the Indy 500 in Indianapolis. Both giant events in the motor sports calendar.

Monaco GP will start in a moment so and I thought let us hype ourselves up for that race. Qualifying yesterday went on in tricky conditions with water on the track from a previous rain shower. It was lucky for some teams like Williams who finally managed to get both drivers in to Q2 and for the young Dutchman Giedo van der Garde who also pulled his Caterham to Q2 for the first time. But the water quickly evaporated from the track and the top guys were on the top again and Q3 looked predictable with both Mercedes and Red Bull going strong. And it was predictable. Qualifying ended with the Mercedes drivers taking the one (Rosberg) two (Hamilton) again and the Red Bulls taking places three (Vettel) and four (Webber), leaving Lotus driver Kimi Räikkönen in fifth position. And as we know the Monaco circuit is one of the, if not the, toughest circuits to pass someone. So the start will be critical. 

Now for the Indy 500, which I know much less about. The 500 mile race will start later today, in about 5 hours time. In qualifying Ed Carpenter took pole position. The defending champion Dario Franchitti was weak and only took the 17th position at the starting grid. Will Power - who made the fastest lap at 229.808 mph - took 6th place and will be in great contention for the victory at this years Indianapolis 500. Since I have never watched Indy 500 live I don't know how important the qualifying is. But I guess that it is as important as in Formula 1. 

It will be an incredibly exciting and fuel pumped Sunday for motor sport fans. 

More is better (sometimes)

In the recent events or happenings - what ever you want to call them - I have spotted that even a "normal" super car isn't enough anymore for the filthy rich.

It has been a trend for a while now where tuning companies have taken an unbelievably expensive and powerful car and then fiddled around with it. Giving it even more power and a higher price tag. I don't understand this kind of tuning. I thought that just by buying a high performance car like an M-powered BMW or a Porsche was enough. But apparently I stand corrected. The filthy rich are actually buying these tuned super cars to make an impression on they're "average super car buying" friends. It seems a little tacky. I don't mean a little tacky do I, I mean a lot tacky.The cars are so vulgar, flashy and loud that I'd hate to be in the same room with the owner of the car. But the cars are also very impressive to look at. Even though I don't like what they represent. 

I'll give you an example. A Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG has 570 horsepower goes well over and beyond

300 kph and from 0-100 kph in 3.8 seconds. When it was new in 2010 the price was around 170 000€ (200 000$) without taxes. So not exactly a normal car if you'd say so. But obviously a tuning company said; 'Yes, very good. But we need something more.' So FAB Design - a Swiss tuning company - took hold of the SLS and created a bigger, louder, more powerful and a more expensive version of a car that already is big, loud, powerful and expensive. 

Here is the normal Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG.
Guess what car the driver is taking  a photo of.

Yes, this. The Mercede-Benz SLS AMG FAB Design.
That's a lot of capital letters.

FAB Design designing them air vents.

So there. The FAB SLS just has and is more than the normal SLS. I guess there's no point in searching for another reason for these cars than that it just has more of everything. In good and bad ways.

This - I guess - Mansory tuned beast made its appearance at the Gumball 3000  

As well as this Porsche Panamera. I'm not sure from which tuning house.
Maybe you fine people could tell me.

Gumball 3000

It's time for the Gumball 3000 pictures. The cars entering this years rally are absolutely incredible. And the drivers list is almost as incredible. People like David Hasselhoff and Tony Hawk are competing in the rally this year for crying out loud.

The 15th anniversary of Gumball 3000 logo was on around 100 exotic cars.

It was a hugely impressive arrival by the Gumball competitors here in Finland. They caused a huge spectacle directly after disembarking the boat. Policemen were everywhere trying to keep everything under control, and failing at it. 

As I said in the last post I'm so sad that I can't share with you the incredible sound these cars made. But there's always youtube for that. I'm not going to put every picture here but I will use them in other upcoming posts and maybe put some of them to the older posts as well. 

Enough talking. Here are the pictures.

Yes it's a camouflaged Lamborghini Aventador. It's invisible until you start it up.

Could someone please tell me what this monstrosity is.

The awe inspiring Mercedes-Benz SLR Stirling Moss. Only 75 in the world.

Koenigsegg  CCXR. It can be powered by ethanol and biofuel. So it's an eco-car , almost.

The loudest car of the day. A highly modified Chevrolet Camaro.

The one off Galag TG1. Don't be fooled. It's just an extremely modified Nissan GT-R.

There were three Ferrari F12 Berlinetta's disembarking. Three!!!

And a Ferrari FF

And one of the 599 built, Ferrari 599 GTO.

The oldies were also represented by the magnificent Lamborghini Countach S

The new Aston Martin Vanquish

It was quite the show at the petrol station.

It was hard to choose just twelve of the 300 pictures I took. But fear not, I will put up more pictures because I want to. If there's someone who cares to comment, please feel free to do so.
And if you live somewhere near the planned route of this years Gumball 3000, I urge you to go and experience some of the most rear cars in the world.

Motor show live!

Here as promised. Pictures of the Motor Show Live event.

It was very poorly organized and as usually in this country a very highly priced event. And since I'm not a rich person I wasn't able to get to the area where I would've gotten great crisp photos of the attending exotica. But nonetheless I have some great photos for you to behold.

Maybe someone will tell me what kind of single seat formula this is.
It sounded awesome.

Sadly I'm not rich enough to stand on the other side of the barbed wire.
You can see the Lamborghini's

Did I really leave out the Corvette Stingray from the muscle car post?
Check out the post. It's the most viewed post, so it has to be good.

Here is one of the highlights of the event the Lamborghini Aventador and its howling V12

A Dodge Viper. Weirdly the first Viper I've personally ever seen.

I'm guessing this isn't a Ford GT40 but just a Ford GT. What do you think?

Those were the highlights of the Motor Show Live event. I'm a bit saddened by the fact that I can't share with you the amazing sounds these wonderful machines made. But at least we have the pictures.

Today the Gumball 3000 arrived here in Finland. And tomorrow I will be posting the pictures of the amazing cars the celebrities and other millionaires drove with. That is something to most certainly look forward to. Until then seat heaters.

Hello again!

After some three weeks of no new content, TheSeatHeater is back. As it turns out it's not all about the cars, even though cars are a pretty big deal.

This post will not be like the others where I talk/rant about a car or a type of car and put up some pictures, no. This will be a hype up post for the upcoming motor show that I will visit this Saturday with my brand new camera. So clear and crispy pictures for all of you to see and behold. It will be a live motor show with both newer and older cars. For example many Lamborghini's, Ferrari's and some American cars will be attending. I still don't know what kind of event it will be, but hopefully I'll get real close to the cars.

In other news (if someone cares) I saw my first ever Fisker Karma. Which is odd since they make the car here in my home country. But still it was an impressive thing to witness. If you're not familiar with the Fisker Karma let me explain it a bit. It's an electric car for the really rich people. But what makes it unique is that it has an on-board power station in the shape of a 2.0 litre petrol engine. It doesn't drive the car at all but it makes electricity for the pile of batteries that then drive the car. So it's a long-ranged electric car. It's actually a GT (Grand Tourer) car.

So there I managed to squeeze in a small thing of the now two year old must have Hollywood accessory. But hey, this is a car blog after all with a slogan of 'It's all about the cars'.

Oh, and I almost forgot, it looks superb.

If you look closely you can see the solar panels on the roof.

No flora or fauna was damaged to create this interior.

Should it stay the R8?

When people who find out that I'm a car enthusiast - or car nerd if you prefer - they always ask me what is your favourite car..... in the world? Good for you if you got that reference. I always think a bit because I do not want to answer Audi R8, but i always do.

Looks stunning in white.

The thing is that I actually don't know what else to answer because it's such a perfect car. It looks fabulous (not in a gay way), it has great performance and has a great noise which makes it the perfect super car. I don't really care about the V10 version of the R8 - even though it has a hundred more horsepower than the original V8 model - because then the R8 becomes a cheaper Lamborghini Gallardo. And who wants that? 

Lamborghini Gallardo LP570-4 Superleggera and a woman.

I've thought about saying that my favourite car is the Lamborghini Gallardo LP570-4 Superleggera but I don't really feel comfortable with that answer. Saying that your favourite car is a super car from Italy is like saying your favourite band is Coldplay. It's a bit mainstream. Don't get me wrong I absolutely adore the Gallardo, I even think it's better looking than the R8 but I still don't want to put it as my #1 car.

Lancia Stratos with the legendary Alitalia colours.

One car that I also put high on my list of all time great cars is the Lancia Stratos. I usually state this car to be my favourite classic car. I think that many European car bores - and why not some Americans too - would name this car their favourite. Its glorious body, its fantastic 2.4 litre Ferrari engine and its success in rallying is a hard combination to resist. Actually, you would have to have a heart of stone not to like this car.

Well, here are my favourite cars that I came to think of in the 30 minutes it took me to write this little post. Here are some pictures of cars that I think could be someones favourites. And do feel free to comment on what your favourite car is.

Jaguar E-type

Nissan GT-R

This car has to be someones favourite. Ferrari 365 GTB/4 (Ferrari Daytona)

Oh yeah! The Americans

Many things have been written on this blog so far, from the super cars in the Geneva Motor Show to the improved Mazda 6. But in the last `lazy´ post i noticed that one crucial part of the motoring industry has not been mentioned on this blog, until now.

It was the Dodge Challenger photo that made me think of the topic that's been silent on this blog. The topic of American muscle cars.
I know very little about muscle cars so I'm not going to tell you about the history of muscle cars that much, you can educate yourself on that. I have never been interested in the American muscle cars because I didn't think they were the best way to go, unless you wanted an American muscle car. But now I have started to warm up to those big beasts. Especially to a Ford Mustang Shelby GT350 from 1965. And yes, it might be shallow but it is the stripes and the noise. But I guess there isn't really anything else to that car.

As you all probably know the 60's and the 70's were the golden times for the American muscle cars, with all the Mustangs, Chargers, Challengers and Pontiac GTO's.  But in the 80's and 90's America started dragging it's tail around and it went all bad. The muscle cars weren't as exciting, they were built from plastic and just plain sucked. Not all of them sucked but the majority did. But a part of that may have also been down to the rise of the hot hatches.

After those horrible days of the muscle car they are starting to make a comeback with some new generations of the classic American muscle cars. Such as the Chevrolet Impala SS, Dodge Challenger and Ford Mustang GT350. They are still behind in the technology department of the Europeans and the Japanese but they still ought to be real good at the light to light racing.
Do feel free to comment, if I've forgot to mention a muscle car, since muscle cars are not my strong point.

A magnificent Impala SS. I hope the owner didn't mind me taking this photo.

Dodge Charger R/T. It is an impressive thing to behold.

I can just hear the popular tune by Steppenwolf in the background.

Pontiac GTO in all its redness. 

I most certainly don't think this is pretty. Ford Mustang GT from 1990

The new Dodge Challenger and Chevrolet Camaro SS

I'm lazy today

I don't have any topic in mind to write about so I'm going to share with you my best car photos. I have taken all these photos myself. I welcome you to the abundance of cars. More picture will be added. Maybe in a I'm lazy today part 2 post

Audi R8

Lotus Esprit V8

Dodge Challenger Convertible

Saab 9-3 Convertible

Porsche 911 Turbo

Future legend!

This past weekend I got the pleasure to drive an old Mazda MX-5. It was my first driving experience in a low riding two-seater and it was an absolute joy. So I thought that I'd write about it. The car not my driving.

As you all know the Mazda MX-5, or Mazda Miata as it's known in the States, is one of the most if not the most iconic sports car of all time. It was introduced in 1989 and Mazda wanted it to have the feel of a British sports car but with Japanese reliability. A small light weight rear-wheel drive sports car with a 1.6 litre engine putting out a modest 115 hp was the recipe Mazda went with and not surprisingly it worked. It was fast, nimble, good looking and best of all - as in a British sports car - it was a convertible.

The one I drove was with the more powerful 1.8 litre engine that came along in 1994. It has 130 hp but the acceleration from 0-100 kph stays about the same as in the 1.6 litre version at 8.7 seconds. But when that engine came along the people at Mazda decided that the gap between the 1.6 and the 1.8 was to small so they detuned the 1.6 litre engine to only develope 90 hp. Which - as you may imagine - was not a success.

But all in all the Mazda MX-5 has been a success story. Mazda have made over 900 000 of the MX-5 and they haven't stopped yet. It has changed appearance somewhat over the years but the recipe is still the same.  The Mazda MX-5 Miata will go down to the car hall of fame, no question about it.

Oh, and keeping in the theme of future classics, this is certainly a car that belongs there. But the annual special editions or otherwise called M Editions are the ones to look for.

Yes, the roof down in just above freezing temperature

And it has the coolest things ever fitted on a car, pop-up headlights.

In the cockpit there's nothing to distract you from the road.

This example was not in the best of shapes, but still huge fun.

All the generations of the iconic Mazda MX-5 Miata.