Cars & Coffee at Øvrevoll
The event is a meeting place for car owners with brand new cars. It is also open to audience, those of us who park outside and stroll around the cars for the relatively short time they are on display. Some look under engine hoods, some check the distance between tires and wheel arches, some look in through open windows.
It is difficult to single out some favourites. A couple of nice Ferraris, maybe? – or a Cressida? There are more Ferraris on the road than Toyota Cressidas, - such as the one that met us when we arrived. I don't know how many Cressidas are left today. The car on display is at least a real nostalgia gem!
The Ferrari 430 is a "small" Ferrari, but just as much a proper driving machine
It has a mid-mounted V8 – not the V12 that the bigger Ferraris have. This is a Scuderia with carbon fiber for lower weight, and that the engine has received an increase in power. I think we are talking about 510 HP in a car under 1300 kilos. Despite the fact that the model has a few years behind it, there are modern electronics and equipment.
There is a long way between the hybrid cars at Cars & Coffee
I'm a bit ambivalent about the front of new Lexuses. I don't think it suits the tall SUVs very well, but this Lexus RC300h looks amazing from this point of view. The grill looks like it's devouring the road and looks extra good on a lowered car, like this one.
In the standard RC300h, there are two engines, – a 2,5-litre petrol that produces 181 HP, and an electric motor that produces 143. Together, it is possible to get 221 HP and a torque of 450 Nm. The new car price of the top model with F-Sport is 637. The fees make it relatively favorable to choose a hybrid. And then they can be modified into nice street cars, like this one.
Real manor carriages
It is difficult to pass two Volvo Amazon estate cars parked next to each other. The Amazon (121) and 140 series got B20 engines from model year 1969. The two Amazons are one of the very last to be produced. I note that they have the wide steel rims. Volvo introduced the term "manor car" as a Scandinavianisation of the English "Estate car". No other manufacturer adopted this designation. There are few 5-door cars that are more manor than these two.
Curant to this day
The other day I came across a picture of an old engine on Facebook. The engine belonged to a forest wreck. I punched the serial number into Google and found that it was a six that had sat in a W180, the Ponton Mercedes from the 50s - none other than the 220 S. The engine was also used in the finest Mercedes minibuses of the 50s with extra windows in the roof, as well as in the Unimog. There are still parts on eBay for these fine cars. A car that today looks rather small to be a prestige car. But in its day it was priced like a Cadillac.
The Fiat 850 Coupé was a common sight on Norwegian roads
However, I don't recall ever seeing the Abarth version. I didn't get to hear the tune of this particular car, but I expect it to sound like a proper Abarth. In its time, several 850 owners retrofitted exhaust systems from Abarth to get the right sound. The engine produces 64 HP compared to 47 HP in the standard model. The Fiat 850 and 850 Coupe have never been slow on the road. Nor in the Abarth edition.
Audi's grandmother
- "How many rings are there?" asked one fellow while the other counted the rings in the DKW logo.
- “There are four! Doesn't Audi also have four rings, then?”
- "No, it must have at least five!" replied the first fellow.
Many people find it hard to believe that Audi has its roots in DKW. One talks about prestige brands, such as Horsch and Wanderer, - but the first independent Audi model, the Audi 60, was visually almost a copy of the DKW AutoUnion F102, which otherwise shared mechanics with the DKW Autounion 1000 "Der Sonderklasse", - which again descended from the F91 – also the Sonderklasse. All of these were light two-strokes with good driving characteristics.
And Cressida…?
Think you've seen this blue Japanese before? You probably have. It is shown on TV during the day, in an advertisement for the Information Service 1881. A young man drives around the country and beach in this particular Cressida in search of "The woman in his life". See the advertisement here
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