cars & coffee

gallop — In front of Øvrevoll: Jaguar Mark 2 and Porsche 911 Carrera 993.

Cars and Coffee is a car meeting for all car categories - and ditto owners. Last Sunday, Cars and Coffee organized Asker and Bærum meeting at Øvrevoll Galopp outside Oslo. Within a couple of hours, vehicles from 1912 to 2019 appeared.

I arrived with a bunch of stripped down Harleys. On the two-wheel side, there was a high level of nostalgia with, among other things, the 60s Tempolett Corvette and a sleek Tempo Trygg.

I was impressed by two newcomers to the supercar class, the Bentley Continental and the 4-door AMG GT 63 S. I also got to study extremely rare American car history, prestigious Citroëns and a number of other great classics.

New Bentley Continental GT W12

Now the 3rd generation has arrived. In many ways a supercar in sheep's clothing. The 12-cylinder W12 engine produces 635 HP and has a torque of 900 Nm. Consumption in mixed driving is 1,22 litres/mile. This car in Orange Flame costs NOK 3 including delivery. W390 means that the cylinders are organized in a W shape. This means that the engine has a shorter length than a V-shape made up of two straight sixes. The arrangement also means that you get more power and better torque.

See Bentley's model range at Bentley Oslo

Mercedes-Benz AMG GT 63 S 4D Coupé

For me, it was the first time I got to study the 4-door version of AMG's fine GT coupé up close. 4-liter V8 engine, biturbo, 639 HP in matte Graphite Gray Magno, looked absolutely stunning. The pictured model is for sale as an 8-month-old used car at Bertel O Steen Ullevål. It has, among other things, 21 inch wheels, 9-speed Gtronic, air suspension, electronic diff lock, alcantara/leather interior with performance steering wheel in alcantara, sports exhaust, Burmester sound system, Distronic Plus and more. The price is 2 including re-registration. Please note that demo/sales cars in this class are often driven excessively hard - not by potential buyers, but by the sellers.

Link to advertisement from Bertel O. Steen, Ullevål

Ferrari replica – Made by Pontiac

A bizarre – but true – story. The car pictured looks like a Ferrari 308, but is actually a Pontiac Fiero from 1987-1988. “Replica” , you might think, – and that is to some extent correct. Few cars are more popular as a donor car for replica projects. The American budget car Fiero has suitable dimensions, a fiberglass body and a mid-mounted engine. All you have to do is replace the fiberglass panels and you have a “Ferrari look-alike”. This gave the management of Pontiac a bright idea. Through the dealership, you could order a Pontiac Fiero Mera, – just like the car in the picture. It was marketed as a new model. Pontiac hoped that customers would nod in recognition of the car that Tom Selleck from the TV series Magnum PI drove around in. Ferrari 308 GTB. That was just the outside. Under the fiberglass shell, everything was still 100% Pontiac Fiero. The interior, the seats and the engine – a GM V6 135 HP. Do you think Ferrari accepted Pontiac's "new" model? – No way! They went to court and had the project stopped. 247 cars were built. The Mera is therefore one of the world's rarest cars – and one of them was at Øvrevoll Galopp this Sunday!

A real American

Rarely seen in Norway: International Scout 800.

When I go to car shows, I also take pictures of the outside. Not all car enthusiasts take their cars inside. This International Scout is one such example. It is the size of a Jeep Wrangler and is powered by similar engines – inline-fours, inline-sixes or V8s. According to the paperwork, the car pictured has a 3,2-liter inline-four. The car and tractor brand International Harvester currently has cult status in the USA. In Norway, International is fairly unknown, although several Internationals have been used as fire engines. Off-roaders are not just Jeeps, Bronco and Blazers. It's a bit like Coke. Everyone thinks that Americans can only choose between Coke or Pepsi. Real Americans like to drink Dr Pepper, Mountain Dew or RC Cola, Cola brands that are only found in the USA. If you drive an International Scout, it is almost mandatory to have a red-checkered lumberjack shirt and ball cap, Merle Haggard on the radio – and RC Cola in the soda holder 🙂

Prestige Citroens

Citroen SM – an icon from the time when Citroen owned Maserati. As is well known, Citroën took over Maserati in 1968 until they themselves were taken over by PSA in 1974. Maserati developed the engine in the SM – a V6 of 2,7 litres. It was later further developed for later Maserati models, including the Quattroporte. The beautiful design, air suspension and ultra-modern interior were created by Citroen.

I discovered the SM as soon as I arrived. Close by was a great DS, facelifted model from 1968 to 1975 – the same era as the SM. Both the DS and SM are classics that belong among the most beautiful and prestigious cars in the whole world. When I visited the prestigious London Concours earlier this year, there were two DSs on display beautifully lowered onto the lawn. Real crowd favourites.

BMW 2002 tii

I got my driving license in 1976. Then the BMW 3-series (E21) had just been launched as a replacement for the 02-series (E10). The folk model 1502 was still in production. The amount of money 18-year-olds have is limited. At least it wasn't enough for the dream car – BMW 2002 ti. As far as I can remember, these cars never came up for sale. I guess a drivable BMW 2002 has always had a pretty high value. It is a smooth-driving car with beautiful looks and sound mechanics - seen through today's eyes.

One of the biggest eye-catchers at Sunday's Cars and Coffee (in my own humble mind) was a completely stripped BMW 2002 tii (Touring Injection International). The model came in 1971, with mechanical "einspritzung" and 130 HP A BMW 2002 in this condition is in a high price range, not least further south in Europe. This is a car that is mandatory in organized tours and races across the Alps and Pyrenees.

More pictures

Click on the images to see them in a larger format - possibly click a second time to maximize them. Among other things, we bring great examples of a 1979 Volvo 142, a mk1 Grandada and a Mercedes-Benz 200 (W115) before the facelift for the 1974 model.

Mercedes-Benz 200 (W115) with small grill before facelift.

Beautiful lineup at Cars and Coffee, Øvrevoll gallop.

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cars and coffee — Cars and coffee, Øvrevoll gallop

Carspotting - Guidelines

cressida — Porsche 911 and Ferrari 360. Same color?

Cars & Coffee at Øvrevoll

The event is a meeting place for car owners with shiny new cars. It is also open to the public , those of us who park outside and stroll around the cars during the relatively short time they are on display. Some look under the hoods, some check the distance between the tires and the wheel arches, some peek in through the 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 guy while the other counted the rings in the DKW logo.

– “That’s four! Doesn’t Audi also have four rings?”

– “No, it must have at least five!” replied the first guy.

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.

Despite the simple motorisation, nothing has been spared inside. Radio, speaker in the dash with the inscription "Sonderklasse", wood under the side windows, umbrella gear and four Audi rings on the steering wheel.

"Großer 3=6" should mean that a 3-cylinder two-stroke engine should be as good as a 6-cylinder four-stroke engine... Understand that who can.

And Cressida…?

Do you think you've seen this blue Japanese car before? You probably have. It's on TV during the day, in an advertisement for the Information Service 1881. A young man drives around the country and beach in this very Cressida in search of "the woman of his life." Watch the advertisement here

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Cars and Coffee, Øvrevoll Gallop