ok, so europe's wierd.

over there ford names minivans after old musclecars with the galaxie and maverick. citroen seems to think that it's ok to call their ugly assed sedan/wagon a "C5" and at least 70 percent of the cars on the road are diesels. that makes driving through any of europe's bazillion 9km+ long tunnels an exercise in holding ones breath.

these people don't value fast cars. aside from the handful of amg sl55's and m3's, the roads are inhabited by whizzy little smart cars and low displacement pieces of trash. in two weeks, i only saw one bmw 2002. it was a tii and had a 5" widebody kit. wicked. it was on a packed autobahn in a traffic jam in the rain and my thumbs up produced a sideways kicking burnout that put the 10" wide tires out back into a hazy blur.

the whole time there i saw three pickups, a ford ranger on a car lot, a dodge dakota pulling an rv and a dodge ram 3500 pulling an rv the size of a house. i also saw an audi a3 hatchback pulling an rv. and every car between that size and a full sized sedan doing the same.

i saw a rollover on the autobahn that was preceeded by a giant politzi helicopter hovering about 25 feet over the freeway in an absolute standstill that screamed "THERES A BIG FUGGIN TRAFFIC JAM AHEAD, SLOW DOWN!" at the equivalent of 60mph, the downdraft from the blades of the helicopter threw our car two wheels over the line of the next lane over. insane.

the two cars that caught my eye the most were the new hatchback alfa romeo and the peugeot 206cc convertible hard top. cute.

i must have put the equivalent of 50,000km of wear on the 2nd gear synchro in our rental car.

i'll think of more later, got some good stories and a good photo of a c5 vette almost running a bimmer over in the fast lane of the A2.

jason

Did you see any Opel Speedsters? those cars look badass... hehe... you get a chance to really drive on the autobahn? I've heard that road is badass when its clear but HELL when theres a wreck... friend of mine used to live in Germany before he moved here...

-Daniel

yeah i saw three speedsters. cute. all were at speed, going the other direction though so i didn't get as close a look as i'd prefer. every opel dealership i stopped at lacked one in the showroom, just like renault with the clio v6...

and i did go on many an autobahn in all three countries (germany, austria, switzerland). also saw a wreck which stopped traffic for almost an hour, total standstill, people out of their cars eating food and hanging out, etc...

jason

ya... joe told me that whenever there was a wreck on the autobahn it came to a complete standstill... i've been in one traffic jam like that... was on I-20 over by Dallas in Texas.... BIG wreck.... car was turned off and we were checkin out the river next to the highway... people were gettin out of their trucks and fishing and shit... were just chillin there for an hour or two...

the opel speedster, a lot of people say, is the new generation of the fiero... at least i think it was the speedster... not exactly sure.... been to a web-site and i'm pretty sure it was made by opel atleast... turbo 4cylinders i think is what it had in it... quick little cars... and opel is owned by GM, correct?

good to here you had a good time... heh...

-Daniel

yeah, with the technology that the speedster uses (an ecotec four banger) and the configuration of the chassis, i can see exactly why they'd say it's the next gen fiero. it is. not only that, but opel IS owned by gm, entirely. AND pontiac was gm's first venture in europe.

ask gtp about his whacko '70s grand prix.

jason

Hmmm, since it has an ecotec, and there's already a lot of development in the turbo ecotec area... *visions of a turbo speedster*

-Ben

there is a turbo speedster for the '04 model year. also a psycho 100mpg model. oh just a note, the 1200hp model that chevy will sell you the book on how to build...

not oem casting. oem is styrofoam cast, the hot one is cast in sand...drumroll please...

BY SAAB.

jason

what exactly does OEM mean? like what do the letters stand for. i know it means factory parts etc but what do the letters mean

Actually, its a 73 grand am. Im impressed that you know that it was Gm's first venture into the euro style car. Thats actually why the car came out in 73 was they needed somthing like that.

Where in Europe did you go and when?
Europe is badass!
I like the laws of the road there...people actually MOVE for you

Maybe your Mom can hook you up, after Neon drops her off.