Spring 2015 Dragon Run: Car Gawking (Post 1)

"No pictures!" The first thing Hotshoe and I saw as we rolled onto the Tail of the Dragon on Thursday afternoon was
Kamal, shooting for Killboy.com.  I am fond of Kamal, not only because he is a good photographer and a superb
engineer of Slayers, but also because he is an all-around good guy with a good sense of humor.  Kamal is
camera-shy for a person who uses one on other people daily.  Here, he prevents me from getting a
good shot of him at work by shooting back at me.

When Hotshoe and I arrived on the Dragon we were too tired after a day's driving to make any passes, although, as Hotshoe pointed out, we had to make a pass just to get to our motel.  Anyway, our plan was to make a quick stop at the southern end and move on to some dinner and much-needed rest.  Passes could wait for the next day.  We wound up soaking in the ambience of the parking lots for an hour.

Hotshoe's "general ambience" shot of the parking lot at the Deal's Gap Motorcycle Resort on Thursday evening.  I haven't
bothered to learn anything about the Corsa Rally, but the variety of cars was spectacular, from the Ferrari 599 GTB in
front if the Nissan GT-R "down" to a Porsche Caymen.  They had been on the Dragon all day and left after one more
pass on Friday morning.

This picture of a 6-liter 4-cam V-12 is its own excuse.  But I will insist that the owner was just showing off.  You
sometimes see cars with their hoods up in the parking lots at the Dragon.  But those cars are cooling off their
turbochargers.  Aren't they?  The 599 is not turbocharged.  (I might show off too...)

Toyota Supra twin turbo participating in the Corsa Rally.  This model is almost famous and deserves to be famouser.  In
its day it was World Class--as good a sports car as anything the Germans were offering.  Hottshoe and I knew a guy
who cleaned up in high-speed autocross with one for several years.

The Supra in the picture above sparked a conversation about car styling between me and Hotshoe that lasted, off and on, for four days.  Generally, Hotshoe does not like "the jelly bean look," and I do. Generally, I do not like "the wedge look" (especially with Giugiaro creases), and he does.  It has taken ten years of an automotive-based friendship to learn this about each other.

Hotshoe insists that car styling is just a matter of personal preference.  Partly, I think, this is just to shut me up.  I insist it is a matter of taste.  Of course, one can argue that taste is just a matter of personal preference, and, in a democratically inclined culture, it is.  But then there would be no need of the phrase "good taste," would there?  ;-)