Supercar Saturday has grown to become the Cars & Coffee event of the Chicago area. With a schedule of 5 car gatherings each year, this Supercar Saturday show was the final of the 2016 season. Turnout was HUGE, with an impressive collection of exotics and classics lining the streets of the outdoor Promenade shopping center in Bolingbrook. Although the Cars & Coffee format started in LA, the popularity of the early morning car show has spread across the entire country at this point. I think it's because you can take in a great car show early and then have the rest of your day to take care of weekend chores or other activities. Not everyone is a fan of getting up early, but the promise of seeing a Lamborghini or a 918 Spyder in the metal is enough to even get my son Clay out of bed. The drive down 355 to the show was amazing too, because we trailed a Mk4 Supra (in Paul Walker white!), a NSX and an FD RX7 - talk about he holy trinity of JDM 90s supercars! I loved seeing all these exotic cars up close. But as this is also one of the last car shows of the season, it was also a bit sad. Until next year...
If you follow Alejandro “Solomondrin” on YouTube, you know the Porsche 918 Spyder is the speed king of the latest batch of hybrid supercars. This is only the second 918 I have seen in the wild, and the first up close. While the image of these cars seems so bombastic and big on screen, in real life it is actually quite a small car. HUGE brake discs peek out from behind center lock wheels. Carbon fiber details everywhere. It is definitely the car of the moment, although I wonder how easy it will be to service such a technically sophisticated car in the future. I’m sure the current owners are not one bit concerned.
Very cool to see the Rezvani Beast up close. Rezvani take an Ariel Atom (already a blindingly fast car) and drape it in a dramatically-styled carbon fiber skin. It’s certainly eye-catching, and it should still be plenty fast. But I wonder if some type of hydraulic lift system has been incorporated into the front suspension, because the front overhang is LONG and I’m sure that carbon fiber front splitter is EXPENSIVE. This car made headlines when Chris Brown featured it in his music video. It’s a cool car, but I have a feeling these are not going to be too common on the streets.
JDM fans were wetting themselves at the sight of this 90s era coupe. How can this plain grey Japanese car compete against Lambos for attention, you ask? This is a Eunos Cosmo, a luxury tourer with a unique 3 Rotor twin turbo engine designed and sold by Mazda for the Japanese Market. Eunos was the up market brand for Mazda (think Lexus for Toyota) and this was the flagship offering, featuring 300hp courtesy of its 2 liter 20B-REW power plant. It was also the first car with factory GPS-based navigation. The RX7 was never available with the 20B 3 Rotor engine, and it is quite common to find this engine swapped into an RX that needs a little more grunt. The only let down here, besides the Right Hand Drive and the fact they are hard to import into the US, is the fact it is an automatic. Still, an interesting piece of automotive history, and guaranteed to be the only one you will see at a car show!
Clay’s favorite pick of the car show? It’s always either going to be a Nissan GTR or a Lamborghini Aventador. This time, there were two Aventadors! This one was sporting a liberal dose of Carbon Fiber body mods, because everyone knows a stock Aventador is just too common. Interestingly, this car a different set of wheels on the passenger side from the driver’s side. It’s the ultimate solution for someone who gets bored of their Aventador easily. And it’s clearly a hit with the 10-yr-old crowd.
This Porsche 935 tribute was getting lots of looks. It’s an interesting mix of period mods (slantnose conversion, DP bodykit, retro graphics) and modern wheels. The vintage Porsche 911 all all its variants has really come up the ranks in the collector car market lately. While originality will always have its place, tasteful period mods are also a welcome sight at a car gathering. It would be interesting to know what is lurking under the hood of this track-inspired beast. The 911 Turbo had a bit of a reputation as a bit of a widow maker - hopefully this owner can keep it out of the ditch...
An AMG Mercedes is a nice car. A CL63 AMG Black Series Coupe is a weapons-grade machine! The Black Series started with the CLK Black and continued with this car. The star is the 6.3 (actually 6.2) liter 510 hp engine, along with more aggressive brakes, suspension and a liberal dose of Carbon Fiber - sensing a trend here? I’ve never driven one and I’m not sure I’d like it since it was only available with a paddle shifted auto transmission BUT if it was good enough for Jeremy Clarkson, I’m guessing it’s a pretty decent whip. One thing I do know is the exhaust note is killer.
This! This! All day long THIS! The new GT350 has been strangely absent at car shows this summer, but there were two in attendance at this show. This one looked STUNNING in all black. Sinister, with an exhaust note to match. This car is a modern classic if there ever was one. I hope I get a chance to park one in my garage one day. If there are any left... because they all seem to eat curb on the way out of car shows just like this one. I know Mustangs are getting their fair share of ribbing lately, but I still love ‘em!