1997 Land Rover Range Rover 4.6 HSE "Vitesse"

1997 Land Rover Range Rover 4.6 HSE 'Vitesse'

When I do one of these vehicle blog posts I use a random selection program to pick the car. It's interesting that this particular Range Rover was chosen tonight because I saw one of these in Minnesota a few weeks ago and they're pretty rare.

Land Rover actually produced exactly 100 of these yellow 'Vitesse' Special Edition Range Rovers in 1997 (they also made 100 red ones). There wasn't really that much to them other than the color and the matching interior piping. Back in the day anything odd would catch my eye (and still does), and a bright yellow SUV was certainly odd. 

I got a really good deal on the truck primarily, I assume, due to its color. It was in excellent shape though so I was thrilled. I had this thing for a while before eventually selling it to a guy in Detroit. 

I didn't have a thing for yellow stuff, but I did coincidentally own this yellow Ducati at the same time. This was probably in the late 90's or 2000, and I wasn't living in a super fancy neighborhood or anything but I had some interesting cars...and lots of them. The high school kid across the street asked me if I was a drug dealer. That was the exact moment I started looking for a nicer place (with a lot more garage space).

My girlfriend at the time loved this one and was quite upset when I sold it if I remember correctly. I kind of get the color being more of a feminine one for an SUV - I would maintain that yellow is fine for a sports car though. I didn't really mind driving it though, but there were better SUVs out there (and in my driveway for that matter). For functionality, the RR only rates about a 5. For practicality it gets a 4. But for style, this one gets a 9.5. It was cool and fun but just not necessary at the time.

There's no reason to buy one of these today. The older series are the collectible classics, and the newer ones are much better trucks for not much more money. I don't see this edition of Range Rovers ever becoming super-collectible and they're way too maintenance intensive to keep as a vehicle, but if you were going to get one, the Vitesse version is the one to have.

1995 Chevrolet Corvette

1995 Chevrolet Corvette

I've owned a ton of Corvettes over the years. Most of them have been 5th gen cars, but I've had five of these C4s with this being the 2nd one I'd purchased at the time. I always loved the styling on the C4. This particular example had fairly low miles - somewhere around 60K I think - was in pretty good shape, and was very, very, red! The exterior color was called "Torch Red", and was contrasted nicely (sarcasm) by the "Torch Red" interior.

I liked the color combo. It was certainly bright, but it's a sports car! Surprisingly to me, a lot of my friends didn't really care for it. I bought a virtually identical red on red '96 just a couple years after I sold this one and just recently I took a buddy of mines red on red '96 home and kept it for him for a while. 

I did very little to this car. While attending a Corvette and Chevy show at the Houston Convention Center, I picked up a new driver's seat cover. Other than that (which I never actually installed) I didn't have to address any issues.

These C4s are actually a little more fun to drive than C5s and even C6s in my opinion. They just kind of feel better on the road. Don't get me wrong, they aren't better cars - they don't ride as well and don't perform as well either, and they're just really difficult to get in and out of. In spite of all that they're a lot more fun to point and go!

I kept this car for a short time - maybe a year - before selling it to a guy in Phoenix who called to tell me he couldn't get it into gear when he got it home. The car never had any issues for me and I never heard back from him so I assume it was nothing. These are fantastic cars and still very cheap to buy and own. If you just want a kind of cool and fun sports car with daily driver reliability and outstanding performance without breaking the bank you can't go wrong with a C4. They can't get any cheaper either.

1991 BMW 850i

1991 BMW 850i

One of my all-time favorites! I love the old 8-Series Beemers. They're fun to drive, perform fairly well, get a LOT of attention, and generally make you feel like a million bucks. The only problem is you might need that million bucks to keep them running. 

I had owned an 8-Series previously and decided I wanted another one. I searched far and wide before buying this one from an individual in California - Beverly Hills actually - and it didn't really cost me an arm and a leg. It was badged as a rare CSi, but it was just a regular 850i.

This bad boy had a purring (or coughing, depending on the day of the week) V12, black interior, and most importantly a full CSi body kit and a perfect set of CSi rims. They're hard to find and cost a fortune when you do.

When I first got it I put the car up on blocks for about a month or so and sent the rims off to be chromed. I thought they looked pretty good.

I also had the heads removed and powder coated red. I'm not sure why I chose red, but it ended up looking good. The car looked great and drove pretty well. I loved it, but it was just too mechanically challenged so after a few years I made the decision to let it go.

Here I am waving bye-bye to another car that I wish I still owned. I ended up selling this one to a very nice police officer from Dallas who drove down with his wife to pick it up. He even called me a few months later to tell me how much he was enjoying it. 

BMW has brought back the 8-Series this year, but it won't be as unique or interesting of a car as these older ones were - guaranteed! It will end up as a rebodied 5-Series or something. 

This thing made even ME look cool (OK, well maybe not cool, but at least interesting). I still look for these periodically. They have to be future collectibles. They're a little tricky to maintain, but not difficult to live with.