The Pasadena Art Center College of Design held its annual Car Classic this past weekend, an event that has been a must-attend on our calendars for the past few years. While rain hampered last year’s Car Classic, this year’s event benefited from a typically beautiful Southern California day.

Anyone from the Art Center will tell you that the Car Classic is not a concours event, but rather a display of automotive art. As a result, the selection of cars is fairly eclectic and the vehicles are strewn about the campus lawn in a rather unorganized fashion. While the layout may not be as photogenic, it makes it easy to wander through the sea of cars and simply enjoy each and every one.

Each Car Classic does have a theme, though, and for 2011 the event celebrated Southern California’s influence on automotive design. In addition to the Art Center producing some of the world’s most famous automotive designers, more than twenty advanced automotive design studios call the area home, several of which brought recent concept cars to display. There were also special displays for California hot rods and California beach culture as well as cars designed by Peter Brock. The Petersen Automotive Museum and Mullin Museum also brought out cars from their impressive collections. You can see a sample of the cars in attendance in the high-res gallery above.

2011 Art Center Car Classic celebrates Southern California’s influence on automotive design originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 24 Oct 2011 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Yesterday evening at the Monterey Jet Center, Lotus unveiled the Evora GTE Road Car Concept, a tribute to the Evora race car that was created to compete in the GTE race class. The car looks eerily familiar to the Mansory-built Evora shown earlier this year, and the badge on the back of the spoiler is evidence that the Swiss company was involved with this concept. Even so, the car is tastefully done and looks fantastic in person.

The Evora GTE Concept isn’t just about looks, though. Behind the rear seats is a 420-horsepower version of the supercharged four-cylinder engine, running through a sequential AMT gearbox. Lightweight racing wheels with center-lock hubs are wrapped around sticky Pirelli P-Zero Corsa tires.

You can view live photos of the Lotus Evora GTE Road Car Concept in the gallery above, or follow the jump to read the official press release from Lotus.

Continue reading Lotus unveils Evora GTE Road Car Concept at the Jet Center

Lotus unveils Evora GTE Road Car Concept at the Jet Center originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 18 Aug 2011 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Pasadena, CA can get particularly hot during the summer, so we thought it was an excellent idea when the Art Center College of Design moved its annual car show from July to the middle of October. While the event, which happened last weekend, did escape the heat, it still couldn’t catch a break from Mother Nature. The inaugural autumn edition of the show was hampered by rain throughout the day.

Still, the Art Center managed to put on an excellent event to celebrate this year’s theme, “Freedom of Motion.” The best part of the show has always been the eclectic selection of cars on display, and this year was no disappointment. Everything from the 2010 X-Prize winning Peraves X-Tracer to the new 2011 McLaren MP4-12C could be seen on the grass. The Mullin Museum was gracious enough to bring out the famous 1937 Bugatti Type 57SC Atlantic, and the Petersen brought out a few of its cars as well. You can see all of our photos from the event in the high-res gallery below.

Photos copyright (C)2010 Drew Phillips / AOL

2010 Art Center Car Classic celebrates Freedom of Motion originally appeared on Autoblog on Sat, 23 Oct 2010 19:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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An increasing portion of BMW’s revenue in recent years has come from dealing in older cars. The Munich brand’s certified pre-owned program that reconditions and sells warranted used cars has reportedly been very profitable. Now BMW is taking that idea to a whole new level by opening the Classic Center workshop. The Classic Center offers a variety of services from parts re-manufacturing to full vehicle restorations.

The facility recently finished its first complete restoration of a 1972 BMW 3.0 CSi coupe. In addition to bringing the CSi back to pristine condition, the owner had BMW convert the coupe’s transmission, originally a manual, to an automatic. The owner took possession of his restored beauty at the BMW Welt in Munich, which until now has only been used for new car deliveries.

[Source: BMW]

Continue reading BMW Classic Center completes ’72 3.0 CSi restoration for lucky owner

BMW Classic Center completes ’72 3.0 CSi restoration for lucky owner originally appeared on Autoblog on Sun, 25 Jul 2010 11:07:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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