Greenwich Concours D'Elegance 2010 - 56k Dies a Fiery Death

[Jake]

David and David have been to Greenwich numerous times in years past - and they invited me to come along this year. It was my first time at the Concours and I really had a great time. The weekend was VERY fast-paced... I drove from JMU to Northern VA on Friday afternoon, had dinner with mom & dad, and swapped cars with Dad so we could have something reasonably cushy and lux-o to pimp hard up to CT.

This sums up the entire trip. And if you want any high-rez - some make cool desktop wallpaper - PM me.



Lots of this happened throughout our two days in cool-town:



We all piled in the car on Saturday and departed from Oakton around 8:45. The drive up to Greenwich was easy with no real delays. We did have to drive through New Jersey on the turnpike. It was odd having someone else pump gas for you. All three of us took turns driving, and even with the occasional spurring of all 255 pwnies from under the hood, had a pretty good MPG average goin' on for a big-ish sedan.



Anyway. We slogged our way through New York traffic for a few minutes, but otherwise the drive was easy. Made it into town about 2 in the afternoon and started wandering around, near Greenwich Ave. Think Reston Town Center, but with significantly more money floating around.

Tesla had a Roadster parked for display demo...







This stuff was also in the parking lot with the Tesla - it's a place called Richards, a high-lux department store apparently. There were LOTS of Panameras in town. And 911s. And I still don't find the Panamera all that attractive, even after seeing 17 of them in a square mile.



We also hit up the dealerships in town, after parking nearby:



They all know the Concours is taking place during the weekend and had no problem with three punk kids from Virginia poking and prodding at their high-dollar cars.















So after looking at cars in dealerships that we couldn't afford, we drove over to where Day 1 of the Concours was happening. The "visitor parking lot" where us plebeians could park also had some neat stuff:







...and it had this:



We weren't planning on walking around Day 1 of the show. It's $25 per day to enter, or $40 for both days, and we wanted to save some money. So we wandered over to the side parking lot, where Mercedes and Cadillac were both set up with "test drive tents" - and we asked how to test drive the Mercedes AMGs they had... "oh, just get a wristband from inside the tent" - so we walked into their tent, and were in the show. :thumbup:

Here's some Day 1 action - all American stuff:

















Mini had a tent set up both days... the original Minis were pretty small:



This was also there both days... the Tupolev 007. Here's Autoblog's info about it.



So then we went back to the AMG tent. Mercedes had three AMG models available for test-drive if you were 21 or older. As your humble MM P-Rez is a mere 20 until September, I was able to ride along as David and David beat on the C63 AMG and E63 AMG. There was a Merc rep in the passenger seat of each car, and they provided a route for us - which included ample highway on-ramp womping opportunities. The reps encouraged spirited driving which was great.


David being coddled by the active bolsters, massagers and seat coolers in the E63 AMG


Notice where the tach needle is pointing. This is getting on I-95... we actually had to slow down to merge at the end of the ramp

After moderate hoonage, we drove around Greenwich admiring the massive houses and nice properties, whilst looking for exotic cars (i.e. no Panameras). Had pizza on Greenwich Ave for dinner, and went to our hotel in Stamford later that night.

[Jake]

On to Day Two...

We got to the show early, around 8:40, which allowed for some good pictures before the huge crowds started to arrive. David L saw the Ferrari P4/5 and immediately started a'fappin.





Other sweet cars nearby:














The wheels that inspired Mazda's original Miata wheel design. Cool to see the O.G.'s


I love me some BMW 850Ci


Aston Martin Lagonda




They had an SLS next to the AMG tent. The special "Alubeam" silver paint is a $10k option.



















Story time again... we had chatted with the Benz Babes on Saturday about the AMG cars, and the SLS, etc. and they mentioned we should come back early Sunday AM to test-drive the AMG's again, since traffic would be lighter. Well, we came back and one of the girls was issuing wristbands - as opposed to the dude from Saturday. Dude made a point of checking IDs to make sure we were 21, which is why I didn't get to drive. Well, chick just took the licenses and didn't say anything, and gave us all driver bands.

So, I drove all three AMGs, and the Davids drove them again too. I will let them tell their own stories, but all I can say is "just C63 it" to prompt another good story The C63 is by far the most fun. The one at this event had a special, still in development performance package, which raised power from the standard 451 to an estimated 481 at the crank. It really hauled.


The SL63 AMG that we all hooned










A BMW Z8 Alpina

We headed out of town around 1:30 on Sunday... right in time, as apparently the show closed early due to massive rain. We avoided much of the rain on the drive back and didn't really hit any bad traffic either. Got back to Oakton around 6, then I swapped cars back and got back to JMU after some steak on the grill (thanks mom & dad) around 10:30.

It was a great, if fast-paced weekend. Definitely worth going if you haven't been before.

[SlimKlim]

YOU SAW ALEX ROYS POLIZEI CAR?!?!?!

SON OF A GODDAMNED BITCH. Did you see him? Baldish guy, smokes a lot, looks like he drove across the country in 31 hours and 7 minutes? Don't tell me you don't know what that M5 really was, I'll hit a girl, I swear to god.

GAH! SO JEALOUS!

(Slowing down at the end of an onramp isn't that exclusive, just to miata drivers, sorry)


Looks like a pretty good weekend, and you fucking saw alex roys fucking car. fuck.

[DavidL]

Great write up Jake

Let me post up some pictures first- I can do a little recap when I have some time... plus I know everyone cares more about the pictures anyways!

[fiveoh2go]

YOU SAW ALEX ROYS POLIZEI CAR?!?!?!

SON OF A GODDAMNED BITCH. Did you see him? Baldish guy, smokes a lot, looks like he drove across the country in 31 hours and 7 minutes? Don't tell me you don't know what that M5 really was, I'll hit a girl, I swear to god.

GAH! SO JEALOUS!.

[Goodspeed]

What else is there to say other than awesome. I want to go next time....the titanium FGT, orange GT3RS and of course that mind blowing P4/5 are all incredible.

[Maengelito]

pretty cool but honestly Jake, "56k Dies a Fiery Death"? who here is using dial-up?

[Apoc]

pretty cool but honestly Jake, "56k Dies a Fiery Death"? who here is using dial-up?

...and do the people who currently attend JMU even know what it is??

[Jake]

pretty cool but honestly Jake, "56k Dies a Fiery Death"? who here is using dial-up?

I couldn't think of a better way to say "there's 67 photos in the first two posts, so if you're lookin' at this from your phone, it may break it"

[Apoc]

3G Dies a Fiery Death

[Dave]

pretty cool but honestly Jake, "56k Dies a Fiery Death"? who here is using dial-up?

I couldn't think of a better way to say "there's 67 photos in the first two posts, so if you're lookin' at this from your phone, it may break it"

I appreciated it. Rather than taking forever to load it at home, I just made sure to check it out at work.

And I'll take the bait on this Alex Roys guy; who is he? I just thought it was a cool looking M5...

[Jake]

And I'll take the bait on this Alex Roys guy; who is he? I just thought it was a cool looking M5...

Wired has a pretty good writeup on him... read it here.

Basically, he drove that M5 coast-to-coast in 31 hours.

[Madden]

man im so pissed i couldnt go to this! Looks like an awesome time