We have been in Europe for our summer trip that began June 28th. I always take a lot of car photos in Europe, because the cars are just so different from what we have. In general, the large majority of cars are still equipped with manual transmissions, but I can see that there is clearly a move towards automatics taking place. Also, people here are starting to really like SUV's, although generally smaller ones than we have in North America. Our rental car is a Peugeot 208 and it's a lovely little car. It has either 75 or 100 HP (I don't know the exact spec) but it's enough. It's a well built small car with all the features we need. We picked up the car in Nice and then headed to Monaco and beyond. I will comment on the different areas we've visited so far.
Nice
We arrived in the lovely city of Nice and spent a couple of days there. As has been the case on my previous visits to France, there are just not that many enthusiast or classic cars on the road. One exception is the Abarth version of the Fiat 500... they are quite popular, much moreso than Miatas or Golf GTIs.
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| Rare FN2 Civic Type R, I kind of like it |
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| Abarth 500 is the most popular sporty car |
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| D-series CRX (our Del Sol) |
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| Cool modified Mini |
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| New RS3 hatch... very cool |
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| Nice plate in Nice for this M2 |
Monaco
We only spent half a day in Monaco and my cousin Georges Basile met us and drove us around in him AMG SUV. We saw plenty of cool cars, both classic and new, but I was never really in a great position to take photos.
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| Cool old Mercdes in our parking garage |
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| This was surely a GT3 |
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| Following an F430 |
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| New electric Rolls Royce: the Spectre |
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| Terrible photo of the F40 at the Ferrari dealership |
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| These 50's style roadsters were available for rent |
Milan
Milan is a large and vibrant city with many cool cars, mostly newer. There were quite a few luxury cars, many of them Lamborghinis. There were also a few GR Yaris, which I love.
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| Classic Fiat 500 |
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| Hyundai I30N |
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| Small sporty cars |
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| Unexpected Corvette |
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| Another RS3 |
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| Two Ferraris in the luxury clothing area |
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| Huracan Performante |
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| Fiat version of the Citoren Ami, called the Topolino |
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| Maybach SUV from Monaco |
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| Another Huracan |
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| RX8 in our neighbourhood |
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| GR Yaris with awesome wheels |
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| ... fantastic spec |
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| Urus on Dubai plates |
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| I love the Scirocco |
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| Another GR Yaris |
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| The new Abarth 500 is electric |
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| Lovely 3rd generation Exige |
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| Yet another Huracan |
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| Surprising spot: Prelude on Watanabe style wheels |
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| Italian military Defender |
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| An old Honda Africa Twin |
Switzerland
We only spent one night is Switzerland. We had a lovely drive through the Alps during which we followed a Ferrari 812 for about an hour. The narrow mountain road to our Airbnb was like a Swiss Touge.
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| 812 slowed down in the rain |
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| Picked up speed in the dry |
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| Our 208 at a scenic rest stop |
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| Surprising spot on the highway: E-Type |
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Parked at our middle-of-nowere Airbnb
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Liechtenstein
We stopped in Vaduz, Liechtenstein for a day. It was a nice spot with a few luxury cars around.
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| Nice 80's 911 |
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| Surprising company car: Challenger Hellcat |
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| Nice modified Skoda wagon |
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| New Bentley |
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| Heavily travelled Land Cruiser |
Austria
We then headed to Austria for a week. I was happily suprised to see so many modified and classic cars on the street.
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| Nice old Alfa in Feldkirch |
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| One of many clean 80's VW campers |
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| Cool Renault van... Espace I think? |
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| Another classic Alfa |
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| Modified Civic EK from the Netherlands |
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| Gallardo on the main street |
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| Very Cool 500 SEC |
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| Our Airbnb in Innsbruck had several cool off-road vehicles |
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| Military police G-Wagen |
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| Another classic Mini |
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| Tastefully modified E46 wagon |
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| Strange wrap on this Defender |
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| Our host's Suzuki |
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| ... and their Pajero |
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| Cool Saab 900 "barn find" near our Airbnb |
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| The perfect 2-car setup for the Alps? Last gen Mégane RS |
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| ... and a clean Defender 110 |
Back to Italy
We made our way back through the Alps to Verona, a lovely city with a few more interesting cars.
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| 992 GT3 on the highway |
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| ... and an ABT Audi RS4 |
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| Nice tow setup for these sport bikes |
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| Police Alfa Giulietta |
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| A rare 968 Cabrio |
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| Rare in Italy: 2CV |
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| ... and a Renault 4 |
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| Vintage Alfa 33 |
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| Almost vintage Alfa Brera |
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| Brand new Ferrari 296 from Romania |
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| Aggressive-looking Abarth |
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| Plain base-model Civic EK |
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| 944 on Fuchs-style wheels |
To be continued in part 2!
