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A few of us spent some time at Barrett Jackson on Saturday. It wasn’t as fun as I expected. There were three areas to see the cars: the staging area, auction stage and “salon,” where cars went after going across the stage. The salon also held all the vendors including our friends at Lamborghini of Las Vegas.

The three areas were too spread out, requiring too much walking. I heard they will fix that next year with a new arrangement. I was also surprised at the size of the crowd. It was small. There seemed to be a lot of buyers (good for the show), but not many spectators. I suppose the upside to that was the ease of getting a decent seat.

My friend and I were at the show primarily to see Tom Tjaarda action off his personal Pantera. Unfortunately, it wasn’t really a personal car with history, it was simply a car he recently purchased, cleaned up, and added some “updates” to. The updates were new bumpers, tail lights and side markers. I certainly don’t begrudge him for flipping a car. If anyone should make some money from the Pantera brand it should be Mr. Tjaarda. I was surprised to see it cross the block for $100,000. Always good to see a Pantera fetch a good price.

I was told that numbers were way down, and many cars were selling under expectations despite BJ claiming that they proved the doom-and-gloom crowd wrong.

I did learn something at the show: when I am surrounded by hundreds of perfect cars, it is hard for anything to stand out. When everything is special, nothing is special. Once I got home, I was surprised at how few pictures I took. It doesn’t help that I like exotics, something always in short supply at Barrett Jackson.

If you love classic cars, you will love our car t-shirts.

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One of the Rally In The Valley sponsors was Lamborghini of Las Vegas. Chris and I stopped there for longer than most to visit friends, and see if there was anything new worth seeing.

They didn’t really have anything new EXCEPT the flat black and white Lamborghini Gallardos. They looked amazing. It is factory paint and while I forget the exact amount for the upgrade, I do remember that it is tens of thousands. If you are one of those people that think there are just too many Gallardos out there, this is your chance to have one that is unique. Too bad they aren’t the new LP560.

I also shot more pics of the Ferrari F40 (you will see it a few times on my Flickr page)…because I just can’t resist. With the price of exotics dipping, this might be the time to buy the supercars!

They also had a Ford GT in the showroom. I don’t like pictures of it in red, but it looked nice in person. I suppose I would like to have one in any color.

Can’t afford the F40? You can slill look good in one or our Rever Clothing car t-shirts!

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What happens when over 100 fast cars get together to blast all over Vegas? Expensive speeding tickets? Impounded exotic vehicles? Nope…we raised over $3,500 for the Nevada Diabetes Association!

Everyone left Cars and Coffee around 10:00am to begin a trek that took us all around town (even out of town in one case) with stops at twelve sponsors. Each stop had a professional photographer and a professional model. Unfortunately, my photos for this post are ones we took of the driving…BUT I will have the shots of the car with the model soon!

You may think the models were present simply to look good, but that isn’t true. Each model judged every car, so we could find the “hottest”, “cutest”, and “best date car” in the bunch. My Pantera held its own in the “hottest” category, but didn’t do as well when it came to cuteness. It looks and sounds too uncivilized to qualify as “cute.” Actually, I would be insulted if someone called my car cute. But it was judged even more harshly as a date car. Some say it was the lack of a back seat. Others say the lack of reclining seats held it back. Maybe the models noticed it would be impossible to get in and out of while wearing a skirt. Well, not so much impossible as obscene. I think it was because you have to SPEAK SO LOUDLY to hold a conversation. Dates are for talking, right?

There was no prize for arriving first, so we all spread out and relaxed. Heck, a group of us hung out at one stop for 30 minutes to eat ribs and drink non-alcoholic margaritas. I don’t think a single driver received a speeding ticket during the rally. Must be our “no idiot” policy.

The photos taken of the Ferrari Club cars will be become our 2009 calander, which will raise even more money for the Nevada Diabetes Association. We love them.

Remberber to wear on or our cool car t-shirts to your next rally!