Let's Talk About Cars

I like cars. Anybody who has talked with me for any length of time will eventually be bombarded by a list of my favorite Top Gear episodes. If you have a TV, I have almost certainly asked you if you get BBC America, in an attempt to convert someone else. One of the more exciting aspects of getting to be in Europe is seeing some of the more incredible European cars up close and personal. You know, like the Bugatti Veyron, just in case you forgot:

So you can imagine how excited I was about seeing an advertisement for a Ferrari dealership (which I did not take a picture of. I figured I would wait until I got there). I was so excited about it that I took off once again into the Wild West of Berlin. I am averse to spending the money on public transport, so I walked (open that link in a new tab or a new window so you can keep reading). Yes, you saw that correctly. I walked 13 km (matching my highest total to date - and I haven't even gotten dinner yet.

I was prepared to take a lot of pictures when I got there, but that was just when I thought I was going to a Ferrari dealership. Instead, I found this: the MeilenWerk. It was a smorgasbord of cars, classic cars, exotic cars. It's an entire old train shed turned into a small devotional to the absolute best of the automotive sciences. There was a Jaguar XJ 220, another Veyron, several Dinos, an Enzo, a DB5. The Jaguar XJ 220 was on sale. On sale! Many of the other cars were for rent, and the rest were stored there, generously put on view by their owners. You could see the dirt in the grill on Veyron, proving that the owner actually took it out on the streets occasionally. I thought I was going to take pictures, but how could I do justice to the astounding cars around me. In the end, only one car deserved to have it's photo taken:

That is a Lamborghini. The Diablo, I believe.

And that's a bumper sticker. An enduring testament that having money has nothing to do with taste or brains (at least they support the arts - the worst offender there was an Aston that someone in Switzerland turned into a Kombi, a station wagon).

I couldn't bring myself to take any other pictures for the exact same reason that I don't really like going to zoos. It's not really any fun getting those pictures or being in zoos. It's much more fun to catch them in the wild. Obviously, the analogy is not exact; most of us are never going to see a polar bear in the wild. There is always a shot at seeing a Ferrari (or hearing one. I had the distinct pleasure of listening the engine of a 612 California purr it's way into the engine bay). And I cheated with the Veyron, which was in a show room. There are only 200 of them in existence (they cost 1.7 million dollars and it costs Volkswagen at least twice that to make them), so I don't feel so bad about it (like catching that endangered Asian something or other at the zoo).

By some miracle, the way home also featured the Audi showroom, the Mercedes Show Building, the BMW floor (that was on the way there actually), the Lambo show room (and the Vantage parked behind it), the Harley dealership, and the Chrysler dealership, which stood out in the same way the Hooters under the S-Bahn did. I guess I get it, but really, just why?

I've got a few other automotive surprises up myself (including an Aston DB-9 Volante and a vintage Bentley, both on the Gendarmemarkt), but today was a day devoted to cars and the lengths I will walk to visit them.