Atlanta Spotters Thread

As an outsider to the city, I'm continually surprised at how often things of this nature occur here. A major gas leak here, a water main break there... it seems like every night on the news there's a major house fire in DeKalb County. And you can't drive anywhere without experiencing rough roads, often with bone-jarring bumps and potholes (one of which tore a hole in my oil pan worth $700). Construction projects, even simple ones, take months. Simply putting in a new sidewalk and median for about two blocks east of Peachtree and Piedmont took nearly a year. Worst of all - and completely foreign to me - are the large (and unbelievably, frequently not temporary) steel plates that cover up major holes in the road.

Problems like this were unheard of in Denver, my hometown. Recently, my parents informed me, a huge sinkhole opened up on one of the major highways through the city, shutting down several lanes of it for two days. The story led the news each night until repairs were fully completed. Imagine that. In Atlanta, they'd just stick a huge steel plate over it and call it a day!

 

our newscasters are butt ugly too!

I think our local gubmint would rather spend our money on segways for fat airport employees, funny pith-helmet jobs programs, and lucrative contracts to minority owned steel plate companies...

 

You mean under-represented minorities. I'm a minority, and it counts against me

 

I don't know... they seem a little over-represented if you ask me! we don't die, we multiply

 

Not Stephanie Fisher!!

 

Two nice spots today at around 5:30. The first is a very nice Porsche 911T at the Border's parking lot. Here's an overhead shot of this car. Also, about 25 minutes later, an amazing Porsche Carrera Speedster in the parking deck at Dick's Sporting Goods and Target.

 

Could you tell if that was a real Speedster? Those are pretty heavily replicated by verious companies.

 

There's no chance it's real. Check the gauge cluster on a real one versus the cluster on the one in Victor's photo. What's really annoying about telling the Speedster replicas from real ones is that the proportions are often correct (or close to it), and that because most Speedster replicas are based on the Volkswagen Beetle, they usually are eligible for historic plates (which is usually a dead giveaway on MR2- or Fiero-based Ferrari replicas). However, with the exception of the very best Speedster replicas, they usually give up a few details in order to provide a cheaper way into what's an unattainable dream of a lot of people.

 

Don't forget digging tunnels under the city! Oh, and have you ever tried to get anything accomplished at any of the City Of Atlanta offices? Seriously, it's almost worth commuting from the surrouding areas just so you don't ever find yourself dealing with an employee of the city. Where do they find these people and what the hell are the qualifications for the jobs they are given? I guess when all the unskilled peoples jobs in your city are taken by immigrants who work harder and cheaper you have to give the unskilled people some jobs somewhere.

 

Back to the spotting.......I saw an interesting but not very exotic car a few days ago. The first Smart Fortwo I've seen in America. They are smaller than they look in pictures!

 

I know this picture is old, but is that an Enzo on the far left??
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I've seen a larger version of the photo. Yes, it's an Enzo. Remember, that very car sits beneath the dealer to this day.

 

Yeah, there's quite a collection down there.

 

they are also slower than they look in the pictures! I almost ran over one coming out of the airport. I think it was struggling to do 40 on I-85.

 

Yowsa!
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I am sure that if anyone is out spotting tonight they will see some great things!

 

+1

 

If anyone cares who is near Pano's & Paul's (which is near OK Cafe) there is my dad's 4-porte, an Aston Martin V8 Vantage, and one of my dad's friend's R8 is sitting there in the valet. Probably be there until 9:00 or 10:00.

 

They're supposed to have a top speed of 90. Maybe it was just a slow driver. As far acceleration goes they're comparable to a Hummer H2 even though that isn't saying a whole lot.

 

Last May I was coming back from a weekend trip to Columbia, SC, when I decided I'd better put gas in the 328 before entering the Atlanta metro area. I did that around Madison, and when I stopped at the light to cross over the Interstate to get to the westbound on-ramp, there was a ForTwo sitting in the opposite lane. I was surprised, when the light turned green, how quickly it acclerated past me. (Of course, maybe he was just trying to show off for the Ferrari driver!)

 

I was in too much awe to look for anything else at Phipps, as we drove by my first ever Porsche Carrera GT. It was silver with yellow break callipers. The car looks and sounds like an F1 car, and it was amazing to see it in person.

 

Indeed, the Porsche Carrera GT at Phipps was the highlight of my day, too. Here's another angle showing how dramatic that vehicle looks amongst 'normal' cars, and here's a rear shot. Several days ago, we discussed this Carrera GT, which I saw four months ago at the Intercontinental; today's sighting at Phipps was of a different Carrera GT (my fifth!), though today's was also on Fulton County plates.

However, there were other vehicles to see today: a black Ferrari F430 Spider (with a red interior) was at the Clubhouse valet at Lenox at around 2:30pm; a silver Ferrari 612 Scaglietti on California plates (the same one from my famous mob hit sighting two months ago) drove by the Carrera GT at Phipps a few minutes later. That wasn't the only 612 Scaglietti I saw today - there was also a black one which I see frequently at a bank across the street from Lenox Mall at around 4:30pm. Also, a black Maserati GranTurismo on very recent local plates at Lenox Mall at around 3:30pm, and a dark red Mercedes CL65 AMG with RennTech badges on personalized Georgia license plate CHEAVES slightly before the Maserati.

Leaving the malls, I saw the dark red Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder I frequently see on weekends at a restaurant near Roswell and Wieuca, a black BMW Z8 on West Wieuca and Dudley, just north of Chastain Park, and perhaps best of all (aside from the Carrera GT), an extremely rare red and yellow "ketchup and mustard" Dodge Viper RT/10, one of just 166 manufactured in that color scheme.

 

Today I heard from an extremely nice man at the valet who was driving the CL65 AMG RennTech that the CGT that was sitting at phipps was the R & B star Usher.

 

The valet, when asked by a bystander, related that he had 'didn't know' who the car's owner is (but implied that he had seen him drop off the car). Honestly, I'd be very surprised if it was anyone famous. The Carrera GT is an extremely technical car, and you really have to be a very skilled driver in order to operate it. Furthermore, its styling isn't as expressive as many cheaper and easier to drive supercars. There are a few celebrity owners (Tiger Woods and Jerry Seinfeld come to mind) but far fewer than other similarly-priced exotic cars.

 

That's extremely odd, and I hate to say this, but what the valet guy white? He might not have recognized Usher, although, Usher is an extremely well-known celebrity, so maybe the RennTech owner was trying to impress me. Nonetheless, the owner of the CL65 AMG was extremely nice, he even let me sit in his car, which was incredibly comfortable.