MotorEthos

Well, to start off, how many car shows have you gone to that are serving fresh oysters on a half shell and free flowing champagne? Exactly.

To say we love Mustangs would be an understatement. We LOVE Mustangs, and we love movies with Mustangs in them. Whether they are being raced, chased, beat to hell or babied; if there is a Mustang in the film, we’ve watched it and probably bought a copy. So for your enjoyment and ours as well frankly, we’ve put together a list of our favorite Mustang movie moments.

This year marks our sophomore year of pilgrimage to the California central coast for Monterey Car Week and we're beyond excited. And once again we're putting together a list of events we think exemplifies the cars, the culture, the events and the people that make this week the best on the calendar.

Sports car racing... it's a sport held close to my heart. And when the Tudor United Sports Car Championship is in Monterey my happy place is a quick drive to the California coast. This year the series is in year two of a marriage between ALMS and Grand-Am and by my track side observation there's no annulment in sight. Teams, drivers and fans all seem to be benefiting from the merger.

It's a rare thing that we've been blessed to have auto enthusiast film directors to bring us remarkable films such as Senna , 1, and Rush . And now we can add a fourth to the racing documentary genre, Adrenalin - The BMW Touring Car Story produced by Stereoscreen.

Tucked away in the small charming foothill town of Murphys, CA is Ironstone Vineyards which hosted it's annual Ironstone Concours d'Elegance on the last Saturday of September. This years' event featured nearly 300+ antique, classic and sports cars from makes like Packard, Duesenberg, Pierce-Arrow, Morgan, Pantera, Corvette, Porsche and more.

Everyone loves a properly sorted Bug and if you're in the market then look no further. This turnkey 1957 Volkswagen oval window Beetle has all the right tidbits that you'll need in your classic daily driver. We love the subdued yellow paint that appears to have been thoroughly applied with no obvious signs of over-spray. The Bug is probably the only car in the world that is at home in any solid or two-tone paint combination.

Lately, I've been dreaming about owning a 370z. With it's new styling and throwback looks to the original 240z, it's quite the good looking, over all driver's car that I'm looking for. Here's a video featuring Formula Drift driver Chris Forsberg, which mirrors exactly what I've been going through every time I see one of these pass me on the 5.

You may think that shelling out 500 bucks for a car show is way too much, and maybe you’re right. But if you’re an automobile or motorcycle enthusiast, then The Quail, A Motorsports Gathering is more than just a car show; it’s one of the greatest events you’ll ever attend in your life – period.

As promised last year we made a valiant effort to attend this years' Monterey Car Week otherwise known as holy week to automobile enthusiasts. One of the premier events any first-timer has to attend is the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance. This stage plays host to the most exquisite vehicles in the world. The crowd is seduced with polished chrome, perfect paint, untouched leather, and the spectacular views to Stillwater Cove.

The Concours d'Lemons is the unrelenting oil stain to the otherwise polished blue blood events of the peninsula during Monterey Car Week. This is a car show for the downtrodden and destitute vehicles that saw their best days behind them as they rolled off the assembly line. None were exciting to look at then, and time hasn't been kind to them since. But through this egregious event their owners get to drag them off the driveway for ugliest bragging rights.

Carmel by the Sea is the perfect sleepy town backdrop to gather your friends and family and look at some amazing automobiles, but don't just come for the cars.

They say good things come in small packages; we couldn't agree more.

True to form, Monterey Week is back in full swing this August and we've been anticipating it since last year when we provided 'remote' coverage of the festivities . Well this year is a game changer because we'll be part of the experience covering the action. With that in mind, we break down some of the signature events.

Wishing our fans a happy Independence Day! Nothing like a little American muscle to help you start the celebrations! Discover your drive!

It's not just the drivers that go through rigorous training to compete in racing. Here, Ferrari shows us how they train their pit crew and engineers to execute one of the fastest pit stops in Formula 1.

Race season is in full swing and being race fans we took the opportunity to soak in the Tudor United Sports Car Championship at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. If you've been stuck under a rock we'll forgive you for not knowing this is the inaugural race season for the new series that was conceived by the merger of the American LeMans and Grand-Am Series. We can tell you that the marriage, arguably in the honeymoon stage, looks to be off to a great start and we're looking forward to following the races for the continuation of the series. But this post isn't going to recount the blow-by-blow track action and pour stats into your inner monologue. There are dedication professional sports journalists for that. No, instead we're going to tell you the story of taking a sports car fan to their first race and watching that excitement evolve into racing's newest fan.

The latest Cars and Coffee Euro Sunday event held at the Sacramento California Auto Museum had us wiggling in our seats all the way home. But not because of the salted caramel mochas or strawberry banana smoothies (although I'm sure those had something to do with it).

"This is the equivalent of stepping foot on the moon, that's what happened here today. If I was a guy in a Prius or a Yaris and saw this coming at me in the rear view mirror, I would get out of the way." - Mike Finnegan

1./spôrt/ noun an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment. As car aficionados you can probably guess where we stand with this question. Yes. Racing is a sport. There, we said it (let the debate begin). But don’t be so quick to parse words or negate the effort involved in producing effective results when you compare racing to the school yard games and organized leagues you played growing up. They all require an inner drive to fuel the compulsion to beat the opponent.

It is easy to get caught up in nostalgia, fond memories of what seems like a lifetime ago brought back to the forefront of our minds by the sights, sounds, and smells of a classic car. The leather, the wood, and the sheer simplicity (unless you love German cars) of the inner mechanisms are what attract us to these metal and glass time capsules. Even if we didn't live in our car’s hay-day, when we get in, there’s no doubt in our mind that we could have, and we would have loved every minute of it.