Went to the Radwood at COTA last Saturday, with the boy and his friend. They have little interest in cars, so went off to explore the rides at COTAland, while I perused the vintage machines. I didn’t haul my Mercedes up there, although was a selection of W123s in various conditions and attitudes. There was a survivor S123 with extensive mods to the drivetrain (manual swap, Caterpillar fuel filter, ALDA delete, EGR delete, big turbo, and aftermarket fuel injection). I think I spotted a number of manual converted 300Ds, and a manual 240D. I’m not convinced that a manual makes everything better. Probably makes a 240 more livable, but an OM617A is well mated to the 722 auto transmission and (mine at least) has not problem in traffic. It’s not a sports sedan, but Mercedes even put automatics in their sports sedans. This iconoclastic stance did not cause either my son and his friend to look up from their burgers. Of course there was the one Mercedes there – a 190E 2.6 – that should have had a manual, considering how it was cosplaying as DTM racer, but had an automatic. There were a couple of SECs, which are creeping into my top most bad ass Mercedes.

Walking past the dazzling white Countach, I was drawn to the Lotus Carlton. Forking amazing. Never thought I’d see one, and it’s stance and proportions met the expectations. Gorgeous and notorious. I was admiring it and someone came up and asked if it was mine. “I wish.”

There were some Alfas. A really nice black Milano Verde (if the badge is to be believed – if I had a 3 liter Busso under my hood, my hood would be up!) and an SZ.

COTA is a great space for a race, but as far as a parking lot goes, it has parking lots. And most of the cars were in the parking lot. I enjoyed the wooded racetrack where the last Austin Radwood was held, but it is no more. And I know they postponed this once for the Delta Variant (at Auditorium Shores which would have been awesome), relocated to COTA, but had to delay because of nasty weather. It’s a shame that the track or pits weren’t available, just to show off the facility and the cars at the same time. Maybe even include a parade lap. But there were some Porsches tooling around the track that the Radwood folks could barely see, so that wasn’t happening. Just happening at the parking lot and the entrance to COTA made it feel more like a plain old car show, a step above the What-A-Burger parking lot in Round Rock on a Friday, but not quite the event it was at Driveway Austin.