Treasures from West Germany lurk at Sonoma Raceway

In my role of Chief Justice of the 24 Hours of LeMons Supreme Court, I travel to Sonoma Raceway, aka Sears Point, at least twice per year. Most of the time I'm there, I'm stuck disciplining miscreant racers with incomprehensible penalties, but every so often I slip away in my Race Organizer Review car to shoot some action photos of the competitors. A good area for shooting LeMons cars is from the access road that runs parallel to the track between turn 10 and turn 11, and getting there takes me past an area of shops and garages… and I always spot some interesting cars parked there. Some are basket-case projects, some are beautifully restored classics, and they're always worth admiring. Here's a sampling of the Deutschland-made machines I saw there a couple of weeks back.

Murilee Martin
It has some leaky-weatherstripping-style California rust, but should be restorable without too much trouble.

Yes, this is a genuine Glas 1700 GT! Glas built the GT from 1964 through 1967, at which point BMW devoured the company and went on producing BMW-engined Glas GTs for another year. The last time I'd seen a Glas was at an Oakland wrecking yard in the 1980s, so this was an exciting find for me.

Murilee Martin
Not quite as rare as the Glas, but still cool.

Nearby was a German car that does appear on American streets now and then: a first-generation Opel Manta. The Manta was sort of the German counterpart to the Chevy Camaro, and was the subject of an excellent cult film. This one looks well-battered and the front end looks high enough to suggest a missing engine, but rust doesn't seem to be much of a problem.

Murilee Martin
To contrast with the diamonds in the rough, a fully polished diamond.

In addition to projects that need lots of work, you'll see finished projects behind turn 10 at Sears Point. Here's an extremely nice BMW 2002tii Touring that needed no tow truck to get to this parking space.

By Murilee Martin