Pleasanton, California. A small city deep inside California’s mountain valley. Many people wouldn’t think that this place holds any special value. It doesn’t, unless you think Safeway HQ is something valuable. In any case, I came across a website called “Specialty Sales Classics” and they sell vehicles on consignment, ranging from old American classics to British cars such as the MG and Lotus. They have consignment centers in Pleasanton, Benicia and Fairfield, and it seems they all sell similar cars. However, the Pleasanton center held one special gem that I found on their website: An R34 Nissan Skyline GT-R.
As soon as I saw this, I had to go see it. I honestly have never seen one in person, even though I’ve come across a Silvia S15 (Formula D) and Skyline R33 (street-legal). I shared the link with Robert and Jason and within a few days, we were on the road and on our way to Pleasanton.
Upon our arrival in Pleasanton, we casually rolled through the area until we came across the big warehouse screaming “Specialty Sales Classics.”
Obviously we were in the right place, so we parked and made our way towards the entrance.
As soon as we walked inside, we were greeted with various sports cars crammed into small spaces. It seems they were fully intent on utilizing the entire size of this building,
We all strolled around a bit to take a look at the inventory. There was no salesman to greet us, so we were unsure about entering the building. We didn’t immediately unpack our cameras as to play it safe. We walked to the other side of the complex to look at the other cars where there actually were people. Again, all we saw were more cars crammed ever so carefully. It looked as though our shooting opportunities would be limited due to the constraints presented to us.
Despite this, we walked back to the side of the building where we entered and started our shooting from there.
Outside the entrance of SSC was a BMW 2800CS. Jason was drooling over it because it is his dream car. It isn’t a 3.0 CSI though, so he was a bit bummed out. The asking price, according to Jason, was not a fair price given the fact that it was a 2800CS and not a 3.0CSL. I’m not a BMW guy myself, but I’ll take his word for it.
This first picture of the E9 was provided by Robert:
The E9 was pretty cool to look at and I can appreciate a classic Bimmer. After looking over the E9, I focused my attention to the main attraction: the R34. It helped that it was right towards the front of the building, but it did not help that there was no shooting room for the car. With that said, here are the pictures that I did manage to take of the R34.
I has asked one of the workers there that we started having a conversation with to open the hood of the Skyline to which he gladly obliged. Seeing the famous “RB26” stamped on the valve cover made me smile. The engine in its stock form isn’t the greatest, but its top-notch construction does allow for a desirable HP output increase.
I was glad to have seen the car in person. The R34 was a high point of the day, but I didn’t want to leave just yet. There were other cars that caught my attention. I don’t have a lot of descriptions for the upcoming images, but I may have some here and there.
Another shot supplied by Robert:
This car was pretty cool. Apparently it’s a 1930 Gatsby. I don’t know anything about this car, but the craftsmanship on this car was intriguing.
Saw a nice Ford GT:
Austin-Healy 100-6:
1961 Corvette:
Pretty interesting how low the Corvette’s shifter was:
The beautiful dash:
A nice LaSalle:
Worn out step:
Fairlane 500:
Pontiac GTO:
DeLorean DMC-12:
Overall, a pretty good day out. Not a bad collection of cars left for consignment. I wish there was more room to shoot more of the cars, but eh, what can you do.
Thanks for looking!
Automotive VocaBULAry 