(EDIT BY BEN: Here’s another post by Patrick. I think at this point I need to give Patrick’s writing a name. He continually comes up with insanely unique perspectives that don’t always fit into a particular category. That’s why I’ve loved his ideas from the very moment he first emailed me years ago as a fan of my old magazine column The Real JDM. The phrase “out of left field” comes to mind when I think of Patrick’s writing. With each submission he sends me, I’m left guessing as to what crazy idea he has this time…is he trying to convince us that an often insulted car like the Ford Festiva is awesome, or that we should buy a washed up depreciated Bentley for a unique VIP ride? Its always unique, always fresh and always out of left field.)

Here’s another post Out of Left Field by Patrick Callahan:

After I saw Ben’s post about the “Bentley” laptop, I thought back on one of my many four-wheeled fantasies: the budget Bentley. While perusing eBay a few years ago, I noticed that despite having changed very little over the past two decades, used examples of the Bentley Turbo R’s were selling for an order of magnitude (and sometimes much more) less than their modern counterparts. Somehow they were in a sweet spot between high fashion and being deemed classics that kept their values very low. A little bit of further research revealed that mechanically, the cars were almost identical to the cars that had been rolling out of Crewe more recently. The only significant mechanical changes, even until now, were to move from a single T4 turbo to twin T3’s and to upgrade GM-built automatic transmissions. To me, the potential for a car with true baller status that could be built on a budget was fascinating. So I went shopping.

CONTINUE ON, CLICK THE LINK.

Read the rest of this entry »