Garagiste-built Dailu Mk1 and car auctions everywhere
Car of the Day #4: Remembering homebuilt race cars
Really, is the tale of a vintage self-made racing car all that different from the countless builders on YouTube doing just that in 2024?
The Montreal, Canada-based constructor David Greenblatt and his sports racing car, the Dailu, may not have had a GoPro camera or cell phone with which to immortalize his mid-front engined build, but he was able to prove his work in a far more convincing way: with results.
I watched this recently posted interview with its current caretaker and thought: wow, instead of writing a hasty narrative and regurgitating specs I can point people to a nicely-shot video where the car’s in motion.
PS, If you’re hoping to leave a comment, view this story online and scroll to the very bottom of the page. I’d love to know some of your favourite ‘garagiste’ cars for future newsletters.
I had a small essay written for today…
…that ended up becoming a large essay I’ll save for tomorrow and open up so that non-members can read it as well. Here’s an excerpt from ‘Are auction descriptions peak car journalism?’:
Through the 2000s and 2010s, an increasingly diverse group of freelancers and bloggers finally cracked open the treasure chest of media loaner cars and press trips, only to learn how little the job pays. (And how time-consuming admin and sales tasks are.)
At the same time, the overall quality of cars improved (bad for reviewers and hot takes), the variations between vehicle powertrain combinations began to shrink while buyers — hoping to maximize value for money — doubled down on SUV-positive and clutch-negative options. This left many automotive writers who had formed their ideologies on Brock Yates and Top Gear torrents impotent in the face of 34 cupholder crossovers, CVT transmissions, early hybrid vehicles, and hungry young bloggers showing up at press events.
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