European Cars
Doug & Pam Chase
2013 Mercedes Benz E350 Cabriolet
Our fifth Mercedes Benz, but our first Cabriolet. No other way to have a sports car in Florida, a
cabriolet.
It is powered by a 3.5-liter V6 engine with a reputation for reliability, good gas mileage
(premium only) and durability, upwards of 200,000/250,000 with regular maintenance.
The car has a 7-spped automatic transmission with manual shift mode offering smooth gear
change. Other luxury options on this E350 are Bluetooth connectivity, cruise control, dual power
front seats, and a navigation system.
Other features: rear wheel drive, 0-60 in 6.1 seconds, twenty-three miles per gallon city/highway
combined, saddle interior and wood trim.
A fun car to drive with the top down and the radio turned up loudly.
Mike & Sandy Connors
2014 BMW 640M Coupe
White with charcoal interior. The high-performance BMW M6 features a twin-turbo 4.4 liter V8 engine that produces 560 HP and 500 lbs./ft. torque. BMW reports that this car can accelerate from 0-60 mph in 4.1 seconds and has a top speed of 155 mph.
Alex & Renate D’Angelo
2017 Mercedes Benz SLC300
This Mercedes Benz SLC300 is my 5th roadster. I have had English, German and Italian roadsters. My Radiant Blue/Saddle SLC is a thrill to drive.
I seem to like sports cars that have engines the same size as the transmission. This Turbo I4 is married to a 9-speed, all electronically controlled, always in the correct gear. Mercedes Dynamic Drive adjusts the handling, transmission, and exhaust, so you can get as much road experience as you can handle. And just for toppers, SLC has a folding hardtop and a warm "air scarf" for those cool mornings and evenings, so you stay in Mercedes comfort.
Mike & Sandy Ferega
2011 BMW 328i w/M Sport Package
When I first met Sandy, we were in our second year of Collage, and I was driving a C2 1967 red
Corvette convertible with a removable black vinal hardtop for those nasty Illinois winters.
Then we got married and the Corvette was no longer practical once our first child came along.
However, in 1978 I was once again able to rekindle my love for sports cars with a C3 1972
Corvette, which was the largest Corvette ever built. Several years later we decided that our love
of sports cars was just not practical for a family of four so once again we were without the love
of a sports car.
That all ended for good in 1995 when both kids were in college. Our next adventure was a 1995
M Miata. While it was not a Corvette, it had a sports car feel and was a ball to drive.
When we sold the Miata, we upgraded to 2000 BMW 325i with a 193 HP 2 door sedan.
In 2008 we once again got the bug for a Convertible, so we purchased a 2008 Mercedes Benz
CLK 350 convertible which is the car we had when we joined the Shark Tooth Sports Car Club
in 2024. Since we completely wore out the Mercedes, we began looking around for a
replacement. In 2024 we found a 2011 BMW 328i with the M Sport Package Hard Top
Convertible, one owner with only 27,000 miles and we (I) immediately fell in love with it. It has
that true BMW sports car feel. While it can accommodate four, the cabin still gives that two-
seater feeling.
We love this car; however, our 2019 Mercedes Benz 4 Dr sedan is getting up there in years and
miles, so who knows. Maybe our next car will also be a sports car, and we will become a two-
sports car family for the first time after 54 years of marriage. The only catch is I promised Sandy
she gets to pick out the next car without interference from me. I am hoping she will pick out
another Corvette.
Steve & Michele Iannone
2022 BMW M440i
My version of “The Ultimate Driving Machine” is outfitted in San Remo Green with Cognac interior. This latest model was redesigned with a soft top and a more aggressive grille, the two things that drew my attention to this nimble beast. You either love it or you ….don’t. Since I was a kid, I always loved hot rods, I have had all kinds of cars, mostly Chevys but there were a few times when a Ford or a Mopar found their way into my garage. This is my first “Big Boy” foreign sports car, unless you count Nissan’s 4DSC of the early 2000’s.
I am thoroughly enjoying everything this M Sport has to offer, whether it is the 382 horses the 3.0-liter Bi-turbo inline-six delivers to the 8-speed automatic transmission combined with 48V mild hybrid technology, or the over-the top tech that controls it all seamlessly. I was having so much fun with my car that I flew out to the BMW Performance Driving Center in Thermal, California to see what these cars can do on the M high performance track, and…WOW! As soon as I returned home, I upgraded my exhaust bringing my HP to 400 plus ponies with a 0-60 time of 3.9 seconds.
I will keep this for a while because Michelle likes this better than my last ride, a 2018 Camaro ZL1-1LE, a proper 650 horse street/track GORILLA. But that does not mean I cannot add to the collection…always looking for the next ride.
Dave & Bobbe Lytle
2024 Audi S5
After 10 years of driving her 2014 BMW Z4, we decided it was time to buy a new sports car. The Z was a great car, but it was a little small for my liking, so, after much agony, we decided on a 2024 Audi S5 convertible. The car is very comfortable, has plenty of power, sounds great, and has way too many bells and whistles (you need a degree to figure them out, or have a lot of patience). It has a 3.0L V6 that produces 349 horsepower and 369 lb-ft of torque, an 8-speed Tiptronic transmission with the quattro all-wheel drive system. Edmunds claims that it will do 0 to 60 in 4.3 seconds, and I believe it. It also has a sports exhaust resonator (did I mention it sounds great). The color is Navarra Blue, with a gray leather interior and a soft black top. Interestingly, the Z4, with its metal convertible roof, was much noisier on the road than the Audi with its insulated soft-top.
Carol Parkinson & Tom Lupica
2017 Mercedes Benz C300
I first fell in love with sports convertibles in the early ’60s. My first car was a Mustang GT convertible. After that, I moved to a ’76 Corvette, then an ’86 Corvette. Both cars were T-tops. My next sports car was a 2012 BMW 328i hard top convertible which I drove as a daily driver until trading it in for my current ride, a 2017 Mercedes Benz C300 Cabriolet with a rag top. The convertible top on this beauty takes only 20 seconds to retract and can be operated at speeds up to 31 mph! The C300 has a turbocharged 2.0-liter, a 4-cylinder powerplant that makes a respectable 241hp. The automatic transmission is 9-speed and delivers seamless shifting to the vehicle’s top speed of 130mph (which I have yet to verify personally!). The car weighs in at 3,957 lbs. And is a very comfortable touring car on top of its sporty looks.
Kathy & Ken Maher
2015 Mercedes Benz SL 400
The SL-class is a grand touring sports car manufactured since 1954. Initially, the first 300 SL was a racing sports car built in 1952 with no intention of developing a street version. In 1954, an American importer suggested the street version of the 300 SL for the wealthy performance car enthusiasts in the United States, where the market for personal luxury cars was booming. The rest, as they say, is history.
With each new version, it is the one car that seems to get better and better looking, with the older models just becoming classics in their own right.
We bought this car in 2016 after being an executive demo. Having had a 1987 SL 560 where it took a crane to lift off the hard top and a team of horses to put up the convertible top, being a hard top convertible, everything is done with the press of a button. We can say that the smile on Kathy’s face gets wider when the top goes down.
Vince & Kathleen Martin
2020 BMW 230i
My first new car was a 1974 Chevy Camaro. Prior to this, I was not really a “car guy”, but the performance/speed of the Camaro impressed me, and I loved driving it. Over the years, we have had several cars, including vans and SUVs, as our family grew, then returned to smaller vehicles as “empty nesters” became a reality. When we decided to become “full-time Florida residents”, I figured it would make sense to trade in my Acura TLX for a BMW convertible. We purchased the 2020 BMW 230i last spring and have enjoyed it ever since!
Rodney & Linda Pennington
2022 BMW M850i Convertible
Drives like a dream, especially when Linda is with me in the evening
Tom & Carol Rossi
2015 Alfa Romeo (4C) Spider
The 4C was launched in 2013 to be Alfa Romeo’s Halo car and was engineered to be a pure sports car in the most traditional sense. Light, fast and fun. The 4C weighs in at an unheard of 2,500 lbs. in North America (2,000 lbs. in Europe) and Alfa Romeo achieved the weight savings through exotic materials such as Carbon Fiber for the chassis and SMC panels for the body. The carbon-fiber tub which is the support structure for the whole car weighs less than 150 lbs. and is stronger than steel or aluminum. The Alfa Romeo 4C is fast, beautiful, handles amazingly well, and is probably the last sports car we will ever see that follows the formula of a traditional lightweight sports car where “less is always more”.
Tom & Carol Rossi
2015 Maserati Gran Turismo Sport
The Maserati Gran Turismo has beautiful and timeless Pininfarina styling along with the heart of a Ferrari derived engine, supple Italian leather throughout the cabin, and the deep yet melodic voice of its naturally aspirated V-8 engine exhaust is legendary. A very special car indeed.
Tom & Carol Rossi
1967 Alfa Romeo Giulia Sprint GT Veloce aka GTV
Carol and I became the proud 2nd owners of this 1967 Alfa Romeo Giulia Sprint Gran Turismo Veloce, or Alfa Romeo GTV for short, more than ten years ago. The original owner was a good friend that purchased it new when he was in the military overseas in 1967. The GTV is a highly desired model in Alfa Romeo community and represents the pinnacle of this small Italian manufacturer success in the mid 1960’s when Alfa Romeo was winning races at all levels of competition while designing some of the most beautiful and desirable cars in the world. The designer of this car was Giorgetto Giugiaro who was only 22 years old at the time and ultimately ended up being voted the best car designer of the 20th century after designing more than 200 production vehicles for various manufacturers over six decades. All Alfa Romeos have been engineered with a sporting nature and the GTV was no exception. It came with an all-aluminum engine with overhead cams, 5 speed manual transmission and all-around disk brakes in 1963. How many cars at any price could in 1963 make that claim?