Vroooom!

I love vintage sports cars in real life, so I jumped at the chance to try one out as a blogger for the Home, Garden and Breedables Expo in Second Life. This gorgeous roadster is made by SA-1, inspired by the Triumph TR3. The real life car was built between 1955 and 1962 and still looks like a classic. Here's the second life version:

The car is one of the best I've driven in Second Life, and it has a lot of nice features. First of all, the land impact is only 22, which is perfect to keep it rezzed in my driveway. Four colors are included along with body textures of all four so you can mod them. Plus it comes with a template texture so you can make your own paint scheme. Here's another of the included colors:

It's great to take to the beach. It drives on all terrains very well. I took it down the sidewalk, over a grassy hill, and even into the sea and it never faltered. It climbed right out. To drive, you attach a HUD, click the car to activate the HUD, get in, start the engine on the HUD and off you go in first gear. You move with arrow keys, and change gears by paging up and down. The lower gears are slow enough for cruising without going out of control. The higher gears are really fast. And if shifting is too much trouble, you can go into automatic transmission by clicking the gear icon on the HUD. The engine makes a nice sound which varies with shifting. Here's a photo of the HUD. It even has GPS!

The doors, hood, and trunk open, or maybe i should say bonnet and boot. :) SA-1 also makes a free gas pump so you can fill it up. That's optional, it runs fine without it, but is a nice option for Roleplay. 

The car has some delightful detail. Here's a photo of the dashboard:

If you zoom in you can see that it even has Lucas electrics, just like the real thing. Lucas is affectionately called 'the prince of darkness' but I hear the electrical system is more reliable in SL. It also has knock off wire wheels. It's very satisfying in real life to hit the ears with a brass hammer when you're frustrated after getting a flat. It's nice to see such attention to detail on the virtual version.

You can find this and other fine automobiles from SA-1 at the Home, Garden & Breedables Expo:

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Hope%205/92/57/23

I'll close with a photo of one of SA-1's other cars, a Cobra 427. One of its options is a Christmas paint job with included tree. The engine growls beautifully and you can play the radio.