These Outdated Car Websites Are Reader Favorites and Full of Info
Hopefully someone keeps paying the bills.
Last week, I wrote about how I happened upon a very cool Lotus Esprit resource, LotusEspritWorld.com. The site is packed full of information on this legendary sports car, but the layout, the typography, and the imagery seems like it hasn't been updated since its copyright year of 2009, possibly earlier. I'm not talking smack—it's a great site and it's quite endearing that it's of a certain vintage. It also loads fast and is devoid of weird pop-ups and other RAM-stealing features.
This brought about a fun request to our readership: Show Us Your Favorite Ancient Car Websites That Are Still Online Somehow. There are so many old car websites out there that haven't been updated in years, yet are still valuable to enthusiasts and beloved among their respective tuning circles. We can only hope that someone keeps paying the bills to keep the lights on so future owners will be able to easily gain some solid knowledge and insight.
Here are five of the best that y'all brought to light.
Clark's Garage
The Drive staff member Stef Schrader brought Clarks-Garage.com to our attention. It's a very thorough front-engine Porsche resource and, like Lotus Esprit World, looks like it was designed many years ago with a massive Compaq tower. That's a compliment, by the way, and I'm glad the site is still alive.
R3VLimited
Reader Rob_Cr shared the R3VLimited forum, which has been around for a long time, yet is still active and a great place to gain some knowledge about the legendary E30 BMW.
Giuliettas
Reader CHARLES threw Giuliettas.com into the ring. It hasn't been updated in a while, but it mimics an early Wordpress-type design and is full of cool blog posts about Alfa Romeo ownership and info. A quick scan reveals the earliest post dates back to spring 2008.
SoCal Car Culture
Reader S2k_4Life dropped SoCalCarCulture.com, which is peak late '90s or early '00s web design. It even features one of those counters to show you how many people from each country have visited the site. When I click on that link, I feel like I got there by asking Lycos to go get it, and it should take like 45 seconds to load because I'm in junior school and want to scope out some sick rides after school before my parents come home from work.
UCLA Supercars
Finally, Ryan Zummallen over at Edmunds brought up Chem.UCLA.Edu/~Na/Supercars. The creator made a car website on the University of California Los Angeles' server while on-staff there in the late '90s, and it's still there! Bless the university for never pulling the plug, and I feel like it should be mandated by California law to never do so. I mean, it belongs in the friggin' Library of Congress, at least in my mind. The site's a fun read, and although I haven't checked in to see if its creator still works there, I hope he's doing well and is still hyped on cool cars.
Check out the rest of the reader submissions, and add some more in the comments section here. Let us all celebrate the rad old websites that the everlasting and glorious internet has given us.
