Well I have to say I am entirely intrigued by these “Secret Spot” pics posted over at Type-01. If this is a single location; what kind of a location will have the combination of cars seen in this pic? More mysteriously—–what are those two Bugatti concepts doing there!?!? I would think those 2 concepts would be under the ownership of Bugatti/VAG. I don’t recall them ever being produced for private ownership. Hmm.
Beautiful greyscale photos as well.
src: Type-01
“Four Audi 50 racing cars fighting for the lead at a Touring-Car-Race at Hockenheimring in the early 80´s” – eLKayPics
Automobiliac had posted all sorts of wonderful Elf card scans last year, and this Alpine A210 diagram was from the backside of the scan you can find on the link above! Make sure you check out search his site for all the other Elf card scans…which are great.
The more time that passes by, the fonder i become of the stubby little badass that is the NSU TT.
src: davydutchy
Yes I want one. I wonder what my 3 hours a day of commuting through NYC would look like with this bad boy! Just don’t put any large trees in my way, alright Winston?
This thing is going to go into production—-well at least that’s what they say in the video below:
I want to like new BMWs….i really do….I think they drive fair enough, however I just find they aren’t very interesting as an actual product (packaging, aesthetics, imagination, image, etc…).
The last BMW I appreciated was the derided last generation E81/82 1-Series, which plenty of people disliked—–However which I happened to like. It reminded me of old-school coupes like the NSU TT. Compact, stubby, and slightly ugly—-all of which gave it character. Nothing prepared us though for the horror which came when its updated F20 version came along. Let’s be clear—-the F20 is not a ‘brand new’ car….it is basically a reworking of the previous generation 1-series to tide things over until the next proper FWD 1-series comes along. The F20 is properly ugly, has lost any ‘retro’ character, and instead created an awkard design which seems almost NON-BMW. What happened here?!
Publicity photos provide all sorts of photoshopping BS and fluff without the essence of the car. So i’ve started “x-raying’ photos to analyze design. It serves me well.
E82 1-series hatchback
– stubby
F20 1-series hatchback:
– ugly!
So do these changes only affect the 1-series?? NO! The 3-series has been given the same awkward changes.
E90 Sedan:
F30 Sedan:
Now, I was never really a fan of the outgoing 3-series….i thought it was totally boring. Then again, most cars in that class are sort of meant to be boring—–however I think the majority of visually able beings will easily state that based on this x-ray image, there really is no comparison that even the boring outgoing E90 Sedan is a far nicer design than the messy, awkward friendly F30 Sedan. Do you agree? I do….oh wait, i wrote the opinion in the first place!
I can honestly say……bring Chris Bangle back, BMW!
Before the days of saturated bloggers filling up the press days of modern Auto Shows, we often forget that only serious journalists were really taking photos and writing up the major international auto shows. Before digital cameras, blogging, websites, etc—–these photos were mainly issued in newspapers and magazines, and hence we don’t see a lot of vintage auto show photos.
Car & Driver have posted a huge archive of Detroit Auto Show photos and they really are fantastic. They range through many years, and show how cars were displayed in a different time! Very cool. Make sure you check out the link at the bottom to look through the entire archive they have up on their site:
1926
1966
1932
1978
1975
1967
1985
1967
1965
check out the archive here: Car & Driver
This thing is beautifully swoopy! Don’t be fooled—it is a 4 door as well. Surely nobody ever did another 4-door with the aerodynamics of this bad boy ever again. electric air suspension, state of the art adjustable aerodynamics, adjustable interior (with fixed seats!). Amazing how ahead of its time this Vauxhall concept was. If only Vauxhall could have come even close to manufacturing something as lovely.
check out this insane interior!
Here’s a great quick video tour done by Jon Quirk (photographer of a couple photos above) of the concept; which fortunately still exists!
src: jonQuirk, lotusEspritTurbo
IEDEI 