No, not that M5—-the 1971-1975 Leica M5. Some of my favourite excerpts from an original M5 brochure. In my opinion, the most beautiful camera ever made by Leica!
src: keh
Category Archives: vintage
Renault, Caterham, and details of ‘new’ Alpine coming soon.
(above and below renderings by Volatile Vertex)
A press conference has been scheduled for November 5th (Monday) to be co-hosted by Renault and Caterham to discuss the details of the upcoming Alpine project. Very exciting news indeed.
Here are some of the ideas being thrown around: Weight of a little over 1 tonne (!!), target launch 3-5 years from now, 200-250hp, less than 4.3 meters long, and that it will “look like the A110 Berlinette”. 5,000 to 10,000 units per year. Target price of 35k-40k Euros. Very exciting.
There are some questions over what the functions of the original Dieppe Alpine factory would be, if the entire task of the new Alpine’s construction and engineering are left to Caterham. More details as they evolve, obviously.
(above photo via Renault Sport’s FB page)
UPDATE: Renault and Caterham have revealed that they will both get a version of the upcoming Alpine. Theoretically the car will likely be a roadster for Caterham and a coupe for Alpine (sounds right!). Prices will be low (under 40k Euros), and most interestingly—-Caterham now will take a 50% stake in Alpine as a marque! I find this last sentence very interesting.
Lancia is finally dead.
After years of punishing, brutal and inhumane torture against the legacy of Lancia; easily one of the finest marques of automobiles ever to exist. Sergio Marchionne has finally unleashed the final blow and has announced that he is killing off the Lancia marque. Finally, the marque will not be insulted by minivans and over-the-top rebadged 300C sedans. I am quite frankly relieved after seeing the marque decay over the past decade especially. There was hope with the 2003 Fulvia Concept, but after that project was killed off—-it all went to regurgitated scum.
Read about it at Truth About Cars.
(photo by D-negative)
Leica ABCDE (1970) and Leica S1 (1996) prototypes.
Well here are 2 very strange prototype cameras.
The Leica ABCDE looks like a GREAT SLR design from 1970 (albeit with possibly the worst name ever for a camera…lol). Why didn’t they use it? I haven’t the slightest clue. Not much is known about this concept, however it was seen on a Leica Factory Tour in 2009 by DPReview.com (the link to their tour, unfortunately, does not work—however the pictures are found in search).
The Leica S1 (below) from 1996 has to be one of the least useable camera designs ever! I cannot even imagine focusing while holding a gigantic ring—-or maybe it’s genius!? Who knows….all we know is that it seems to have cool digital buttons on the top. The colour is right as well. It may make for a nice steering wheel though.
1969 Pininfarina Sigma Grand Monoposto F1.
Well that’s a bit of a mouthful. So what happens when Pininfarina decides to design an F1 car for Ferrari in 1969? This happens!
and in its most recent state:
foto src: carStyling
Deconstructed.
Todd McLellan does some really cool deconstructions and shows the extraordinary detail of things we consider ‘ordinary’. He has some videos on his site as well…so make sure you check them out.
“Anti-imbedded-Mossad Party” Cadillac Seville Limousine.
I laughed so hard when I saw this car. I laughed from far, and then i laughed from up close! Spotted in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Apologies for the water on my camera lens, as there is a hurricane outside when I was walking around!
For those who don’t know, the Mossad is obviously the controversial Israeli intelligence agency (equivalent to the CIA in the US government). “Mitochondrial DNA”, interestingly enough, is generally passed down from one’s mother. I am still trying to interpret these quotes in full.
Here’s my wife pretending it’s her car! (it’s not, obviously….lol)
A110 x-ray cut-out.
still the greatest car in the world….ever. IEDEI = Alpine. Some things never change.
src: Renault Sport Official
Avant Heaven.
These are the coolest Avants (Wagons) ever made. If it were my choice, i’d grab the RS2 and the B8 RS4 for maximum satisfaction. Best commercial of the year!
Thanks to Skaala for the tip!
200 quattro trans-am…on snow.
Epic photo of a truly dominant race car. the Audi 200 quattro Trans Am.
thanks to the excellent Audi Motorsport Blog‘s FB page
photomanipulation….before photoshop.
I’m not a fan of Photoshop for photo modification, as i find it cumbersome and overused by people. That being said…there is something more primitively charming about photomanipulation BEFORE the advent of computer software aids. Does it make it any more acceptable? No, not really! But they are interesting to look at. Somewhere in the future…some kid is going to read (absorb?) an article like this about Photoshop and say “oh how primitive they were back then!”
src: the excellent brainpickings via the book “Faking It”
the machine age.
“The Machine Age” by artist unknown (circa 1916, although thought to be a Vorticist drawing)
This drawing is on sale at Young & Son for a price not listed.
Land of Lancia.
Tagged film, lancia fulvia, video
when Chris Harris became rubbish.
Such a shame, as 2 years ago I used to watch Chris Harris’ reviews on Drivers Republic and thought they were utterly brilliant. Fast forward to his work with the current Drive channel on youtube—-and with each passing review, I find myself more bored, more annoyed, and frankly in view of tedious, self indulgent reviews which frankly go nowhere except gushing praise or annoyed disappointment.
(1) Chris Harris is exceedingly trying to be Jeremy Clarkson, and is failing miserably
(2) He takes 20 minutes (!!) to do this latest comparison. Talk about tedious and overbloated.
(3) Anyone who thinks the M135s engine sound better than the RS3 turbo 5-cylinder is on MASSIVE amounts of something…..or has gone deaf…or is paid to say so.
(4) On the BMW payroll? he used to be…probably still is.
(5) He enjoys the sound of his own voice, far more than I certainly do.
(6) Repetitive luddite nonsense…and yet he still prefers a torque converter Automatic gearbox….utter rubbish!
These days, I think Automotive ‘journalism’ has become very cumbersome and quite frankly past-its-sell-date….then again, motoring culture itself is expired. With every passing week I see new blogs and sites popping up—-all of which are the same stuff regurgitated through a big filter of bland. Several months before dropping the car-centric IEDEI for a more creative version, I had become progressively disenchanted by ‘petrolhead culture’ and its neverending cliches, stereotypes, and superficiality. Unfortunately, Chris Harris represents each one of those problems in a uniform package. Will I watch Top Gear when it comes back? Yes. Will I watch Chris Harris videos each Thursday? No.
Do i still love cars? Yes. Do I want to be an active member of online motoring culture? No.
Onement 1.
Onement 1, 1948, Barnett Newman
Barnett Newman is easily one of my all-time favourite painters. Why? Because his work is brilliant, simple, minimalist, and of great taste in colour spectrum choices. His paintings are also very very beautiful in person. The majesty and depth of them does not accurately broadcast in online photos.
Mr. Newman discussing “Onement 1”
Vivian Maier.
I only recently discovered the story and the photographs of Vivian Maier—-and both (the story and the photographs) are fascinating!
“An American of French and Austro-Hungarian extraction, Vivian bounced between Europe and the United States before coming back to New York City in 1951. Having picked up photography just two years earlier, she would comb the streets of the Big Apple refining her artistic craft. By 1956 Vivian left the East Coast for Chicago, where she’d spend most of the rest of her life working as a caregiver. In her leisure Vivian would shoot photos that she zealously hid from the eyes of others. Taking snapshots into the late 1990′s, Maier would leave behind a body of work comprising over 100,000 negatives.”
the story of how these photos and the intriguing person behind them were discovered:
more information here: Vivian Maier
book: Leica “Witness To A Century” (2012)
I ordered this book a while ago on pre-order, and it arrived this week. $22 from Amazon. An amazing and beautiful book for a very low price. Hardcover, by Alessandro Pasi (2012). Highly recommended beautiful short history of Leica with full page spread profiles of every significant camera produced in their illustrious history. This book does not read like a publicity book—-instead it is full of beautiful and iconic photography throughout their history. This is the 3rd edition of this book, revised to include the digital range through the recent M-Monochrom.
Yes I am a Leica fanboy these days and it is driven by my love of creating fotos. And there’s nothing you can do to stop me!
Being inspired to create is so much nicer than obsessing to appreciate.
neu Alpine to be co-developed with Caterham.
Just a few days ago, I speculated that Lotus was a possibility for co-developing the new Alpine Berlinette after Carlos Tavares’ statements in Autocar. A few days later, Autocar is reporting that Caterham will indeed be the expected partner to develop the new Alpine! Great news for those of us who have been awaiting news that this will be a lightweight true hommage to the original A110. The concept A110-50 stayed true to those beliefs in being lightweight and performance-oriented; and it seems the production Alpine will as well.
Apparently Caterham will also develop their own model alongside the new Alpine. Should be very interesting to see what comes out of this relationship. Here’s hoping for a lightweight, technologically advanced interpretation of what came before.
More news as it comes. Thank you to Michal and CollaVerglas for the tip to this update!
(below: chassis testing of the A110-50 concept)
Character: Recycling Typography.
Take old letters from neon signs, swap them for LEDs and place in nice, dark, mysterious locations. That’s what Aleksi Hautamäki has done with this Character series.
I am obsessed with fonts…and in another world, in another time, I would have devoted my life to finding the perfect font. However, in this one I am relegated to simple appreciation.
if you follow the link at the bottom, you can buy one of these light filled giant letters starting at 200 euros.
more info: character.fi
Progress of the Alpine resurrection.
Carlos Tavares (Renault CEO) has been talking some details about the resurrection of Alpine! It seems it will be a completely new car, and NOT the A110-50 that was shown several months ago. Should be very, very interesting.
My bet is that Lotus is going to be involved in this….as Lotus and Alpine have a history of collaboration.
from Autocar:
Carlos Tavares:
“We could have given our engineers €50 million and told them to make the best of it. But that would probably have produced a mediocre car because it’s not much money to play with. Alpine has a great history, and we want to make emotional cars that will be true to that.”
“He won’t yet reveal the mechanical layout but admits it is unlikely to be rear-engined, as the A110 was.”
“Convenience is an important part of modern packaging,” Tavares says, “but we are not inclined to compromise too much. This is a car that must appeal to the emotions. If you refine such a car too much, it loses its special character.”
The production Alpine will bear little relation to the Alpine concept from earlier this year that incorporated the styling of the DeZir concept on to a Mégane Trophy racer.
ISAT Berlinette Project.
The greatest car in the world…well, ever….is being re-imagined by students and teachers of the ISAT (Institut Supérieur de l’Automobile et des Transports) of France and being presented at this week’s Paris Motor Show as a concept study! Renault’s recent glory of the A110-50 was a modernized NEW car, whereas this study takes great homage from the original, with mild reinterpretation of details (lights, fenders, etc). The result is difficult to see in this mystery-filled video teaser—–but I am very intrigued by what I see already! Good on ya, kids!
(advance apologies for the rubbish music….please turn the volume down!)
src: auto plus
IEDEI 