fantastic!
excellent cutaway drawings!
Shin Yoshikawa is one of the better known cutaway artists around at the moment…and Kai International has a website selling 16×20 inch prints of some amazing cutaway drawings he has made. They’re not too expensive ($10 to $30) and would make for some very nice framing material for your corner of the house or apartment!
A couple of my favourites:
concept car wasteland: 1955 Cadillac La Salle Roadster.
The Cadillac XLR is probably the worst example of Cadillac trying to build its own Corvette…it’s merely an overpriced, overstyled, old-man example of a Corvette. I’m not sure why ANYONE would buy one.
Back in 1955, Cadillac had a go at reviving the “La Salle” nameplate that they had stopped producing back in 1941. What they came up with were 2 models, a sedan and a roadster. The roadster is very interesting, a low slung, strangely designed, overly complex, italian-looking design with some pretty cool design features. It looks about the size of an original Corvette, and even has some similar proportions—however i think it actually looked much cooler than those early Corvettes. Harley Earl was in charge of this project as well….and its destiny was solely confined to the concept car wasteland!
This car was sent to the junkyard to be destroyed…..but apparently a man in Michigan FOUND the car there, and has plans to restore it.
recent photo of it:
Renault axed Alpine, but is resurrecting Gordini…
In addition to Alpine, one of the other famous sporting brands within Renault was the Gordini brand. I always thought the little Gordinis were cute little cars, but not in the same realm as the Alpine cars. However, Renault obviously disagrees. Shortly after announcing that the Alpine brand was going into the grave, Renault has announced that it is reviving the Gordini brand for a series of hot hatches/small cars. I do love the blue and off center white racing stripes, and since Renault is not coming back to the US any time soon—i doubt we will ever see these cars on our shores anyways!
FULL ARTICLE: http://www.carmagazine.co.uk/News/Search-Results/Industry-News/Renault-to-relaunch-Gordini-hot-hatch-brand-/
“Love The Beast”: Out March 12th (in Australia)
This film is gonna be a ‘must watch’ film. A film about Eric Bana and his passion for his first car; a Ford Falcon Coupe and his 25 year journey with the car. Filmed like a documentary, but seemingly full of some great footage, alot of interesting conversations, and an analysis of what draws people like us to our cars. A very unique idea for a film, and i’m really excited to check this out!
Starring: Eric Bana, Jeremy Clarkson (!), Jay Leno, and Dr. Phil (???)
OFFICIAL SITE: www.lovethebeast.com
TRAILER:
Audi 100 Coupe.
I have to admit, i am a big Audi fan…..classic and modern ones. This 100 Coupe is one of the coolest cars i think they ever made. Not only was the predecessor for the eventual Coupe Quattro, but it was also like a smaller, german interpretation of an Aston Martin V8 Vantage (another one of my favourite 70s cars) OR something that Bertone would have designed for Alfa Romeo in the 70s…like a mini Italian supercar. Front engined, RWD. Not many of these made it to the US, but some did—however many more arrived years later as classic cars imported from Europe.
classic 100 Coupe S ad:
the stunning Iso Grifo.
The most famous italian car driven with american balls was the DeTomaso Pantera (imo), however this must be one of the most beautiful; the Iso Grifo. Produced between 1963 and 1974, and under the beautiful shell lies a heart of pure american muscle. Corvette V8s ranging from 300 to 350hp. This is as beautiful as any Maserati or Ferrari of the 60s or 70s, in my opinion—and was fast as hell as well. In the 70s, the top speed of this badass was documented as 171 mph.
They’re rare as hell now, and are starting to fetch more and more money…but that won’t stop me from posting a few choice photos of the car i’m talking about now will it!
Rally Costa Brava Historic, 2009
My friend Dani from Spain has a terrific blog called Colla Verglas, where you can check out regularly updated pictures and posts about all sorts of automotive stuff. He has posted some great pics of classics running around the Rally Costa Brava, here are some pics. Click at the link below the pics to check out ALL the photos!
more pics HERE:
concept car wasteland: 1968 Chevrolet Astro II (XP 880)
Well, so all these rumours around about how a C7 Corvette is gonna be mid-engined (if GM even survives their current downfall!), but hey Chevy already tried some concepts with that! This 1968 Chevrolet Astro II XP-880 (not to be confused with the morbid Chevy Astro van of the 80s/90s) is amazing in pretty much every way. It’s got a gorgeous body, hinting at some of the 70s Corvettes—but far overreaching them in nearly every respect. This is the Corvette Chevrolet SHOULD have built….but never did sadly. It looks inspired by the Miura and Ford GTs of the 60s, but has its own character….another one lost in the archives of the wasteland.
Redman flies through Targa Florio…
on a normal day! ha. You gotta love a video of Brian Redman driving a 1970 Porsche 911 Targa through the Targa Florio on a day where there are normal commuters, traffic, etc…he’s flying through those city streets! It’s hilarious when the pedestrian realises this and starts bustin ass to cross the street, to get away from the screaming orange 911 rollin at him.
Camaro Vs. Camaro.
I was born and raised in Detroit. I know what an original late 60s Camaro is supposed to look like, and while Chevrolet can desperately try to associate this new 2010 Chevy Camaro as a throwback to the original, it is clearly NOT a clone of the original.
The recent release of the Dodge Challenger, was a blatant style tribute to the original 197o Challenger, although as previously discussed on IEDEI—not an especially accurate or interesting design job.
The 2010 Chevy Camaro is a robotic, hi-tech, warped, twisted, version of the original Chevy Camaro. I know for a fact (from people who work close to GM), that when this Camaro was designed as a concept a few years ago for the North American International Auto Show—its conception was rushed and pushed out to the public without putting much care into the design. Fortunately for GM, the design was successful with the Auto Show crowd—–the same sad crowd who wait in lines to sit in cars like the Dodge Avenger. Not really the crowd you want telling you what to put in production, is it?
Either way, the new car will sell by the bucketloads, and for Detroit’s sake—i do hope GM recover from their dire puddle they’re sitting in at the moment. I hope it shakes them up, and they stop producing rubbish cars and get back to the glory of the 50s and 60s.
Camaro Vs. Camaro.
Renault scraps Alpine brand!
Even though Alpine had been scrapped several years ago, there was a ‘resurrection’ of sorts when Renault was supposedly found to be working on a NEW Alpine model in the last couple of years. Alot of rumours when the original Nissan 350z was released, that Renault would somehow grab one of those Zs, and modify it into an Alpine. That never happened. Recently, the rumours were that Renault was gonna use a smaller rwd sports car being developed by Nissan to share the platform with a new Alpine. Not any more! RIP Alpine.
If you search round the interwebnetspace, you’ll find plenty of renderings/concepts of what appears to be a ‘new’ A110. Here’s one of them:
Thanks to Zach @ Autofiends.com for the story! I hadn’t heard about this:
http://www.autofiends.com/index.php/2009/02/ce-nest-pas-vrai-renault-cans-alpine-plans/
original article:
Latest “Car-A-Day” Favourites…
Rob Ijbema is the brilliant artist who has been painting a high volume of paintings devoted to race cars. These paintings are also for sale, if you develop an unhealthy obsession with one of the works! A few months ago, i posted a link to his page. Here are some of the latest favourites of mine (especially the pair of Alpine A310s!) on his car-a-day blog:
BLOG: http://car-a-day.blogspot.com/
(click these photos a couple times to get HI-RES versions for wallpaper!)
digital (and chalkboard!) art of the day
http://ChrisRawlins.deviantart.com/art/DAYS-OF-THUNDER-61325049
http://gammada.deviantart.com/art/Auto-Union-V16-7342140
http://ef-nein.deviantart.com/art/Alfa-Romeo-408GTV-34792589
the most fantastic driveway…
I have no driveway. Instead I have a busy NYC street i pull up to after a hard day’s work, where i fight off potholes, construction trucks, fire hydrants, parking rules, and trying to squeeze into parking spots that are waaaay too small for my tastes.
Now i’m daydreaming, in my head, about having a driveway like this! Imagine coming home after a hard day at work, and putting in a good 15 laps in an unrestricted private race track! Amazing.
Coupe Des Alpes (4 Parts) Video
As written in the description for the video, these videos document the 1958 Alpine Cup rally across southern Europe and the video itself was used by BBC2 as a ‘test’ video prior to the channel going public.
35 minutes of glorious vintage rally racing! Amazing stuff.
PART ONE
PART TWO
PART THREE
PART FOUR
Wallpaper time!
YEAH I KNOW it’s not a ‘vintage’ race car, but damn the *brand new* AUDI R15 TDI is one of the most beautiful modern race cars i’ve ever seen.
Click the pic a few times to get to the hi-res photo you can save to your computer:
Concept Car Wasteland: 1969 Lancia Fulvia 1600 HF Competizione by Ghia
This is a new feature to the IEDEI blog—“Concept Car Wasteland”. This is where we’ll introduce you to a concept (obscure, hopefully), which you had no idea existed.
Here, we love the original Lancia Fulvia from the 60s….and I hope to own one, one day! In 1969, Ghia decided to present a concept version of the Fulvia with their own design cues and deemed it a special version, known as the Competizione. Never seen again since it’s original introduction….this car bears little resemblence to the Fulvia we all know and love—-but definitely has some Lamborghini cues, as well as maybe some Maserati and Alfa Romeo ones as well. Looks very italian nonetheless, and looks very much from the late 60s as it should i suppose!
my Valentine’s Day gift: “Speed Of Life” by Mikael Jansson
Obviously my wife really loves me. She bought me this book for Valentine’s Day today and it is utterly fantastic. Tons and tons of remarkable, artistic photographs for Formula One drivers, pit crews, cars, the chaos, tracks, fans, etc…..it’s just a beautifully put together documentation of the art within F1 racing.
Mikael Jansson is a fashion photographer, who left his roots to spend several years doing F1 photography, and he really captures the essence of the greatest current racing sport in the world.
LINK to more information about “Speed Of Life” by Mikael Jansson:
the coolest Alfa Romeo GTA video….EVER.
I’ve watched this video probably a bazillion times since i first saw it a few years ago….and i never get tired of it. 6 minutes of heaven!
BMW art car exhibit coming to NYC
Well, as you may or may not know—the IEDEI BLOG is based in NYC. Several days ago, I had posted some photos of the Frank Stella BMW 3.0CSL “art car”….now i’ll get to see this car in person, as BMW is taking these cars on a tour. The collection will be on display in Los Angeles, and then make its way to New York City Grand Central Terminal from March 24th-April 5th.
Here’s some video press coverage of the BMW art car exhibit:
IEDEI 