these pictures are so cool.
George Lucas and Peter Brock vintage racing film
here’s another GREAT vintage video made by George Lucas (yes, the “Star Wars” guy!) when he was younger and (probably) cooler. I never really cared for “Star Wars”….but this video was done when Lucas was a student, and it stars the legendary Peter Brock. Fantastic!
Forward the video to about 1:30 for the start of the video.
“Car-A-Day” Paintings
This is one of the most impressive blogs and talents i’ve seen in a long time. Rob Ijbema has a blog entitled “Car-A-Day”, in which he puts up amazing paintings of race cars, race circuits, and races—-in an amazing display of talent, sharing of creativity, and charm. These paintings are available as hi-resolution JPGs for your viewing pleasure, and they are also available for purchase in their original form.
Highly impressive stuff. Check it out!!
Driving the 1971 Skyline GT-R KPGC10
I don’t care about the ‘new’ Nissan Skyline GTR. THIS is the Skyline I care about. In my mind, this is most definitely one of 2 japanese cars (the other being the Toyota 2000GT) that will go down in history as true classics in every sense of the word.
Edmunds has put together a fantastic article about driving the KPGC10 with some great pictures of this rare and ultra-desirable japanese rock and roll star.
http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/Features/articleId=127569#33
Clarkson Island
Regular readers of this blog will know that I am hugely entertained by Jeremy Clarkson’s adventures on TV and in writing. This video clip cracks me up! So true…..
2008 Coronado Festival of Speed
Several weeks ago, I found myself in San Diego for a conference. That saturday, I, by chance, found out about a ‘festival of speed’ going on at a military base in Coronado. So i took a cab over there, got lost on the naval base, however proceeded to end up at an AMAZING day of Can-Am, Trans-Am, and vintage race cars and street cars going at it on a runway. It was a superb day, with some of the greatest cars in history going at it!
Here are a couple videos i’ve found on YouTube documenting that fly day.
From a 1960 Porsche RS Spyder
Porsche Design “The Essence”: a fragrance review
Several weeks ago, I told you about a new fragrance coming out from Porsche named “The Essence”. Finally, my bottle of Porsche Design’s “The Essence” has arrived. This fragrance was developed for Porsche Design by Azzaro and Clarins. It is a very blue and green sort of fragrance. It represents the genre of scents known as ‘fresh’ (as a general classification), but it seems to accomplish this ‘freshness’ with quite a bit of class and dignity. Designer fragrances as a whole are quite generic. Walk into any club, bar, or dinner party and you will find the vast majority of men wearing the same crap over and over again (Boss, Armani, Dolce & Gabbana, Cool Water…ugh).
“The Essence” is composed of a couple different ideas. The first is based off a synthetic molecule they created while developing this scent called “arctical”, which is supposed to be cool and refreshing. Well i think it worked. It definitely has an airy, cold, and refreshing take on right from the beginning. You can also find it a little green—-or with the scent of vetiver. A bit grassy and organic. After settling down from the cold and green opening, the scent becomes slightly woody, like cedar. Hours later, you are left with a very interesting green and woody finish—-which smells utterly classy and elegant.
It is not the most unique fragrance in the world—-but it is a very well made fragrance. Get away from those generic colognes you’ve been buying and get some more exclusive, interesting stuff in your collection.
Oh, and one more thing—the bottle for this is absolutely superb. Glass and metal, create a heavy, easy to hold and dynamic bottle. Worth keeping as a decorative piece long after your liquid has finished.
Porsche Design’s “The Essence” is available at Porsche Design Stores; as well as overseas duty free shops.
The Essence Minisite: http://www.porschedesigntheessence.com/site.html
Why Jeremy Clarkson makes me laugh…
Jeremy Clarkson is by far one of the more entertaining and interesting reads around. Aside from his bizarre, over the Top Gear performances, he spends plenty of time writing articles about cars in various publications. Here is a bit of glory from The Times Online about the, erm, glorious Chrysler Sebring
Many people imagine when they rent a convertible in America that they’ll be thumping down Highway 1 under a blazing sky in a throbbing Corvette or an evocative Mustang. Yum yum, they think. Freedom. Sunshine. A V8 bass line. Engineer boots, leather jackets and tight blue jeans. The American dream. Sadly, however, most tourists end up with a Chrysler Sebring convertible, which is almost certainly the worst car in the entire world.
Fantastic. I always feel this way when i end up with a rubbish rental car at the local Hertz dealer when my car is in service, OR when i’m traveling. Yeah, i know some people i know don’t really like Mr. Clarkson—–but i find him most entertaining.
Click here for the full article: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/driving/jeremy_clarkson/article4873574.ece
dream on.
don’t you wish that you bought a big piece of land, and that out in the forest—-you found a garage that had this stuff?
And NO, this is not that internet urban legend about the barn full of cars—-this is an actual barn, and these cars are all for sale.
Full story and individual profiles and pics of the cars at one of my favourite vintage car blogs: Bring A Trailer
click here: http://bringatrailer.com/2008/09/30/bat-exclusive-dusty-socal-racer-warehouse/#more-1177
RIP Paul Newman: race car driver, humanitarian, and actor…
but most of all—-a gentleman. the world needs more people like Mr. Newman.
(1925 – 2008)
Porsche Design: The Essence
I am a huge fan of Porsche Design stuff. Sure some would argue that it’s a bit cheesy and cliche to want things with a Porsche name—-and look like a bit of a fanboy if you don’t own one. I have driven Porsches and currently i drive an Audi—-a company which Porsche is currently in the process of buying! So technically i am not a fanboy. My next car will hopefully be a Porsche.
So how am i preparing for my future Porsche ownership experience? The sunglasses i wear are made by Porsche Design and they are the ONLY sunglasses i’ve ever worn that didn’t break within 1 week. They are of impeccable quality. A few weeks ago i posted about a Porsche toaster that i want. If you’re ever used one of those ultra-slick Porsche design lighters, you’ll know the quality i’m talking about.
Now Porsche Design have introduced a fragrance! Yeah, so is it the smell of a 1972 Le Mans racing team? No, probably not. But the bottle is gorgeous, and the idea is fantastic. Sure there are other car companies who have launched fragrances—Ferrari (which isn’t half bad actually!), Bugatti (which costs about as much as a Boxster), Lamborghini (haven’t tried it), Hummer (would never want to try it!), and i think there is a fragrance called Ford Mustang (no thanks!) as well. The center of the new Porsche Design fragrance is a molecule they are calling “arctical”….i’m guessing it’s gonna be a bit cold then? i hope so.
Further reviews in the next 2 or 3 weeks, after my wife brings me back a bottle from Duty Free.
Porsche design have made a minisite for the launch of their fragrance. It’s not available in the US yet, but it is available in the UK and other small aristocrat markets…
LINK: http://www.porschedesigntheessence.com/site.html
70’s Porsche racing: remixed
the people at Speedhunters have posted a fantastic video footage of Porsche’s rollin around race tracks. Check it out by clicking the SD or HD buttons after you CLICK THIS
Dream Watch.
I own a Tag Heuer Monza, which i received as a wedding present a couple of years ago. It is an AMAZING watch—-i have been wearing it non-stop for the past two years. I still love it as much as when i first got it. It still looks brand new (well, aside from the slightly worn band), and it just excudes so much class, subtlety, and vintage racing sophistication—–all the way down to the little writing in the dial that says “MONZA”. Fantastic watch. I will love it forever!
My dream watch costs about 3 times as much as this one—it’s another Tag Heuer, and it has racing stripes! Tag Heuer released a limited edition Monaco watch in 2004 i believe—-with a white dial, red and blue racing stripes, and the Monaco logo in the center. Then a couple years later, they released a black version with the gulf stripes and Gulf logo. the price? around $4000. But i want one—-OH i want one bad. One day….one day.
The Great Putdown.
I’m not the greatest fan of Ferrari, but DAMN—-this video is GREAT! Vintage as f*ck with a great story.
automotive design: going backwards?
With all the technology, flair, and innovation on the side of today’s automotive engineers and designers—how is it that they cannot make classic designs anymore. Once in a while, you get a design like an Alfa Romeo Brera, Audi TT, Audi S5, or Mercedes-Benz CLS come into play. Cars which have character and verve. But in the 60s and early 70s, there were so many amazing designs which were thrown around.
Point in example, one of THE most desirable cars in the world is the Porsche 911. It has been for 40 years now. Why? because it captures imagination, steers clear of in-the-moment design cliches—-and instead aims for a timelessness which is quite valuable and unwavering.
Dodge recently re-introduced a new version of the Challenger for 2009. The original Challenger was a classic—in a time of cheap gas, muscle, and war. Right now, we have expensive gas, muscle, and war. The 2009 Dodge Challenger is a well designed car, albeit a bit contrived. I find it surreal that 30+ years after the original Challenger, you have a similar design looking back on the original. So is it really 1970 again? No, not really. The original Challenger had CHARM—bucketloads of it. The new one does not have charm. The original Challenger was loud, raw, sloppy, and frankly a bit of a design mess—-BUT it came together in a way which felt organic and natural. The new one is perfectly molded, with stiff suspension, 20″ wheels, and organized body parts.
look at the picture down below—-in fact there is NOT that much similar between the two cars at all. The charm of the original is gone! The new one evokes the old one in a slight, sort of alzheimer-ish memory problem type of way.
So what is in the future of the state of cars? I’ll tell ya that CURVES ARE COMING BACK. They’ll be back in the next 5 years. We’ve had enough of the straight-edge-wannabe-modern-look. Curves are modern. Curves are timeless. No one is gonna look back at the Cadillac CTS in 25 years and say—–“oooh that was a classic”!
Oh, and Dodge should fix their new Challenger. Take out those demented 20″ wheels, and make it less ‘thick’ looking.
ads from the past.
when i was young, my father had a gigantic collection of national geographic magazines in the garage—in boxes. i must have been about 6 or 7 years old when i found these boxes. i used to look for african women showing their, erm, breasts—but mainly i used to look through them to see the amazing car ads they had. each magazine would contain at least 5 different cars in various spreads in the front cover, back cover, and in the middle as well. they were great! anytime i see 70s car ads now, i think of those national geographic magazines….
here are some cool vintage ads:
Toast Carrera RS
This toaster is in the future of my kitchen!
Built by Siemens and Porsche Design. Sold at John Lewis stores in the UK for 99 pounds. Click the link for the original Luxist post:
N138 t-shirts
Tagged cars, prints, shirts, t-shirts, tshirts, vintage racing
news of the day: Cindy McCain = drifter?
I was utterly shocked by the discovery that Cindy McCain, wife of US Presidential candidate John McCain (R) is a drift fanatic! Amazing how some people just surprise you….sure drifting is kinda lame, but not when you discover a 54 year-old first lady candidate does it! then it becomes just a bit cool i must say.
Combine this with the fact that Obama drives a Toyota Prius (ugh!) and you really start to wonder which candidate would be better for cars……oh well, i’ll still support Obama—because at least we’ll be alive to drive.
click the link below for the ESPN article and video:
the ultimate rally car
Renault Alpine A110. damn i want one.
ah, to hell with it! the ultimate sports car?
IEDEI 
