Automobiliac

Anyone have 100 Grand I can borrow?

Bradley Price — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 19:34:51 +0000

My favorite Mangusta race car, profiled a while back on Automobiliac is suddenly available on ebay! I want it so badly.

Check it out HERE

Hat tip to Syed.

Weekend Watching: Tour de Corse Historique in 3 parts

Bradley Price — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 19:10:15 +0000

This well-made 20 minute documentary has some fantastic footage from the 2008 Tour de Corse Historique rally. The footage is a well edited combination of in-car and roadside camerawork, along with French language interviews with a very jolly group of drivers. If you love Alpines, 911s and other vintage rally machines, this is a must-watch. It's incredible how bad these Corsican backroads are, and the occasional presence of animals on the course gives us a real step back in time to the days of the Targa Florio and other road races from when these cars (and many of the drivers too!) were young.

The Toyota GT 86/Subaru BRZ: The RWD coupe Alfa should be building

Bradley Price — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 19:54:37 +0000

By now the hype regarding the new RWD bargain exotic co-developed between Toyota and Subaru is all over the internet. In particular, the most recent Chris Harris video (below) makes it clear that this car will really be something special for all those who love RWD sports cars with soul.

Watching Harris powerslide the GT 86 through the corners of Jarama grinning ear to ear, I couldn't help but ask myself why the hell Alfa isn't making a car like this anymore. Sure there is the 8C, but it's a limited edition toy for the few, not a volume fun machine for the many, as the GTV6 and Giulia Sprint/GTV were. Instead, Alfa is planning the inexplicable mid-engined 4C to be their entry-level sports car. And I just have to ask why they can't just go back to a winning formula of making great-sounding, great handling RWD cars that look sensational, at prices that compete with Infiniti rather than Aston Martin. As an Alfista, I feel this new Japanese offering is the closest thing to what an Alfa is supposed to be like, but it lacks two crucial components: The sound and the looks. My quick 15 minute photoshop job up top is not meant as a suggestion of what the car should look like, (it's still pretty ugly) but rather how much I long to see the Alfa Grille on anything approaching an affordable front-engine, RWD sports coupe again. I do hope the production 4C will exceed my expectations, but until then, I will keep dreaming of the day when Alfa finally gets back to the cuore sportivo.

The Perfect Design Sketch

Bradley Price — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 15:56:58 +0000

Bill Porter is not as famous as his flamboyant predecessor as head of GM Styling, Bill Mitchell. Porter had worked his way up from a summer intern fresh out of Pratt, all the way through being Chief designer for Pontiac before he replaced the mercurial Mitchell at the helm. While the 1960s was a golden age at GM that saw many prodigious talents flower, I have to say that for me, Porter's work stands out as some of the finest examples of the art of sketching from that era. As a trained designer myself, I stand in awe at his sensitivity to light and shadow and his masterful use of shading and line weight to convey fluidity and reflectivity of the surfaces he is drawing.

The sketch below is one of his Pontiac sketches. What I love is how the important parts such as the chrome grill are rendered to an almost real level, but the outer parts of the drawing are so quick and sparse, giving just enough information for the eye to comprehend the shapes. Compared to some of the spectacular final airbrush renderings of the period, some of you may not find this impressive. But all Porter used here was pencil, pastel (or maybe conte crayon?), and black marker, and he probably did this pretty fast. At his peak as a designer, he would have done a whole pile of drawings like this in a single day, showing different front-end themes. Very impressive and worthy of close study in today's age of digital tablet sketches, where variations can just be done as layers over a 3D under-drawing. Today's tools are still no substitute for sheer talent, but most practicing designers you talk to will agree, those guys were just on another plane...

Click HERE to see more amazing GM Styling sketches from the 1960s over at Dean's Garage.

Pantera Moment of Zen

Bradley Price — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 04:51:21 +0000

I would. Would you?

Focus

Bradley Price — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 23:18:05 +0000

Eugenio Castellotti at the wheel of the Lancia-Ferrari D50 with a look of intense focus. One of the fastest drivers of his day, he was tragically killed at the age of 27 testing a Ferrari 801 at Modena less than a year later.

Hermann Lang Laps the 'Ring, Graham Hill Narrates

Bradley Price — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 17:23:28 +0000

1962 film showing onboard footage (starting at 2:50) of Hermann Lang lapping the 'Ring in his Mercedes W125. In color, no less! Graham Hill gives a corner by corner commentary. It's very cool to see the lush, wooded circuit as it was before barriers and kerbs were added.

Maranello Moment of Zen

Bradley Price — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 21:30:49 +0000

Ferrari Headquarters looking very much like Santa's Workshop during a freakish cold snap that has swept across Europe. This would be a great photo op for the new 4WD Ferrari FF! Come on people!

via the Daily Mail.

Video of the Week: F2 Onboard at the Arosa Hillclimb

Bradley Price — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 15:10:25 +0000

The Arosa Hillclimb is small event held in Switzerland that I hadn't heard of til recently. This year will be its 8th running. There are quite a few onboard videos popping up, showing the breathtaking scenery and challenging curves that make me really want to visit there someday.

Here we have a Brabham F2 car being driven up the 7.8km hill. The driving is pretty conservative, but who cares? The car, combined with the twisting country road lined with stone walls and wooden fences make it feel like a real step back in time.

"Tribute" Replicas: Re-Living the past, Racing in the present

Bradley Price — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 03:54:17 +0000

Lately, there seems to be a small spate of "tribute" replicas that seek to give the look and feel of vintage racing cars that are now so rare and costly they are only attainable for the super wealthy. Although replicas have always been around, there is a new interest in replicating the historic "feel" of the original car rather than just parroting the looks (Like the infamous VW-based Bugatti T35 replicars of the 1970s, for example!) I think this is a great idea, because rather than try to fool people, it's about recreating a time period and a visceral driving experience that one can only dream of otherwise. Of course there are also some companies out there hand-making exact replicas of rare cars (like prewar Alfas and Bugattis, or Ferrari 250TRs) that are nearly indistinguishable from the real thing, but these line-for-line copies can be incredibly expensive in and of themselves. I'm glad that there are enterprising people out there who are making an effort to live their dreams and share them with other likeminded enthusiasts at a somewhat attainable price of entry. Below are 3 of my favorite "tribute" projects:

1) The F1-67 Project

F1-67 seeks to recreate a late 1960s F1 car using a Smallblock Chevy as the powerplant. It looks the part, but more importantly, it sounds the part!! Makes clever use of a spaceframe to cut costs and increase safety, but with fiberglass shell to give the look of an aluminum monocoque. Not sure if this project is still going on, but it was plenty cool! More HERE

2) Tipo 250

This replica is meant to evoque the legendary Maserati 250F Grand Prix car. Again, it doesn't perfectly copy the lines of the original, but the feel is there for sure. The BMW straight six powerplant, detailed and finished in a very 1950's style, gives it a very convincing sound as well.

More info HERE

3) NuArt Can Am Car

Can Am was a virtually unrestricted racing series of earth-pounding machinery that truly separated the men from the boys in the late 1960s and early 70s. At the time, the cars were the fastest on Earth, putting even F1 cars to shame. The NuArt Can Am car seeks to re-create those glory days, but with modern saftey structures and newer, safer technologies cloaked in a skin that is almost indistinguishable from a car of the era. The car looks sensational, and a spec series is planned, under the name "Unlimited Racing Championship." I, for one, would definitely like to see such a series materialize, and it seems like there is actually adequate funding to get it off the ground. Max Papis was the development driver, and helped to tune the NuArt (terrible name, by the way) to be thrilling but predictable for the less skilled driver (Historic Can Am cars had notoriously vicious handling that still can and does kill drivers in vintage racing today). More HERE