And now your Alfa Romeo Moment of Zen

Or more like 3 minutes of zen.  HVR, is a custom restoration shop in Australia, who have crafted this breathtaking recreation of a 1939 6C 2300 MM.  I don't know if the car is based on a real period chassis and engine, or if it is 100% re-creation. But the result is undeniably spectacular, and HVR's artisans deserve a round of applause.

See their facebook build journal HERE

Oldsmobile Golden Rocket, 1956

One of the prettiest GM show cars of the 1950s. One wonders if this was influenced Ghia's FIAT 8V design. While the torpedo fenders may be rather flamboyant, there is no denying the remarkable proportions and flowing surfacing in this design study. Look at the highlights and reflections wrappign around the fenderline. Just gorgeous.

You can see some definite corvette in the trunklid and bumper treatment. Vestigial tailfins sprout from the torpedo fenders.

Bill Mitchell and his Stingray

I love this photo of GM design supremo Bill Mitchell standing in the mud next to his spectacular creation. For a fascinating 1985 interview with Mitchell, click on over to Dean's Garage.

Two part interview with the Automobiliac on Megadeluxe

If you can stomach listening to me talking about cars and my watch company for two 28 minute segments, please have a listen!

Wes Garcia over at Megadeluxe was kind enough to interview me for his most excellent site!  Definitely book mark it, as he posts some amazing stuff all the time!

Part one of the interview is about my personal cars and car design. The first 5 minutes are skippable but then it gets rolling!

Part two is about how I went about starting the watch company, and some other tangents!

Is it time to re-appraise the Vector W2?

Continuing on our theme of unloved cars this week, let's talk about the original Vector W2 Prototype.  Of course when I was a tiny kid in the 80s, I thought the Vector was the be-all end-all of supercars.  It was the topic of many breathless schoolyard conversations and sketches in the margins of my notebooks.  But as time went by, it has become sort of the Jean Claude Van Damme of supercars--just a punchline to a bad 80s joke.  The sort of thing that we look at today and say "wow. did we really think that was cool back then??"  Putting aside the 3 speed automatic transmission, I think the time has come to perhaps re-appraise the car on stylistic grounds.  Although I agree it will never be a "timeless" car, I think it's now getting old enough to appreciate it as a period piece, and a successful execution of the design trends of that time.With the later iterations of the design, the car became increasingly overstyled and needlessly complex, in order to compete with also-vulgar Lamborghini Diablo.  But I think the original prototype has some really wicked, menacing proportions, and cool detailing.  I love the fighter jet look imparted by the shut lines and tight panel gaps. The design borrows heavily from Bertone (the Athon -also from 1980- comes to mind), but creator Gerald Wiegert added his own Art Center-trained, American flavor to the mix. I think the way the organic fender flares relate to the chiseled belt line of the car is particularly well executed and unexpected. Perhaps we should look past the later Vectors, such as the disgusting M12, and appreciate the intent behind the original car --to make a home grown super-exotic with the latest technology and the most extreme styling that was cutting edge at the time.