Skinned Sharknose

The sublime Sharknose 156 Dino F1 car shows off its ingenious Carlo Chiti mechanicals.  The car was an extreme departure from Ferrari orthodoxy. So much so that when it won in a dominant fashion, Enzo felt threatened by the very men who created it for him, touching off one of the most cataclysmic political shakeups in Ferrari history. Chiti and his team resigned en masse to start ATS.  Chiti would later go on to run Autodelta and assure his place as a legend in Italian motorsport.

GT4 in the making

I discovered this photo of a 1:1 scale maquette of the Dino GT4 in a book recently, and was quite excited, as I had never seen this photo before.  It's interesting to note the more flamboyant treatments of the air intakes and outlets when compared to the more restrained final design.  Gandini also did well by adding the additional character line along the flank of the final car to break up the vertical mass of the body. That line is absent on this early study. The elegant and subtle hood creases on the final car are also not yet defined on the unadorned nose area.

The production rear end treatment and bumpers are also far more delightful and nuanced than this maquette, meaning, I would assume, that this is one of the earliest full scale models made. Note that the maquette is described as a clay model, but I believe that Bertone and the other Italian design houses worked primarily in plaster models at the time, with clay being more prevalent in Detroit.

New Kavinsky video vs. Old Kavinsky video

Animation trumps live action some times...

I love the animated Dead Cruiser video with its plethora of allusions to all things 80's: Sega's Out Run, Risky Business, Terminator, Akira, Miami Vice, and much more all bundled into one visually splendid video.  Somehow, when they made the new Kavinsky video in live action, the cost of shooting a period car chase live action really limits the plot development, and it's a lot less interesting despite the pleasure of seeing a Testarossa in the flesh.  Also, the fact that the anemic Mustang cop car can even keep up with the Flat 12 Testarossa is sort of laughable...

I've got a Crush...

...on this Ferrari 308 GTB Group 4 rally car.  It looks sensational from every angle!

Friday Moment of Zen

The carrozzerie of the 60s and 70s had a certain formula for publicity photos.  Usually the car was parked in a gravel quarry or in front of a modernist building and a chick in an outlandish outfit is draped over the car. Here is an example par excellence submitted by our friend Off Camber.

The car is the 1969 Ferrari 512S Berlinetta Speciale by Pininfarina.