The Beast is Back in Brooklyn

Sorry fellow Automobiliacs for the lack of new posts this week.  I have been travelling, and also sick! But on the bright side, I am happy to report that my Alfa successfully fired up on the second crank after 6 months of sitting in my brother's garage in Maryland, and drove home to New York with no problems.  It's back in Brooklyn now, ready to begin the 2010 driving season!

Automobiliac Video of the week: Earth Pounding thrills in the McLaren M6B

Driver Gary Sheehan has posted some awesome driving videos on Youtube. The best are those of him driving the ex Jo Bonnier 1968 McLaren M6B Can Am car.  Here are two favorites:

In the first video, he laps Laguna Seca in anger with 600hp at his command. In the second he is at Sears Point (Infineon Raceway). The second video is shakier, but it's great because you can watch the throttle linkage rise and fall in the center of the frame, showing you exactly what his right foot is doing!

"Cars, Culture, and the City" Exhibition at the Museum of the City of New York

Last night I had the distinct pleasure of attending the opening of the new exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York.  As its name implies, this new show explores the relationship between the Automobile and the City. On the face of it, one would expect a polemical exhibit that focuses on urban planning crises wrought by the car, and how Robert Moses and his road and bridge building almost destroyed steet life in the city.  But in fact the exhibit avoids these well worn themes, and should be really edifying to the casual visitor because it reveals and celebrates the fact that until the decay of the 70s, the city's relationship with the automobile had many positive aspects, and that in fact New York offered many far-reaching contributions to car culture across the country. Moses is still presented too, naturally. But he is shown within a larger context which makes the viewer better understand the general optimism and enthusiasm for the car that formed the cultural backdrop for his actions.

For example, the very first auto shows in America were here in New York.  They were held in posh hotels and geared towards the very wealthy who were in the market for bespoke luxury automobiles -- usually chauffer driven. It was a far cry from the uniform black GMC Yukons that convey the wealthy and powerful around Manhattan today.  As the mass produced automobile became a commercial reality, the first real auto show for the masses was also held in New York.  It was GM's Futurama at the 1939 World's Fair. The Motorama changed the auto show from an elite event into the mass spectacle that it is today. And it all happened right here!  The exhibit has some really wonderful artifacts and ephemera from the Motorama, as well as period footage of the event. The exhibit also covers, among other things, the Vanderbilt Cup races held on Long Island, which were the premier racing events held in the United States nearly a decade before the Indy 500 even existed.  There were also many fascinating renderings of urban planning proposals for car-oriented architecture.  A Paul Rudolph proposal for a multi-use complex built over the approach to the Williamsburg bridge leaves one breathless with its MC Escher-esque complexity.

This historical, political, and cultural survey flows across two large rooms filled with original artwork, drawings, models, and ephemera that are truly rare and special to see.  There was so much great eye candy, my photos don't really come close to doing it justice, even though it is not a large exhibit.

Some selected highlights:

Original Hugh Ferriss drawings I had never before seen, even as reproductions.  Ferriss was a master renderer, used by many major architectural firms in New York to delineate art deco skyscrapers.  Here he envisions a riverside highway that precisely presages what FDR Drive would end up looking like!

This is a design model for a Pontiac concept car from the Bill Mitchell era at General Motors.  The model is stunningly executed, oozing appeal from every angle.  Truly a treat.

Original Frank Lloyd Wright drawing for the showroom of Max Hoffman's Manhattan auto dealership.  But Hoffman was not just some car dealer.  Hoffman was to cars what Murray Moss is to the world of high design: a tastemaker who brought the best of Europe's offerings to a sophisticated New York audience.  Hoffman was the first to import the VW Beetle to the United States.  He was first to import BMW's here, and also was the sole importer for Porsche and Jaguar in the 1950s and 60s.  In short, Hoffman was a critical conduit through which European sports cars reached our shores, and his influence on the sports car market can't be overstated.

Original period model for Norman Bel Geddes' ideal automobile, known as Motor Car no. 9.  Bel Geddes was not only a New York based Industrial Designer and one of the founding fathers of the field, but he was also the master planner of the GM Futurama exhibition.

Check out the rest of my photos here!

The Exhibition runs through August 8th.  Worth the trip up to see it!!

Museum of the City of New York is located at 103rd Street and 5th Ave.

Dome P2: Japan's late 70s Dream Machine

When I was a kid, I had a really cool motorized "pushback" toy based on this car. I didn't really know anything about it until I recently bought a book about concept cars and saw these photos. I did some web research and found out that my little pushback toy had more to do with this car than I had thought.  But I'll get to that in a moment.  The story begins with the Dome-Zero, which was a concept car program started in 1976 and unveiled at the 1978 Geneva Motor Show.  In creating this car, Dome (when written in Japanese, it means "A Child's Dream") was trying to attract attention and funding to their company which was primarily concerned with racing car development.  By creating a sleek, wedge-like body to rival those coming out of the hallowed studios of Italy, the Osaka-based team figured they could make the world take notice during a period in which Japan was not known for leading-edge car design.  According to the company's website, a crack team of the best car designers and engineers in Japan were assembled and spent the following 2 years working on the Dome-Zero night and day.  The men rented rooms near the workspace and rarely visited them other than for bathing.  The website seems to take a particularly perverse pride in mentioning that while 4 of these workaholics were married at the outset of the project, all of their wives had left them by the time the prototype was complete!

As a reward for the team's sacrifices, the car received sensational press coverage, which only increased with the debut of the P2 in Los Angeles the following year. Hailed as "Japan's Countach" and featured on covers of magazines in many countries, the Dome-Zero and P2 really caught the imagination of the motoring press.  As a result of this tsunami of coverage, Dome was approached by a toy manufacturer that wanted to make miniatures of the cars. As they were negotiating this deal, another toy company approached them.  Then a model company.  Soon, Dome was making enough money in royalties by licensing their designs to toymakers that they were able to build a new headquarters in Kyoto and fund a racing effort at Le Mans! After years of trying to deal with Japanese bureaucracy in putting the Zero and the P2, into road-legal production, the company refocused itself on racing, which it continues to this day. 

So it turns out that my little toy car that I loved so much as a kid (it had flip-up scissor doors and flip up headlights too!) was actually tiny part of the great story of this interesting car. I had never before heard of a car company that thrived thanks to model cars and toys, but it's a business model I can definitely get behind!  Aside from the history, there is another reason I decided to write about the Dome P2:  It is so cool looking! While the exterior is a great expression of late 70's wedge design, and looks futuristic even today, I was really blown away by how contemporary the interior still looks! The hexagonal, faceted language used by the designers ties in perfectly to a lot of what is going on right now in today's new furniture design and car interiors. In particular, the color scheme as well as the steering wheel and shift lever still seem fresh and unique despite being 32 years old! If you'd like more info on Dome and its history, click here to visit their website. I included some pics below showing two examples of Dome-Zero merchandise.

 

Alberto Ascari wannabe spotted in Soho!

Alberto Ascari may be back from beyond the grave...and he wants attention.

Yesterday there were tons of cool cars out and about on the streets of Manhattan.  But this was by far the most unusual sight of the day.  I tried to find out more info about what this kit car / replicar was online, but to no avail.  So All I can say is it appears to have a 4 cylinder powerplant, and seems to be like a 3/4 scale replica of an early 50s Ferrari Grand Prix or F2 car.  It was certainly a cool toy, and very loud.  The guy behind the wheel was grinning for all the iphone cameras that greeted him at each stop light on Spring Street.  Clearly the guy craves attention.  Why else would you risk being squashed by a cab in order to drive a fancy go-kart on the streets of Manhattan?  But hey, I give the guy one bit of credit.  He's clearly doing it for the fun, because you can't pick up chicks in a monoposto!