Awesome video of a car getting flattened by a rocket.

The November contest winner comes from Portsmouth OH. They chose to win “Froggi” the 1960 Sprite artwork.

Enter today for the December drawing!

This is artwork of the concept car “Seven” from Illuminati Motor Works.
Illuminati is one of 42 teams left competing for $5 million in the Progressive Automobile X Prize.

The rules for the Progressive Automobile X Prize is that the cars must seat four, have four wheels and have a minimum range of 200 miles. They also have to get the equivalent of 100 miles to the gallon plus be feasible as a consumer product.

The Illuminati Motor Works team members are:
Kevin Smith: Team Leader and Principle Engineer,
Josh Spradlin: Graphic Designer/ Fabricator,
Thomas Pasko: Master Automotive Technician,
George Kennedy: Mechanical Engineer
Nathan Knappenburger: Computer Science and Electronics Engineer.

I have been working with Josh, their graphic designer/fabricator, on creating artwork for the project. Josh does a great job at designing. What I have been doing is taking Josh’s sketches and redrawing them using illustrator.

What makes this project a challenge is that the vehicle is so different from anything we currently see on the road. It not like they can say, “Take an existing model and add this or change that”. So when working on a project like this it is great to have someone like Josh who can direct me on what the final car will look like with his sketches.

Below are links to recent articles about them in The State Journal-Register and the Illinois Times.

The State Journal-Register | Springfield, IL
Local guys driven to win $5M car competition

Illinois Times
X PRIZE team passes the test – Illuminati Motor Works is one of 43 left in international competition

Find out more about Illuminati Motor Works at illuminatimotorworks.org

You can also friend/follow them on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

Jason sent me these great photos of a pumpkin he carved using one of the Hot Rod Pumpkin Stencils! He said he used Xacto knives, steak knives and his Dremel tool to complete the job!

Thanks Jason!!

Amazing video of a generator belt “quick change” on a 1967 Volkswagen Beetle!

The October contest winner comes from Fair Haven, MI. They chose to win the “1985 Ferrari 308GTS QV” artwork.

Come on and enter today!

Hey, did you know that when you flip a Dodge Viper logo upside down the viper looks like Daffy Duck’s face? Interesting!

[Via Bits & Pieces]

We are all set for Halloween. Last night we had Pumpkin Pizza from Papa Murphy’s and my wife made Boo Brownies.

Then we all watched Beetlejuice.

Tonight me and my daughter are handing out candy and later we are going to watch “The Wolf Man” with Lon Chaney Jr.

Last weekend we watched the original “Dracula” with Bela Lugosi and “Frankenstein” with Boris Karloff.

Have a Happy Halloween!!

It is interesting to see how logos change over time. I found a site that has a page titled “Car logos evolution“. The page has the changing logos of Mercedes, Renault, Volkswagen, Cadillac, Mitsubushi, Buick, BMW, Ford, Mazda, Fiat, Audi, Alfa Romeo and Peugeot.

The Cadillac logos on the page only covers the actual coat of arms to the first trademarked logo. Here is an image that covers the Cadillac logos form 1902 – 1999. Just this month Cadillac rolled out an updated logo design.

Who knew you could drift a Smart fortwo?

Smart Car Drifting in Japan