Smokey and the Bandit is one of my all time favorite movies. I must have seen this movie over thirty times.
It came out about the time me and my friends were getting our drivers license, so needless to say it make a big impression on us. Still to this day there are certain phrases in the movie that always come to mind whenever someone says something to trigger them.
There are a lot of chase scenes I like, but none more than the chase scene in the movie Bullitt. I first remember seeing Bullitt late at night when CBS use to have late-night weekend movies. I remember staying up, watching movies and drawing cars.
Have you ever wondered where they drove at exactly in the movie?
Well, I found this cool movie that has the famous Steve McQueen Bullitt chase scene matched up with Google Maps. While you watch the chase scene the Google Map follows the same streets they drove in the movie.
In creating automotive art, I have had the opportunity to meet some interesting people. One of these people is Steve Lyman. Steve is the person you see driving the SRT-10 in the artwork I did for Sport Truck Magazine.
Sport Truck presented this artwork to Steve as an award, when he was at Chrysler. It is the first time that Sport Truck Magazine presented a “Performance Truck of the Year” award.
Recently Steve emailed me to catch up and to let me know what he is doing now. He has since retired from Chrysler and is now Founder and President of All American Dynamics, LLC.
I found it really interesting reading about his background from his web site. Steve has had positions such as vehicle development engineer, test driver, vehicle dynamics department manager, vehicle dynamics specialist, and vehicle dynamics executive consultant. As if this wasn’t impressive enough, he has also led the chassis development programs for vehicles such as the Chrysler ME Four-Twelve Supercar, Dodge Viper SRT-10, Dodge Ram SRT-10, Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT-8, Dodge Ram T-REX 6X6, Plymouth Prowler, Jeep Wrangler TJ, and Jeep Grand Cherokee ZJ. He is also an owner/driver of enduro and sprint karts, midgets, and open wheel formula cars.
On his web site his company offers a lot of different services and the last one listed is Driver Coaching. The reason I pointed this out is that Steve has some videos listed on his site and one of them has him driving around this test track. Test track driving is a skill in itself but what I found so interesting is that Steve keeps calmly talking through the whole run. I know I would have stopped talking to focus on driving after “GO”. Watch the video below to see it for yourself.
Now that’s what I call skill!!! If that is any indicator of the Driver Coach lessons, you can imagine the level of expertise on his other services.
Steve also has on his site this cool video of the SRT-10 going through the motions on a performance track.
Steve tells me that the print I did for Sport Truck Magazine continues to hang in the SRT main conference room in Auburn Hills, along with the many of trophies and framed magazine covers that SRT has received over recent years.
See Steve’s new business named All American Dynamics, LLC at www.allamericandynamicsllc.com.
I ran across this video of someone drawing a Mustang the other day and thought what a great way to promote your artwork. Of course, the artist isn’t actually drawing that fast. What they are doing is drawing at normal speed and then playing it back really fast.
I found out that this artwork took 13 hours to do and was done by pencil artist Eivind Josefsen from Norway. He has a site called Drawing Studio where he has other drawings and tutorials.
Video is something I am interested in doing. Have you seen any other automotive drawing videos like this or maybe you have done one yourself?
He asks 10 easy “mini interview” questions about you and your automotive preferences. It is amazing what 10 simple questions can tell you about yourself and other people.
Being a car guy myself and into automotive art, I was happy to do it. Want to know more about me? Then take a look at my “mini interview”.
If you aren’t using Twitter yet, stop by there to see what the buzz is all about. Afterwards stop by TweetandGreet.com and fill out a “mini interview” yourself. Eric is looking for clever and witty responses, so have fun with it.
Don’t forget to drop back here and post a link to your mini interview so I can find out more about you too!
This is artwork I created of a 1949 Cadillac Series 62 two-door Club Coupe, also called a Sedanette. I started this piece at home, but ended up doing most of the vector line art while traveling on the road in California.
The Cadillac Sedanette is a beautiful car with a striking fastback body design. This fastback design is what inspired me and so naturally it became the focal point of the piece. Below are some various images to show you some of the detail.
Some interesting facts about the 1949 Cadillac Club Coupe is that about 7,515 were made and they sold for $2,966 each. Maximum speed was 100 mph and gas mileage around 12 to 20 miles per gallon. The Cadillac Motor Division was given Motor Trend’s first “Car of the Year” award in 1949. Another interesting item is that the gas filler on these cars are hidden under left tail light.
Due to the long low look of these cars, they make great subjects for customizing. Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top used a 1949 Cadillac Club Coupe for his customized car called “CadZZilla”. You can see CadZZilla near the end of the “Double-Back” video below, from the movie “Back to the Future 3”.
