If you are like me you have probably seen Lego building blocks used to make a variety of things. This week I came across a video of a Lego V8 Engine that someone created. What makes this Lego V8 Engine different is that it spins at 1440 rpm!
On a post from Make, it says that it took 4-5 months to make and it is not part of a Lego set. Some very nice images of the engine can be found on Brickshelf Gallery.
Hey, what can I say! I was part of that generation that grew up with Hot Wheels from the very beginning. Still to this day, I usually make my way through the stores to see what’s new in the diecast section of the toy departments.
Some people really know their Hot Wheels models and which ones are the best to collect. I usually just get the ones I like.
My interest got renewed in Hot Wheels some years ago when our daughter started growing up. Like many fathers with a little one, you end up walking and looking at all the toys in the toy department. I remember telling her about having Hot Wheels when I grew up and how I liked to play with them. After that she started getting into Hot Wheels and now we both can usually be found looking at diecast toys on the weekends.
I thought I would post for you a few of my latest finds.
Purple Passion is one of the small 1:87 Hot Wheels. It was given to me as a birthday gift from my wife and daughter. These small Hot Wheels are more expensive than the regular ones so they knew I would not have bought it for myself.
The ’40 Ford is one that caught my eye. A purple convertible with flames, how could you not like it?
I found more 1:87 Hot Wheels on clearance at Walmart the other day, so I picked up one of each they had left.
This one was handed to me by another Hot Wheels fan scanning the display. It was one of those situations where I thought I had seen all that were displayed and then this guy hands me this one and says, “Do you have this one?” I don’t know who you were, but thanks!!
Have you ever seen one of those Hot Wheels mystery packs were you couldn’t see the car you are getting? My daughter wanted to get me one for my birthday and this is what came inside the one she got for me. It looks like Hot Wheels has new approach to a Hybrid vehicle.
Hope you liked these!!
What diecast are you interested in?
When the Tata Nano hit the scene as the “world’s cheapest car,” most people shrugged it off as basic transportation. I didn’t. I saw a tiny blank canvas begging for attitude. This project started as a simple “what if?” — what if you treated the Nano like a legit custom build instead of an economy box?
These Tata Nano concept art pieces push that idea all the way: lowered stance, wide wheels, bold paint, and a little hot-rod swagger. Whether you’re a die-cast collector hunting for Hot Wheels-style Tata Nano ideas or just someone who loves micro-car mods, this is my take on the Nano’s hidden potential.
If you’ve never seen a Nano treated like a custom project, you’re in for something different. This series started as a fun design exercise and turned into a full set of illustrations exploring how far you can push a car that was never meant to be “performance anything.” Below are the final renderings from that experiment.
Here’s a bit more about how I approached the design work:
When I first started sketching these, my goal was to keep the Nano recognizable while still giving it some attitude. Since it was a brand-new model at the time, I didn’t want to go overboard with body mods and lose the shape that made it unique. So I focused on custom paint, wider wheels, a lowered stance, and a few subtle tweaks — like the front-end change on the orange and black version between the fog lights. It was just enough to hint at performance without turning it into something unidentifiable.
So you might ask, why create concept art of what is being called the world’s cheapest car? Well, I remember reading that the spirit of hot rodding is to take what has been manufactured from the car companies and in one way or the other, improve it. It seems that you can take almost any model ever made and find one that has been modified, so why not the Nano?
Below is more information about the Nano from TATA’s website.
“The Nano is rear-wheel drive and it has an all-aluminum, two-cylinder engine. Its tailpipe emission performance exceeds regulatory requirements and in terms of overall pollutants, it has a lower pollution level than two-wheelers being manufactured in India today. The name ‘Nano’ was chosen as it denotes high technology and small size.”
Working on the Nano was one of those projects that reminded me why I love concept art in the first place — taking something ordinary and imagining what it could be with the right mix of creativity and car-culture attitude. If you enjoyed this little experiment, feel free to explore more of my custom car illustrations or let me know what other models you’d like to see reimagined. There’s no shortage of overlooked cars out there waiting for a second life on the sketchpad.
The winner of the free poster giveaway for August 2008 comes from Toronto, Ontario. The artwork they picked to win is the 1966 Mustang Shelby.
Win some Horsepower to put on your walls! I give away a free 11 x 14 poster every month, so enter my free poster giveaway today!!
Have you ever been to a Woodward Dream Cruise? I would sure like to go one day. The Woodward Dream Cruise is the world’s largest one-day automotive event. Each year they get around 40,000 classic cars from around the world.
I came across these interesting photo gallery collections from Autoblog.com of this year’s event. The images are put together by subject titles. Each image includes a hires version so you can see more detail. Take a look and let me know what you think.
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.
Just like the previous post about following along with the chase scene in Bullitt, now you also follow along with one of the chase scenes in Smokey and the Bandit.
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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.
What is your favorite movie chase scene?
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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.
The winner of the free poster giveaway for July 2008 comes from South Ozone Park, NY. The artwork they picked to win is the 1969 Camaro Pace Car.
Win some Horsepower to put on your walls! I give away a free 11 x 14 poster every month, so enter my free poster giveaway today!!
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?
