I built this car for a customer a few years ago- but I feel it has many styling points that are not common on too many old cars. Although an American classic and also-BEING OFF TOPIC-cause it is built as a STRod,Here is a car that even with its four doors reeks of art Deco styling cues,and swoopy sleek shapes[ALL STOCK]. ['34 DODGE BRO'S -TOWN BROUGHAM -LWB.] Excuse the deuce bumpers and American wheels....
I've seen a lot of hot rods and customs so lately I find myself looking elsewhere for inspiration... Like everybody else it seems... The Blue Train...
There is nothing more inspiring to me than the fit and finnish of Miller race cars... The attention to detail makes even today's indy/F-1 cars look hap-hazard in comparison... The V16 The Novi
Kilroy ...this looks like it's from the same family. The upostered body and the front mount blower are a match. Clark
When other HAMBers inspire me... It kinda PISSES ME OFF!!! I think, "WHy the fuck can't I finnish anything?!!!" Rolf... SUHRsc... And of course Cole...
To take this away from cars (Which is what I think Ryan kinda intended)... Vintage Ranges... Trains...
I'm building a late 1940's vintage home-built sprint car, of the type that were running in the midwest just after WWII. There are these great cars built by guys just returning from the service, or just coming of age after the war, at a time when the great and terrible war machine-industry had accelerated all things mechanical. So you've got these guys, full of speed and machine age dreams, but they had to build the cars from whatever they could get their hands on, and five years had passed with no new street material from Detroit. I think it's some of the most interesting years in racing and hotrodding. I was thinking that an Oliver or Cockshutt tractor grille and hood would make a kick ass race car sheet metal, and then I see some guy has already done it, probably many times, truth be known. Check these out:
Sorry, couldn't resist, check out these Cockshutts. Beautiful lines baby, designed for plowing at 100 miles an hour. I HAVE to build a Cockshutt racecar someday.
Hey, Clark... I wasn't ignoring your reply I just hoped more people would hop on this one that knew something about Bentleys... I found a website associated with the Concourse de elegance, that had the Bentleys catagorized into classes and all the upholstered, race inspired looking, Bentleys were in the same class... Most looked like the one you posted with no roof and reletively sparse appointments... I think the "Blue Train" might be something unique. But I really have no idea... Anybody gots the 411 YO?!!!
Neat Tractor, Rushin' You related in any way to any Klistoffs? I know they ain't Mennonite's (Molokin) but I just thought I'd ask... Wife's family.
You related in any way to any Klistoffs? Not that I know of, but we're probably all related somehow...
Old lathes, mills, and machine tools from back-in-the-day would be inspiring, too. Factory equipment had more style back then. Hey, I just posted some stuff from an amazing tour of Moal's in Oakland. The boat tail and cycle were pretty cool. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=115705 And here's a great place to look at old new orleans factory machines... http://louisdl.louislibraries.org/CCA/Pages/home.html For example, the attached funky cast candy machine and riveted kettle.
Hey, The " Blue Train" Bentley was built in 1930 for Bentley Boy Woolf Barnato. Built on eleven foot eight and a half inch chassis, with a six and a half litre engine the body, by coachbuilder Gurney Nutting Co. Ltd. was of Weymann construction- think wooden frame with vinyl top-like material for covering. The "Blue Train" handel came when the owner , Barnato raced the real blue train, in France and arrived at the destination before the train would have made it, had he rode it instead. Swankey Devils C.C.
cleatus - here's a start in your quest - the '42 Buick that rolled off the line in Sept. of '41. The text would indicate that there was probably a "minor" American car that had the same styling, previous to the Cadillac built for the Duke of Windsor. I couldn't find any pictures of "The Duchess" in the reference book, "GM - The First 75 Years Of Transportation Products". At least this will give you the GM entry. Mutt
Vintage toasters... http://www.jitterbuzz.com/indtoa.html Almost anything by Victor Schrekengost... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Schreckengost http://www.viktorschreckengost.com/ http://www.viktorschreckengost.org/Gallery/vgt_gallery_view/66 Bently stuff, too... http://www.bdc-texas.org/bentleys-for-sale/list.php **Lots of great photos -- just click on the car you like and the "MORE PICTURES OF THIS CAR" button.
I always thought the little tiny finger shifters were cool as hell in these cars. See the little chrome job next to the steering column? (not the levers in the dash)
Hey, those Cockshutts, believe it or not, flow realy nice as far as the front of it is concerned. I really like the top swooping grille on those. A roadster on the salt done in this fashion would be smart.
Launched at the 1947 Milan Coachbuilders Show, the Pinin Farina Coupe bodied Cisitalia revolutionised car design. Compared to the pre-War bodies, the Cisitalia coupe was a lot lower and especially the lights mounted in the fenders set new standards. In 1951 one of the Pinin Farina Coupes was displayed in the New York Museum for Modern Art as an example of a 'mobile sculpture'.
Thanks Mutt, I didn't realize GM had come out with that body style quite that early. I previously thought that was done when they finally got back into post-war production. Learn sumpin every day...
Ok- Blackhawk museum on fathers day. Great way to spend some time with the family. Alfa Romeo B.A.T. protos. Fins are in... Big red is Caddy based. Hammered silver hunting auto-built for Indian Maharaja. Snakes are horns. Flying stork (red) hammered into hood sides for a WWI ace. Enjoy the inspiration.
Something just struck me about this... Don't these two look like Brothas from Anotha Motha or something... It's like there's a kindred spirit within them.
I was looking through an "Intersection" magazine at the local book barn a month or so ago and came across the Snidley Whiplash of car designers, Luigi Colani, and his Horch Mega Roadster concept. Most of the proportions are out of whack, but I thought the hood ornament design was good idea (in theory) for a crowd stopper, it's way too big. Kind of like the "skeleton holding onto the headlight ring" they sell for MCs, but more integrated AND it has boobies! Yeah boobies!! 2002 and newer HD turn lights and a chrome-plated, hand whittled chunk of brass bar and you'd be in business.
I was looking for a pic of the Blue Train Bentley when your post came up. The details on this car are terrific: the chopped roof which curves to the back, the trunk, the wings, the big slanted louvers, the fabric body. Gurney Nutting is my favorite British coachbuilder. According to Bentley lore, the first owner, Woolf Barnato, sketched the car on the back of an envelope, handed it to the Gurney Nutting folks and told them to get on with it!