Christ! What a cool thread. There are so many great inspirational things that influence us. Many of them have already been touched on, but I get off on Miller and Offenhauser cars and engine design, like the Golden Sub and the 97 cubic in. Offy. But cars like the Gurney-Nutting Blue Train are just mechanicaly beautiful. Also racing posters, Arts+Craft furniture and glassware. Man the list is endless.
Rode in this beast, the shop specializes in this brand. Its an early GP car. Like stepping back in time.
I guess I'm inspired by a lot of things, bar stools, tractors, etc. And I'm pretty sure I've posted this picture before. I'm not sure where I snagged it but it resides on my desktop. Whenever I need to remember my life goals or just loose track of who i really am I can give it a quick look and say oh yea I remember where I came from, I've never been involved with this particular car but its just inspirational.
If I remember correctly they claim the church will never be completely finished. The detail is so great and construction time so lengthly that when the last detail is finished, the first detail will need to be restored because it takes so long to finish everything. Geno
This is a great thread. But if so many are into such far reaching "inspirations" how come I see so many cars built to look just like some car from an old magazine using precious "period perfect" (expensive) parts? Just askin... This design is one I did after borrowing a friend's Ducati for a while. My first hot rod love was T-buckets so I wondered why somebody hasn't build them with a sport bike look? It uses a flat 6 Boxster engine and a space frame.
I LIKE THIS THEME i worked at a high end contemporary furniture showroom in the late 70's i handled,delivered ,installed almost all of the before shown furniture.. i do own some of each now too. while at this job the owner a avid hot rodder showed many unique ways to design his cool cars .. he would build a theme/swatch board like interior designers do when redoing a room in a house... it would have photos of like cars it would have fabric,leather ,carpet samples.. the wheel choice ,engine choice pics,color chips a few hunks of chrome and body colored metal.. two of his rods were in the nsra pick top ten 77-80.. also new to me at the time was what we called our" craft lunches ' where he would bring side views of his many car projects on a batch 8x10 photcopied papers.. we could do what we wanted with them color cut and paste so we would try chopping ,channeling , sectioning, lowering, wheel switching ... now common with photshop this seemed radical to me 30 years ago.... this cutting and such is something i have done with old magazine factory car ads ... and stiil do sorry to say this inspirational man died in the early 80's and what ever became of his cars is unknown ... his kids showed 0 interest at the time... at that time i had to be sent home from his/garage shop in the early morning hours because he knew i would be late for work the next morning... he also was the one who invited me to the first "back to the 50's events" here in minn. i bought a cherry 67 ply wagon from him thta his kid refused to drive to college... some cast off high performasnce parts .. cheater slicks and intakes, valve covers, www.. old hot rod mags he was not fond of primered cars (which mine was.. 52 buick riv.)much but did understand the fun and there place in the culture... truely wish he were around to play with my current toy asst. today this thread has brought out some fond memories thank you
Great thread! Want to buy TV that will fit into your 50's or 60's interior? (Anyone else than me trying to build and collect period correct interior..??) http://www.predicta.com/index.shtml
I, for one, draw a lot of inspiration from fire-arms design. They encapsulate and project power under human control. The combination of metal work and finishes along with extreme the form-follows-function of their design seems to directly cross over to what my vision of a hot rod should be. A hot rod should like a gun - detailed, brutal and all business.
Hi Guys. Kool Thread, i have been lurking here for a while and just decided to join so i could post, this is my first. i love the design of this juicer by Philippe Starck i have one in my kitchen, just for show
I have differing intrests when it comes to building stuff... So when I see something inspiring I might not be inspired to build a car. For instance, if I see a piece of furniture I like, I go into 'furniture mode' and start thinking of all the furniture it would be cool to have... Sometimes I'm inspired to build something... Like the pub-table below... I was inspired by the simple-stateliness of a pub table I saw somewhere and decided I had to have one, but couldn't buy it. So I built one out of reclaimed wood... (Attached Pictures) But when I see something mechanical, my mind usually goes into 'car mode' and I try to come up with ways to incorporate it in a current or future project... Hispano-Suiza Motivation = Current motivation A freakishly inspirational H/S vehicle...
architecture. does it for me every time. machines too. but these are some I took last summer in Europe. and a different view of the same thing. love this clock in the square in czech rep. story goes that the creator was made blind by the owner so he couldnt create another. simple coblestones. I have some great photos I shot in south america in 2002 but thier not on digital, the way the incans mated the stone together in their buildings is amazing. Matchu Pitchu is awe inspiring. have always loved this shape..these are my own casting. inside Gaudis cathedral some old photos of its construction
inside the castle in praha they used this room to shoot the movie 'amadasus' second visit. love this castle. you can see the stone masons stamp they left on their carvings. beautiful handle. who says we have better craftsman today. machines dont make everything better.
Now this has strayed into architecture, it probably isn't too off-topic to post this ... I saw a very interesting documentary on the Italian futurist style architecture in Eritrea in North Africa last night. The short version is, that for a brief period in the mid to late thirties, Mussolini took over Eritrea and it became an Italian colony. There was a building boom and a very modern (at the time) civic centre was built. Because of decades of civil war and lack of development, much of this remains today, although a lot is in run-down condition. Here's a couple of pics ...
WOW, I just saw that by accident, that has be the coolest thing anybody ever said about me and my stuff, I'm flattered. Your model is pretty cool. The wheel color is BMW primer btw with a clear, on mine.
I found this on Photobucket. I don't know if its a new creation... something old... or what... but I really dug it. I thought of this thread when I first saw it.
Norwell, other contributors, I seem always to test the waters abit, while not wishing to upset applecarts. The four-banger cars as might be rendhered by the sculptors among us really interested me. I keep looking at the octane formula {c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c} w/a bunch of Hydrogen atoms strung around the perifery. What we need to show the gang, or the rest of the auto-world, is how to make power (fuel-cell?) while doing it efficiently. (IE greater than 30% Imagine having a streamliner rad shell, full hood and sleek finish, that burns cleaner, and yields 50-60 mpg. Suddenly others' realize that we have connected our skills, desires, and visions. I worked on the Hybrid forms, and an electric "Yugo" turned Sungo, 15 years ago now. I think that any effort you would risk. would encourage the "unfolding". Best, JP
You couln't drive it on the freeways here in Houston, if you only go the posted 65 mph, you get ran over!
That makes sense. I wonder how fast, and more importantly, how quick, one of the fuel cell cars would be...
The Jalopy Journal
