Great post Ryan. Thanks for sharing your collection. I could stare at Rex's work for hours. It's cool to see the mechanical bits under the skin of a machine and amazing to see what the guys did back then with what they had to work with.
December 30! Thats the day I will be sitting in the warm water of Mexico waitng on a slow rolling wave myself. We are off to 40 K's South of Cancun for the new year . Oh yeah,,,,and the drawings are nice too. Thanks Ryan.
Rex is a true hero of Hot Rodding. The great thing with his drawings is you can see them evolve from the first in '48 thru to the mid 50s. The details are amazing and have no doubt help restore a few historic hot rods. There is a great feature on Rex Burnett in the September 1998 Street Rodder there is a number of cut-aways displayed & according to the feature he worked for Douglas Aircraft in Tulsa doing assembly instruction drawings during WW2. Rex got his job at Hot Rod by doing the cut-away of the Davis 3 wheel car. The First was in the August 1948 Hot Rod, which was the Pierson '36 3w. Some more
Say what you think Jeff! Seriously though I agree. Consider if you weighed the merits of Rex Burnett's illustrations against those of say Chip Foose. No contest. Those of us who love the functional beauty as well as the technical aspects of Hot Rods will always dig Burnett's "functional" work over meer pretty pictures. Not to mention the "antique aesthetic" of these cut-aways.
It would be neat to blow up his cut aways into wall size murals for the house. I've studied his technique for a long time, I like how he didn't always get the tire tread exactly perfect sometimes. Stuff like that lets you know a human being drew it, not a computer! I love the Eddie Miller cut away the best. Hes a inspiration!
Simply fantastic...I love technical cutaway illustrations. So exact; precise; perfect. Seeing these remind me of the room full of illustrators it took to complete parts and service manuals back in the day or pen and ink. No computers. Here's a cutaway of a Chaparrel I use on occasions for my desktop. Thanks for the great subject Ryan; Merry Christmas to you and yours.
Thanks, Ryan. Rex Burnett's cutaways were one of my favorite elements of HRM in the '50s, along with Tom Medley's 'Stroker McGurk.' I had the good fortune to meet Rex, by chance, at the customer counter of a local photo lab about 15 years ago. He was placing a print order and I was picking up proof sheets for a story I was doing for the old American Rodder magazine. He noticed the subject matter of the sheets and asked if it was for a car magazine. I explained that it was, and he commented that he used to do cutaway drawings for Hot Rod 'many years ago.' "You're Rex Burnett!" I said, rather excitedly. "Yes, I am," he replied, adding that he was a little surprised each time his name and work were recalled so many years after he had quit contributing to HRM. We had a pleasant but short chat during which I learned that he was living at Sea Ranch on the northern Sonoma coast, about an hour-and-a-half drive from Santa Rosa. He talked of the difficulty in getting enough detail information on some of the subject cars, confessing that there were times when he had to rely on an educated guess or two. He's still at Sea Ranch as far as I know. Mike
I love it! I wish there was more info on The City of Pasadena streamliner. I love that car... (well the engine anyways!!)
were ya really in the ocean or just sittin in your own warm pee after too many pain pills for your back...hope its the real thing ... any more history of your artist ? any way drawing is a field i wish i could explore more ... the stuff is in my brain its just difficult to convey it on paper ... keep trying i guess ... does'nt everyone have this brain/idea to hand/paper problem? being blind in my right eye forces me to be a right brainer... where all things are skewed by nature...3D is wasted on me...
What truly amazes me is that all of those were done before CAD, photoshop or any hi-tech methods. True talent, imagination, research and a technical mind... TRULY ART
I knew it, takin' up the banner for Hot Rodders nationwide with the Obama's in Hawaii! Makes perfect sense, just get him to sell the idea of backing off on emissions to the Governator! Yeah, I know, I know, "so goes California, so goes the rest of the nation", What the Fuck ever............................... maybe ask him about credits for burnin' Wille fuel?, or smokin' it
I was also unfamiliar with his work, enjoy reading or seeing anything I can get my hands on car related great post, if you think your toes are numb there come hangout in the foot of snow here with more on the way
Thanks, Ryan, for posting those. What an awesome artist and a great memory jog. I remember as a youngster thinking how cool those were and that hasn't changed.... '22
Ryan I belive Rex passed away this year his son Brian is a car dealer in Los Gatos Ca. he always has great cars for sale, Brian did have Dick Magoo build the Deucarri when he owned Ferrari of Los Gatos years ago and won the Oakland Roadster show with it.. When I asked Brian why his dad had not done a pictorial of his drawings Brian told me that Peterson owned the rights to all the drawings that appered in the magazine, Rex was such a gentleman that he didn't want any crap for Peterson.
Thanks for posting these Ryan, I think I remember seeing some of these pictures, as a wee lad, in old issues of popular mechanics that my grandpa had... There's surf in Texas?
Check with the Gaulala Art Center, Gualala,CA. at 707-884-1138. A couple of years ago they had a display of his work on loan from his wife and some prints were available.
While certainly not in the same league as Rex Burnett, ROAD & TRACK used cutaway profiles for their road test series for years. We developed a series of products sold under an R&T licensing agreement. We had serigraphs, cheap prints, limited edition intaglio engravings and personalized plaques (like the one pictured here). Top sellers were Corvettes, Jags and the DeLorean. R&T paid $350 to a number of different artists for each drawing. I bought an absolutely perfect 1946 Schwinn Springer bike with a Whizzer Conversion from Ferrari of Los Gatos.
Here is a flyer for the rex burnett art show in july----also a rod run is included the week end of jully 18 2008----thought you might be interested.....YOU MUST CLICK ON SMALL REX POSTER BASE PDF
I was not a hamber when Ryan started this thread in December. I joined in January. About 25 years ago I met Brian Burnett when he owned Ferrari of Los Gatos. We were both heavily involved with the resurgence of Muscle Cars especially Factory Lightweights. Brian told me his dad was Rex Burnett but it didn't mean anything to me. I started buying Hot Rod Magazine in the sixties after most of Rex's drawings and now after all these years I finally realize how important Rex was. But in my opinion Brian is equally important if you are a fan of Nostalgia Drag Racing. Brian is the Godfather of Nostalgia Drag Racing. He co-founded the Antique Nationals with Tom Prufer about 30 years ago. Gray Baskerville was covering the Antique Nationals for Hot Rod Magazine and in his coverage coined the term "Nostalgia Nationals". What a perfect name. It stuck. The first one I attended was in Tulsa in '84 I believe. It took me back to the sixties when Fuel Dragsters smoked the tires. Brian owned the restored Mooneyham & Sharp 554 '34 Ford Fuel Coupe which ace driver Jerry Steiner also made smokey runs with. Brian and Tom did not bring the Nostalgia Nationals series to the East Coast. It inspired me to create the Super Stock Reunion in 1985 to give East Coast Nostalgia Drag Racing fans an event of their own. Nostalgia Drag Racing was not profitable for Brian or me and our events faded away many years ago. If you recently attended the GOODGUYS INDY or NHRR BOWLING GREEN you can thank Brian for getting it all started 30 years ago. And if you have ever attended an event that had "Nostalgia Nationals" as it's title or part of the title you can thank Gray Baskerville for that.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNo1U3rSnLg THIS LINK WILL SHOW YOU WHAT FRANK IS TALKING ABOUT----HI FRANK
NO FOOL'IN AROUND----JERRY STEINER AT THE WHEEL-----90%-----GOOD SMOKE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmVWXIHYuuY
MORE NOSTALGIA JUNIOR THOMPSON AND SON A GAS SUPERCHARGED http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCCl9QOMUdU WORLD RECORD NOSTALGIA NATIONALS 1988
The Jalopy Journal
