car design thread

Interesting that both of the modelers (clay and digital) moved to other companies soon after these videos were made.

 

Went to the page to check it out. Talk about leading edge! He arrived at # 5 Orange a mere 57 years after Frank Costin...

Costin Nathan GT
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I think Colani did the street/fashion versions and Costin did the 'race' versions.....

 

I always thought the Nathan looked like the old Renault and Matra Lemans aero cars. Meaning FRENCH!!

 

Interesting piece on Amelia Earhart's Cord; quite nice photos of a beautiful classic -

https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/amelia-earharts-1937-cord-added-to-the-national-historic-vehicle-register/?hashed_email=9098eb71dbb5872ceda0b64fcb6d9d9fde5cc7cf13e4a1a5eb543a3e1db70b5c


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Mr. Peters Builds his Dream Car >

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Is that an aluminum big block?

 

Yes a Chevrolet Performance ZL1 aluminum cylinder block. The 1969 Corvette was built by the company that builds the COPO Camaro factory race cars for Chevrolet. Tom sourced the original 1959 Sting Ray race car's silver color chip and matched the new paint job to it. Basically it is the 'look' of an old L88 race car with fuel injection added.

 

Was/is the Sting Ray race car'ssilver different from the traditional GM Design silver?

Did they go for an M-22?

 

Jeff the transmission was changed to Tremec TKO 600 5-speed manual. This gave a 2.87:1 first gear and the rear end was (a middle of the road) 3.55:1 ratio.
As I recall GM offered Sebring Silver for the new Sting Ray in 1963. That was as close as they came to the original Sting Ray racer paint color. John's picture conveniently shows the two silvers together!
Even the 1959 racer evolved as it was repainted red for some time.




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Morgan Plus 4 Spiaggina is ready for the Riviera


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You’ll have noticed a return to coachbuilt cars of late - or at least something vaguely like it - with limited-run specials from the likes of Bentley Mulliner and Rolls Royce draping ever more exotic bodies over familiar architecture. Of course it's the logical end game to an era obsessed with personalisation, but it’s also a move that benefits everyone: the manufacturers get to try out new manufacturing techniques (while charging handsomely for the privilege), customers get something incredibly rare for the collection, and the rest of us can argue about whether we like it or not on the internet. Job done.

Now Morgan is on the bandwagon. Seemingly not content with an entire range of cars that simultaneously look like nothing else on the road (as well as Morgans from half a century ago) it’s built this incredible one-off, the Plus 4 Spiaggina. Morgan says it’s ‘inspired by the iconic Riviera beach cars of the 50s and 60s’, which is presumably the vision of a very important Morgan collector that had the idea.

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Where to start? There’s a hand-fabricated aluminium canopy rather than a roof for Spiaggina, which says a lot about its intended use - surely folded away a lot of the time. Speaking of which, the rear seats can tumble down for the full speedboat-style decking, probably a more cohesive look than the bizarre four-seat, big boot arrangement.
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Morgan hasn’t divulged anything about the oily bits of this car, beyond showing off the automatic gearbox. Nobody wants to be messing about with a clutch and stick at the beach, do they? Interestingly, the Facebook post that revealed the car adds that the Spiaggina is derived from the Plus 4 and is ‘built on a version of the well-established steel chassis that underpinned Morgan sports cars for more than 80 years’; this would suggest it doesn’t borrow much from the latest generation of Plus Four, with its aluminium CX platform
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Morgan says the car is built for export, hope to see it near a Riviera or beach club near you soon

 

Yeah, but does it come with shields?

I still can’t believe people will line up to pay half a million dollars for that blob

 

This seems more of a (comparatively) poor man's Raj "shooting brake" -- Stand and deliver so to speak!

Meanwhile this:

 

Thanks for the lesson! Now "I see" said the blind man!

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That's a little unfortunate looking. It makes me wonder if a Morgan had intimate relations with a golf cart and this is the unplanned result.

All the best,
Andrew.

 

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Jay Leno has a good segment on the Duesenberg 20 grand designed by Gordon Buehrig.

I actually met Gordon in Design school at ASU in the mid 70's. Of course, he was quiet old but he came to our class and discussed his design philosophy, showed drawings he made (all in plan view in ink) and discussed his time designing the Cord 810.