If It's Hip, It's Here (Archives): classic cars

Showing posts with label classic cars. Show all posts

Prada Revvs Up Their New Collection & Ad Campaign With Vintage Automobiles.

The Women's Spring Summer 2012 ready to wear collection for Prada didn't strut down the catwalk, it drove.

It's Mean. It's Green. And it's modeled on one of the original die-cast Hot Wheels from 1968. The Chevrolet Camaro Hot Wheels Concept Car, unveiled at the 2011 SEMA show re-creates one of the original Mattel toy car designs from 1968.

above: the original Custom Camaros from Hot Wheels and below: A reissue of the 1968 Classic Custom Camaro Hot Wheels toy.

Inspired by the “Custom Camaro” – the dazzling Spectraflame 1:64-scale toy was part of the original 16 Hot Wheels cars released by Mattel in 1968. The project was a collaborative effort between the General Motors Design studio in Michigan and the Hot Wheels Design studio in California.

The bright green electroluminescent paint was applied by four painters with spray guns while the body of the 2012 coupe rotated on a rotisserie. The result is a chrome finish with ionized metal tinted green like the original Spectraflame finish on the toy.

The reflective finish was created using Gold Touch Inc.’s Cosmichrome product, starting with the application of a primer coat on an immaculately prepared surface. The primer coat was then sprayed with a liquid-metal solution to create the mirror-smooth, silver-chrome base coat. Afterward, the green tint was applied in several layers until the just-right color effect was achieved.

Here are the concept sketches:

The actual car revealed at SEMA (with an appropriate set design):

The interior:

and the original Hot Wheels Custom Camaro die-cast toy car:

And the new commemorative collector's model of the 2011 Hot Wheels Chevrolet Camaro Concept:

Hot Wheels will offer the above collector’s edition 1:64-scale model based on the full-size Concept. Purchase information is available at www.hotwheelscollectors.com, as well as the Hot Wheels and Chevrolet Camaro Facebook pages.

It will be the 18th 1:64-scale Hot Wheels Camaro model produced since 1968, all with a variety of colors and configurations. During the past 44 years, literally millions of Hot Wheels Camaro models have been produced.

The original Custom Camaro from 1968 remains one of the most valuable Hot Wheels toys among collectors. That year, Hot Wheels produced all the Custom Camaro models with Spectraflame paint – except for one version in white enamel.

Today, examples of the Spectraflame Custom Camaro in excellent condition can sell for $150 or more. Only 15 white enamel versions are known to exist, and none are in their original packages.

“The value of a white enamel Custom Camaro is upwards of $3,000,” said Holst. “But if one still existed in the package, the value could be tens of thousands of dollars.”

“The Camaro has been a mainstay in the Hot Wheels lineup since 1968,” said Phil Zak, GM design director. “Several generations of car enthusiasts grew up playing with Hot Wheels Camaros, while dreaming of driving the real thing, so this was a once-in a-lifetime opportunity to make that dream a reality.”

Power for the Chevrolet Camaro Hot Wheels Concept comes from an all-aluminum 6.2 liter LS3 V-8 mated to a Tremec TR6060 6-speed manual transmission.

Chevrolet Camaro Hot Wheels Concept features include:

Over Chrome Green paint with ghosted Hot Wheels logo on the quarter panels
Satin black ground effects (splitter, rocker and rear fascia-side extensions)
Satin black wheels with milled face and Torch Red stripe: 20×10-inch (front) and 20×11-inch (rear)
ZL1 grille with Hot Wheels badging
Hot Wheels badge on the decklid
Euro-style taillamps with new inner smoked lens
Euro-style rear fascia with new diffuser and exhaust bezels
ZL1 rear spoiler
Chevrolet Accessories Modified Satin Black Stripe
Black aluminum “CAMARO” fender badges with milled face
Black aluminum hood insert with milled hood vent extractors
Chevrolet Accessories Synergy Series gill decals
Black leather IP and door inserts with Torch Red accents, and cut-and-sew flames
Hot Wheels sill plates
Hot Wheels cut-and-sew embroidered logos in the front seatbacks
Chevrolet Accessories pedal kit
Chevrolet Accessories footwell and cup holder lighting (red)
Brembo brakes: six-piston front with two-piece rotors and four-piston calipers (Chevrolet Official Licensed Product)
Suspension lowering kit by Pedders (Chevrolet Official Licensed Product)
Chevrolet Accessories strut tower brace
Chevrolet Accessories black engine cover
Chevrolet Accessories exhaust system

images and info from GM.com, EMGcartech and CarBodyDesign

Auto Erotica: Classic American Cars & Sexy Poses In The 2011 Miss Tuning Calendar.

I'm know I'm behind on sharing some of the best 2011 wall calendars with my readers, so I hope you'll forgive me for the delay. One of the most coveted art photography calendars, which most of you have probably not yet seen despite the fact that we are 1/4 through the year, features a hot chick and hot wheels.... Tuning World's 2011 Miss Tuning Calendar.

n2a [No Two Alike] Motors Inc. in Corona, California is producing a series of cars to appeal to the true Chevrolet enthusiast who wants to relive the 1950's styling or visit this era for the first time.

above: Jeff Koons' concept art for the car

The New York Times announced yesterday that the next BMW art car, a long standing tradition, will be done by contemporary artist Jeff Koons.
View Koon's finished BMW Art Car here.

Koon’s relationship with BMW started more than two decades ago when he first drove a BMW whilst living in Munich, home to the BMW Group headquarters. It was in 2003 that Koons first expressed his desire to create a BMW Art Car.

Frank-Peter Arndt, member of the Board of Management for the BMW AG and responsible for BMW Group’s international cultural formats, said: “We are enormously pleased about Jeff Koons’ eagerly anticipated contribution to the BMW Art Car series, celebrating its 35th anniversary. Art Cars are part of the DNA of BMW’s cultural engagement. As manifested in Koons’ latest sculptural work, what unites us is the belief that nothing is impossible. Our company and Jeff Koons are drawn to permanent innovation and cutting-edge technology.”

above: Jeff Koons (right)with celebrated architect Richard Meier (left) at the party celebrating the announcement that Jeff Koons will create the 17th BMW Art Car at Koons‘ Manhattan studio, Tuesday, February 2, 2010.

It's fairly well known that BMW has commissioned 16 Art Cars over the last four decades. The cars have toured museums around the world, including the Louvre in Paris, the Royal Academy in London, the Whitney Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Palazzo Grassi in Venice, the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney and at the Guggenheim museums in New York and Bilbao.

Four of them, by the artists Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Frank Stella and Robert Rauschenberg, appeared at Grand Central Terminal in New York for two weeks in March of 2009. Those pieces (shown below) are part of a collection of 16 cars, from a 635CSi to an M1, that BMW has turned over to artists to re-imagine since 1975.

Andy Warhol, BMW M1 Group 4 Race Version, 1979:

Roy Lichtenstein, BMW 320i Group 5 Race Version, 1977:

Frank Stella, BMW 3.0 CSL, 1976:

Robert Rauschenberg, BMW 635 CSi, 1986:

Here are the other 12.

Alexander Calder, 3.0CSL, 1975. One of Calder’s last works, his BMW Art Car competed in the 1975 24 Hours of Le Mans:

Ernest Fuchs, 635CSi, 1982. He said his piece “represents a hare racing across a motorway at night and leaping over a burning car.”:

Ken Done, M3 Group A racing model, 1989. Along with Michael Jagamara Nelson, Mr. Done was one of two Australian artists commissioned by BMW in 1989. He painted parrots and parrot fish on his car:

Michael Jagamara Nelson, M3 Group A racing model, 1989. Using a style derived from traditional Aboriginal painting, Mr. Nelson’s work portrays a landscape as seen from the sky:

Matazo Kayama, 535i, 1990. Mr. Kayama used Japanese techniques of foil impression and metal cutting over an airbrushed surface:

Cesar Manrique, 730i, 1990. The Spanish artist and architect said he wanted his car “to appear as if it were gliding through space without encountering any form of resistance.”:

Esther Mahlangu, 525i, 1991. She painted her car in the traditional form of the Ndebele tribe of South Africa:

A. R. Penck, Z1, 1991. The German artist covered his car with pictographic images and symbols in a design that evokes primitive cave paintings:

Sandro Chia, M3 GTR, 1992. “Look at anything hard enough and it turns into a face,” said this Italian painter and sculptor of his Art Car. “And a face is a focal point of life and of the world.”:

David Hockney, 850CSi, 1995. His design offers an “inside” view of the car, including renderings of the intake manifolds painted on the hood:

Jenny Holzer, V12 LMR, 1999. Her Le Mans Roadster includes aphorisms like “The Unattainable Is Invariably Attractive.”:

above Left: David Hockney painting Art Car 1995, BMW 850 CSi; above right: Jenny Holzer signing Art Car 1999, BMW V12 LMR

The final and 16th art car of the series thus far; Olafur Eliasson, H2R, 2007. He turned BMW’s hydrogen-powered race car into an Art Car on ice (this one has to be kept in a refrigerated room, for obvious reasons):

The Process - Installation view Studio Olafur Eliasson, Commissioned by BMW Group:

© Olafur Eliasson and BMW Group

special thanks to BMW, Dezeen and Car Body Design and The Curated Object for additional images. and to the Los Angeles Times and Robert Peele for additional info.

Miniature replicas of all of these cars (except for the Olafur Eliasson one) are available for purchase here.

See Jeff Koons finished version of the BMW Art Car here