Category Archives: Design

You gotta make it look good as well as go fast because being well rounded is important.

Kei Miura of TRA Kyoto

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Kei Miura is the mastermind behind the T.R.A.-Kyoto design company. Miura works with other aero tuning companies to produce body kits for many Japanese cars as well as his own notable Rocket Bunny and 6666 lines for the Nissan S-Chassis cars. Crank and Piston got an inside look at his operation and his latest creation, the Rocket Bunny Scion FR-S. Miura designs kits by laser scanning the cars and then CAD modeling them. From there he uses a CNC machine to cut the molds for the fiberglass reinforced plastic (FRP) parts from foam.


crankandpiston.com // TRA Kyoto & The Rocket Bunny from Maiham-Media.com on Vimeo.

Jay Leno Visits the Nissan Technical Center

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Jay Leno lets us in on some of his VIP treatment by bringing his camera crew along with him on his recent trip to Nissan’s Technical Center in Japan to film these two videos. In the first video he gets to tour all of Nissan’s zero emissions and fuel cell vehicles. Jay checks out some of the electric vehicle concepts and then he gets a pleasant surprise from Nissan’s Chief Creative Officer, Shiro Nakamura, who gives him a sneak peek of the Terra fuel cell compact SUV that was debuted last week at the Paris Auto Show. Unlike some of the quirkier cars in the room, the Terra actually looks like it could go into production. I’m glad to see zero emissions vehicles starting to branch out into markets beyond funny looking compact cars.


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BMW Art Car Collection – evo TV

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Henry Catchpole of evo walks us through the BMW Art Car Collection that was gathered in London as part of BMW’s sponsorship of the Olympics. It turns out he got his start writing for the automotive industry after doing his philosophy and art history dissertation on this collection of Art Cars so there are few people who make a better guide. Evo also has an accompanying gallery of the cars here.


Source: evo TV on YouTube

The Holden Efijy Concept

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Top Gear Australia did this bit about the Holden Efijy concept car from 2005. Holden of Australia built it to mark the 50th anniversary of their FJ and it looks absolutely stunning. As the guys point out, it’s special because Holden got to showcase their design chops with no budget constraints. The result is art as defined by something universally beautiful to people regardless of their background or preconceived notions. The body is built on a Corvette chassis with the Corvette’s 6.0 liter V8 and an Australian supercharger.


Source: YouTube user TVR161