Category Archives: Design

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

The Quail 2012 – evo Diaries

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The Quail show at Pebble Beach is probably one of the most exclusive car shows in the world. Tickets are $500 and the show takes place during Pebble Weekend before the RM Auctions. Harry Metcalfe of evo Magazine brought a camera along with him for this year’s show so we could see what it was all about. Highlights include what will probably be the only public appearance of the McLaren X-1, the factory built one-off custom based on the MP4-12C. Dodge brought out the new Viper and Lamborghini showed up with their new SUV concept and the Sesto Elemento (Italian for “6th Element” which is Carbon). A train of Shelby Cobras got a police escort from Laguna Seca where they were participating in the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion. That’s just the tip of the iceberg in terms of describing all the cars that were there.


Source: evo TV on YouTube

Evolution of the F1 Car – Rufus Blackrock Animation Design

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Sometimes it’s the simple things that are the most beautiful. Case in point: this video shows the evolution of F1 cars, engines and steering wheels from 1950-2012 in kind of a Tron silhouette style.


Evolution of the F1 Car from Ruf Blacklock on Vimeo.

The artist has also produced a few interesting infographics to go along with this series:

F1 Evolution Timeline at Monza via Rufus Blackrock Animation Design

F1 Steering Wheel Evolution via Rufus Blackrock Animation Design

Source: Rufus Blackrock Animation Design

BMW Zagato Coupe

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BMW teamed up with Italian design house Zagato to create a premium version of the Z4 for the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este in Northern Italy. All of the body work is made of aluminum panels hand welded together and formed by the metal craftsmen at Zagato. The paint starts with a black primer which is then layered with a non-metallic silver before the red paint is applied and finished with an orange tint.

The first video tells the story behind the partnership and idea of the Zagato coupe.


The second video shows some footage of the aluminum body work being formed and the paint being applied.


Head over to Autoblog to see a high resolution gallery of the car.

Source: BMW Group on YouTube

Icon 4×4 Builds Incredible Resto-Mods

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It makes me happy to know that a company like Icon can exist and be profitable. The core of their business is to take vintage 4×4’s like the FJ40 Landcruiser, Jeeps and Ford Broncos and turn them into usable drivers with modern running gear. They will scavenge vintage bodies and put them on a modern chassis with new suspension and a new crate engine. Icon have also started to use new aluminum reproduction bodies from Aqualu Industries. Autoblog just posted this mini-documentary on Icon’s latest Bronco project. The restored body sits on an Art Morrison frame with Dana axles and Ford’s new Coyote crate engine (the 5.0 V8 from the Mustang).


Source: Autoblog, Icon 4×4

Icon has also done a couple of awesome cars as part of their Derelict line. The same premise applies to these cars except for the bodies are purposefully left unrestored to show off the time earned patina. They then go back and get really creative with the interior textures and fabrics to make some truly remarkable works of art. At the time of this video, they had only done two cars like this: a Chrysler wagon with a DeSoto front end and a 55 Chevy. I like how the guy describes how the Derelicts engage people at the end. There’s a couple of bad words in this video.


Source: eGarage, Icon 4×4

Motorcycle Designs by Chan Park

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I have an engineering education so I always find it fascinating to watch people do design work because it’s basically the opposite end of the spectrum of how to think. Spanish motorcycle tuners, Radical Ducati posted these videos on their Facebook page. They’re from a Korean design student named Chan Park who is studying Transportation Design at Art Center College of Design. The first video is his version of a half naked (a bike that doesn’t have a full fairing covering the frame and engine) Ducati.


He also has this video of electric powered cafe races, chopper and scooter based on Yamaha’s open design frame. It’s also really cool because it uses the opening song from the Cowboy Bebop anime.


Source: Chan Park