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Apr
28
1938 Sparks-Thorne Little Six racecar with six wheels [Tyrell P34]
The first Tamiya catalogue I had as an aspiring young scale modeler, featured a Tyrell P34 Formula 1 racecar with six wheels on the cover page. Needless to say that I was fascinated by the weird looks. Back then at the age of nine and with easy access to information on the internet decades away, I didn’t know why they came up with the idea of adding an axle. I just loved it because it was quirky and stood out from the other F1 cars of the time.
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Mar
24
Creating the Sonett I Roadster and the Sonett II Club Racer was tremendous fun and I wanted to add a SAAB Sonett III the collection. Looking at the Sonett III pictures on my hard drive for many months, I struggled to come up with an idea for the conversion. The inspiration finally hit when I found a picture of an old Indy car. Why not convert the Sergio Coggiola and Gunnar A. Sjögren designed four cylinder “sportscar” into a beast with a compact V8? I set to work and came up with the idea of relocating the wheel arches in order to fit some mighty race car rubber under the widened fiberglass body while lowering the overall height. To increase strength, the quarter windows behind the doors have been eliminated and filled in. The rear fenders are re-sculpted and flow into the ducktail spoiler, providing much needed downforce along with the front spoiler. I really like the 1970’s chrome accents on the otherwise more 80’s looking body and kept most of them. The paint scheme is more 70’s orientated: the blue and yellow paint scheme resemble the colors of the Swedish flag and the shape of the yellow stripe mimics the silhouette of a classic glider plane, to add the aeronautics reference typical for SAAB vehicles.
Click here to see the original picture.
Mar
24
A friend of mine always says that “you can hotrod everything”. He definitely has a point there, even though many people might scream SACRILEGE in this case. Yes, you could do this to a vintage Bugatti Type 51 racecar – but it wouldn’t really make sense in reality. But hey, a picture is made up from pixels. Some of those pixels have just been altered and tweaked a little.
Disclaimer: No actual car has been harmed during the creation of this picture. 😉
Feb
16
Igor Sushko, founder of AutomotiveForums.com, asked the AF members to come up with livery ideas for a racing project in Japan. He wanted a livery based on a black car, to stand out from all the white car based liveries of most 911s. Well, here is what I came up with so far:
I used the Porsche logo as a base for my livery design. The idea is that the car is wrapped in it’s heritage, symbolized with the traditional crest. Didn’t like the colored version, so I tried out the same in grey-scale. Came out a bit dull, IMO. To add more contrast to the car, I decided on a black, white and red scheme. What do you think?
The white car (V04) is a more LeMans oriented livery. It features newspaper clippings from the good ol’ days of racing at the Circuit de la Sarthe.
To see the initial briefing and all other livery designs, please click here.
Dec
10
The smart roadster is quite a fun car to drive. A rigid chassis with great suspension setup, low curb weight and diminutive size. The only downside is the automated transmission, really. So, what would it be like to add a proper transmission, bigger wheels, tires and brakes plus a subtle bodykit? Look at the pictures and decide for yourself.
Oct
29
Relatively small and nimble, with a beefy V8 engine. Why should the Chevrolet Nomad Concept not become a racecar? I imagine it to be quite a lot of fun drive. Many pieces from other cars have been added to this otherwise clean design. Lowered and with uniball joints all around it should go around corners like the looks suggest. There is no idea for a livery as of now.
Apr
16
A very simple shape can look quite mean when modified in a certain way. This Alfa Romeo Alfasud Sprint has been lowered substantially, fender flares have been added and the bumpers elmininated. The side exhaust adds to the racecar look.