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Jan
14
Staring at the undercarriage of a car that has massive rust issues is more depressing than inspiring. Combing the rust particles out of my scalp proved to be inspiring though, because the vehicle in question is a gorgeous Hofmeister-designed BMW E9 coupé a friend of mine bought last year – sight unseen. As always, I let my mind wander in the following days to see what ideas I could come up with. Shooting Break? No, I want to do something else with it and create something out of the ordinary. CS means Coupé Sport and while talking about the recent trend of labeling new BMWs Gran Coupé, the coin dropped. A long list of modifications would be necessary to bring this to life. It sounds easier to do this in Adobe Photoshop, but it went through a lot of iterations until I was happy with the result.
Apart from the obvious additon of two doors, there are many modifications you likely didn’t spot right away when looking at the picture. The wheelbase is slightly longer to create room for the passengers feet and the front doors are shorter to keep the proportions in check. Extending the roof was a challenge in itself, because I also had to adjust the chrome trim above the windows. The E9 has frameless windows and I wanted to keep it that way. In order to be able to open the rear windows fully, I had to design a guide for the window, because I didn’t want to alter the C-pillar. Subtle, elegant and practical, just as the Karmann designers and engineers might have done it when challenged with such a task back in the days. Content with how the 4-door body turned out, I turned my attention to the wheels. The dinky original 14″ wheels look too small even for the 2-door and therefore I decided to utilize 15″ wheels with the same design. The hubcaps were carried over from the original 14″ wheels.
For comparison, please take a look at the original picture.
Sep
13
“Engineers like to solve problems. If there are no problems handily available, they will create their own problems.” Scott Adams
Nobody would have even the faintest doubt that the FIAT engineers created a lot of problems when they came up with the FIAT 130 and 130 Coupé, because these vehicles shared virtually no parts with other FIAT models from that period. Even the Aurelio Lampredi designed V6 engine is not identical with the machine used in the Dino. But nonetheless – the 130 Coupé is a beautiful automobile – and definitely more elegant than the somewhat baroque sedan model. The guys at the Pininfarina design studios must have had the same thought and created a four-door model based on the design of the coupé. Quite a stunning vehicle with almost perfect proportions – but as I never liked the tall and narrow wheels of the Seventies I updated the looks with more modern wheels and tires. Larger diameter, lower profile and a substantial drop in ride height all of a sudden make the vehicle look more contemporary timeless.
See the original image here for comparison.
Nov
16
Waking up to the news that Paul Rosche (aka Nocken Paule) passed away yesterday inspired me to finish a long-overdue project: the BMW 2002 4-door Touring.
Why would somebody want to do that? Well, a friend of mine thought about converting a 1:24 scale model of a BMW 02-series to a station wagen. He challenged me to design such a car with Photoshop, so he could use the picture as a reference for the build. Challenge accepted… but as always, it took (a lot) longer than expected. We agreed to leave the wheelbase as is, which made it very difficult to get the proportions right. Yes, the front doors are shortened and the rear doors are a little too short and only suitable for children – but the 02-series was never known to have much space for grown-ups. I wanted to keep the pop-out windows in the rear, even though it might only available at extra cost by ticking the right box on the order sheet. 😉
Rest in peace, Mr. Rosche. May one of your brilliantly designed engines live in the engine bay of this vehicle – should anyone ever build it in 1:1 scale.
Please let me know if you like the design and if you’re interested to see the other versions I cooked-up, based on the same original picture. Thank you in advance for your feedback.