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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.
Aug
08
A friend of mine posted my widebody Porsche 928 GTS on his instagram and told me the feedback was outstanding, demanding me to create more Porsche content. I told him that there are a quite a few Porsche photoshop chops in progress, but none of them close to being finished soon. But anyway, he inspired me to chop this export-spec Reutter-bodied 356a 1600 GS Carrera (T2). I applied the usual recipe of lowering the vehicle substantially and giving it a set of custom wheels. They are multi-piece items based on the originals. To spice it up and give it a nice twist I replaced the door handles with Mazda Miata NA items, removed the bumper bars and added a couple of stickers. Why Japanese you might wonder? Because I bet there is somebody in the land of the rising sun that has both the funds and the will to make my virtual creation come to life in reality.
#onlyinjapan
Aug
01
Lately I had a phone conversation with a friend and he asked me what I think about Daihatsu. Due to my experiences with Daihatsu vehicles, I’m quite fond of the engineering, reliability and longevity. I drove my first Daihatsu Cuore (aka Mira) while studying in Karlsruhe, had a long-term hire Sirion while living in South Africa and even took that one to 4×4 trails without any worries or problems. Mind you, it was not the all wheel drive version. I have never driven a Materia, but it definitely is on my bucket list. I like the styling of the body very much, but the dashboard with the centered instruments doesn’t do it for me. Researching the PCD and availability of tuning parts, I stumbled upon the Inden Design shop truck. Taking this concept a bit further is easy with photoshop. Remove the rear doors, convert it to a panel van and it’s done. Or isn’t it? To make the converted car look good, I modified the rake of the B-pillar and changed a few things here and there to get the proportions right. Once finished it received some spice: I lowered it, added vintage Gotti wheels and converted them to multi-piece with BBS barrels. Now, would you jump into this Materia to fetch some parts or deliver pizza?
Dec
03
Looking at it from far away or just seeing a tiny little preview picture many people might think “BMW E30” initially. Though very similar in overall size, shape and packaging – this is neither designed nor made in Bavaria, but on the other side of the Alps where the weather usually is a lot nicer during winter. For the first time ever I applied my photoshop skills to a Maserati. Why? Because it looks like a cross-country 4WD edition with the original ride height which messes up the proportions of the car entirely. Check out the original picture here. So what has been done to achieve this look? Not much, actually – keeping to my design ethos of keeping it realistic so it could be done with a real car and possibly even get TÜV-approval in Germany. Substantial lowering (possibly air-ride?), re-shaped front and rear bumpers to match the lines of the original sideskirt, USDM sidemarkers, black stripes to break up the area between the wheel arches. I also converted the original wheels into more concave multi-piece items.
Now – who spotted the chopped windshield frame / A-pillars? 😉
Jul
29
Regular visitors know that I do like two-door station wagons, aka Shooting Breaks. The UF31 Nissan Leopard responds nicely to the wagon treatment. A set of shorter springs and some multi-piece BBS wheels do alter the character a little and make the Leopard look sportier. Would be nice to have, wouldn’t it?
Nov
05
Well, does it always have to be a high gloss paint job and perfect finish? No, definitely not. Sometime less is more. If you focus on the fun to drive factor, optics are somewhat irrelevant. Therefore it’s a base trim model this time. Black bumpers and trim, just a set of multi-piece Alfa Romeo wheels added to this Mk1 33. And lowered, of course. 😉