Cars - for those who love them

Heres the Coddington "French Connection". Its all of 2000 technology with a sort of an" extreme art moderne" look.

I don't remember Coddington. The only two names I can dredge up from the hot rod/custom era are Barris and Roth.

Those illustrations are gorgeous. Where a designer or artist can do both graceful and flamboyant, I'm likely to respond with delight. Come to think of it, those are the two words that describe my dancing.

How bout Harley Earl? he came up with the clay model and designed the first Corvettes. When I was in art school we did some semester research work on the great car designers like Malcolm Sayers (XK E fame),Bill Mitchell (coupe de Ville ) or Paul Bracq(bMW modernizer). Lowey was actually an overall product designer (he did the coke bottle, the Pa RR streamliners etc).He just happeend in on car designs like the Studebaker Hawks,Champions, Avantis etc. The other guys were car designers principally.
Henrick Fisker is mostly responsible for the "jellybean shape" that started with the BMW and then spread like a metastasis through other car bdges (like FORD )

I may have once known some of those names but if so they're long forgotten. I must say, I envy you that course.

There's a magazine here somewhere that has a wonderful article on an american design head who brought in a team of several female designers. I'll see if I can dig that up.

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Those things are Beautiful (especially that 145!), and I'd love to drive one but they're art, and I couldn't bring myself to thrash them hard, too pretty.

Gimme something like this X-Bow that was made for thrashing

Dang it, still haven't got this resizing thing right. Where do you put that size thingy?

I didn't write down bethie's tip on re-sizing. An option is to find another image, plonk it in and then check with the "preview" button. Most tend to fit here.

Edit: Doh. Her tip will be back on this thread.

Good idea, took me several tries but finally - success.

Wish these were street legal in the US. My Slingshot 'copy' of the X-Bow is only quasi-legal, as in don't ask/don't tell.

tell about the "X bow" who makes it?

X-Bow is made by KTM, an Austrian company that makes only highly focused products (mostly motorcycles) with no regard to mass market appeal. They partner with Rotax, another Austrian company who makes engines with the same focus. Every piece they make is a study in optimization. I keep some of their parts on my desk just to look at.

I think X-Bow is their first automotive design.

my one golf cart is a Polaris and I use it for parts to trick out an ATV made by EZ-GO. The polaris engine is a Honda 120 and its a bit bigger than the EZ Go. Ive done a complete "Wheel lift" and installed gummies. Ive also loaded it with Nerf Bars so I dont wreck it when smacking into something while Im carting crap to the burn pile out on a pasture.

What siize engines do the Polaris and the KTM sport?
are they ATV's ?
Why is yours barely street lgal. It looks like you get everything you need to drive about. Bumpers are a feature that have been redefined in several states specifically re: street legal ATV's

Man, this is a good thread. I'll put off mentioning my little forays with the elderly MGB, the elderly Fiat 124 Spyder, and other such lunatic buys by me. I caved in and became more normal in my tastes later on.

I'll still be reading and looking though.

Oh, before I go, I still remember my first sighting of an XKE, driven by one of our doctors at St. John's, Jokichi Takamine III. It was a convertible, he was tall and blond, cool, cool, cool. Jokichi Takamine I discovered Adrenalin. Lots on both of them online. The doc we slightly knew was no slouch:
http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/latimes/obituary.aspx?pid=168660092

Hard to figure when I saw him whizzing by in it, as I later worked across the boulevard from the hospital. Maybe '76.

Isn't it great fun to bring something back to life and then make it better It's like 'being God'!.

I resurrected an old (92) Suzuki 230 ATV basket case for use around the airfield. I don't know anything about Polaris or KTM ATVs. The ATVs in CO are a 400 cc Suzuki, 700 cc Yamaha Raptor and a side by side CanAm Commander 1000 cc. All really solid engines. I am working on a basket case Yamaha Grizzly 600 ATV for a Christmas gift for GF. Thought it'd be good since made by Yamaha but it's a real POS. That Honda in yours is as bullet proof as they come.

The Slingshot as a 3 wheel vehicle is licensed as a motorcycle. That's how they avoid the myriad of safety regs. When I added a differential and a 4th wheel, it technically became a car. The state didn't ask me about it and I didn't tell.
Don't rat me out

This summer, there was a smallish Brit sports car meet up here in Campbell River. About 40 or 50 cars from all over North America. Quite a few MGBs as there are lots still kicking about. 10 or 12 TR3s but no TR2 which have gotten quite rare. I prefer the TR to the B because it retains the swoop of external fenders accentuated by the low-cut doors.

and the Tr 3 always looked surprised. We had one in pour racing team qnd the exhaust was certainly a work of art. It took several class trophies at Hershey and Duryea but it didnt lqst too long after one of our team smacked it up real good, I means REAL GOOD.

was there much body work involved with putting the fourth wheel? Or was there a kit for that?
My lil ATV's all have "lift kits available after market" and while its nothing but a lawnmower compared to your displacement, I only want it for back woods and field work. I have a neighbor who got his Kid a JD "GAtor". The kid wound up in the hospital after wrecking the damned thing doing at least 45 when he hit a log in a creek bend an went head over heels and almost had the damned thing land on him.
See, thats where nat selectio comes in handy, affecting those whose genes are yet to be passed around.

It doesnt matter bout us, our work is done (loinistically speaking)

I owned a TR for half a day; I brought it back to the previous owner as it failed to conquer the Sepulveda pass on my way home. No hard feelings that I know of, just disappointment.

That's actually true, isn't it. I was driving with my uncle in his 3 (before he got the E type) in my home town and a cop pulled us over. No opportunity to gauge our speed, it was the tailpipe sound that caught his attention. The 3 was the last Triumph I liked though I had some affinity for the Spitfire and bought one mid 30s. Had to do a lot of work on that car but at least it maintained a more traditional sports car design.

Not a problem with snow/ice I presume, just hill climbing?

But at least the first half hour of your ownership was delightful, I expect. Good thing the fellow saw an ethical responsibility to take it back.

I've only had one experience where a buyer came back to me. It was a Mazda wagon with the rotary Wankel engine. But it was two weeks after the sale and I'd had no prior hint of a problem with whatever went wrong (engine maybe, I've forgotten) so I deemed it a matter of bad luck for him. Whenever I've sold cars, I've been very honest regarding the cars' known weak spots. I am a very poor liar except with women.

Here's the new Jaguar electric I-PACE



I love this car's design.

it gets 250 mi per charge(unless its at night, then it only gets 200). I wonder if they hve any diferent range values for winter driving. (heaters in all electric cars are still e-resistance not some Briggas and Stratton lawnmower engine like the Ford focus)