I stumbled across a few scanned pages of this comic strip highlighting Stirling Moss’s career in the wake of his crash at Goodwood in 1962. I’ve had little luck tracking down more information about the series or where it first appeared. Other “World of Champions” strips may have been published in Tintin books or in “Champion” magazine, but I haven’t found anything definitive about this strip. Maybe it was published in both in varying locations or times.
I’d love to find a physical copy.
I find the relationship between the medium and the subject of an artist’s work fascinating. In an Instagram filtered landscape, we’re used to seeing contemporary imagery processed to look vintage. Illustrator Arthur Schening has taken the opposite approach. These representations of 50 year old (and more) racing cars crafted in a very modern aesthetic makes for a compelling balance. Arthur’s illustration style is something akin to what we’re used to seeing as a representation of architectural renderings or a more polished take on fashion illustration. Schening has taken this aesthetic reminiscent of Wallpaper Magazine’s hayday under Tyler Brûlé and applied it to old sheet metal in brilliant technicolor saturation. I dig them.
Prints of these and more at his site.
I adore this Formula Vee cover illustration for the November 1968 cover of Sports Car magazine. The late 60’s blend of almost childlike color blocking offset by very accurate proportions and technical details create a charming balance.
Somebody is selling a copy on eBay (no affiliation) and I’m hoping one of you buys it before I have to. Thanks for digging this up, Paul.
Redditor SirDunny posted a few (North and South) American track maps in scale a few days ago, but this update to include great racing circuits from around the world proves one thing fairly handily: The Nürburgring is not to be messed with. Only Pike’s Peak and La Sarthe even come close to the grandeur of the ‘Ring.
Imagine now if we lived in a world that could include the Mille Miglia or Targa Florio on this illustration. It only highlights that, as important as the Nürburgring is—and how vital it is that we save it—it is only the last best reminder of what racing courses once were.
SirDunny has made prints available at RedBubble.
More info on the Reddit thread.
via Save the Ring
The video piece created by Marcio Bukowski to accompany TV Globo!’s coverage of the Brazilian Grand Prix got some attention right after the race but I hadn’t seen this “behind the scenes” feature on the transformations themselves until the animated gifs started making the rounds. Here’s a copy in HD glory. That moment when the Lotus windscreen rotates over the driver’s head and his helmet is suddenly Jim Clark blue—perfect. Really all the driver changes do so much to add to the soul of the piece.
For some context, you can also see them incorporated into the finished piece below. Fantastic stuff.
Pull the shoebox out from under your bed and let’s get back to trading some of our Topps World on Wheels cards. This time it’s Lance Reventlow’s baby, the Scarab.
From the card’s reverse: Only three of the powerful American Scarab racers were built in Southern California, but they won many races. Their Chevrolet Corvette engines were modified for racing conditions. Scarab bodies were made of aluminum, shaped by hand. The special frames and brakes were also completely hand-made.
HP: 390 | Top Speed: 165 MPH | Price: $17,000
$17,000! I’ll gladly give you twice that for one!
“Don’t worry, Mrs. Higgins—I’ll have your daughter in bed before midnight.”
To be fair, few of us are as smooth as Playboy cartoon characters. Then again, maybe if I spent my single years picking up dates in a Speedster I would have been.
via Porsche Classic.
Artist Fabian Oefner creates the illusion of beautifully exploding machines using a combination of modelmaking, sketching, photography, and digital manipulation. They’re almost balletic in how delicately they’re presented.
The results are still arrestingly beautiful, but part of me was disappointed to see that these are more Photoshop than sculptural. How fantastic would that exploded P4 look on your mantle as a physical object in the vein of a small scale version of Jonathan Schipper’s “Slow Inevitable Death of American Muscle”? Time to break out the Testors.
via Top Gear.
Let’s see how shrewd we can be with our trades. Pull out your shoebox of Topps World on Wheels cards and let’s get down to business.
From the card’s reverse:
“The Healey is an extremely light, very rugged car… build for competition. It is designed to stand racing abuse, and provide with moderate power a performance that cannot be equalled in its class. In seven seconds, this car can reach fifty miles per hour from a standing start!”
That zero-to-fifty time might not sound impressive today, but I guarantee you look better doing it in this Healey Silverstone than you would in any of the contemporary production sports cars that can achieve 60 in half this time.
More Topps World on Wheels in the archives.
Illustrator Martin Squires’ sketches from the car, motorcycle, and vintage machinery shows he attends are absolutely delightful. I’ve tried many times to capture this kind of quick gestural linework and trust me when I say it isn’t easy. You might think that this quick sketch aesthetic isn’t as challenging as pouring over an illustration table for hours or days but I’d suggest that it’s even more difficult to do well.
Just try nailing the proper contours of a Cooper 500’s bodywork in one quick, confident swash of an ink pen; or conveying the correct proportions of the wheels to the exposed engine to the suspension bits of a hillclimbing special (particular one that you may just be seeing for the first time). These things are not easy. I’d rather have some time to pencil it in, adjust, erase, re-draw, adjust, erase. I’m continually impressed by this kind of rapid freehand work.
Check out Martin’s site for more. Prints and sketch books are available at his shop.