By / 25 May 2013
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The very first Art Car was a 3.0 CSL commissioned by French racer and art auctioneer Hervé Poulain, painted by famed mobile artist and metal sculptor Alexander Calder in 1975. Poulain drove the car in that year’s Le Mans 24 Hour, and the huge publicity it gained caused a stir among both the art community and within BMW themselves, who recognized a fantastic and unique promotional opportunity.
By / 05 June 2013
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The Bonneville Salt Flats is one of the strangest places on Earth—a vast, bleached, salt bed remnant from a prehistoric lake. Some 30,000 acres in size, a featureless white tabletop stretches past the visible horizon, belying the true speed seen through the streamlined canopies of countless hopeful speed record machines that descend upon this alien landscape each year. Here is a BBC documentary showing several teams hoping to break records last year at Bonneville.
By / 25 April 2013
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The Lancia D50 was not only a visual feast, but as aptly demonstrated by these gorgeous hand-drawn cutaways, also one of engineering and construction. Designed by Vittorio Jano in 1954, the D50 was among the first ever racecars to utilize the engine as a stressed member of the chassis. After the death of their top driver, the great Alberto Ascari, and ensuing financial difficulties, Lancia was forced to sell off their scuderia to Maranello, who further developed the car for racing.
By / 24 April 2013
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Today you can count the major oil companies on one hand, but back in the pioneering days of the automobile, and even well into the 1960s, there were dozens of smaller brands competing for shelf space among the big brands. Because of their lesser name-recognition, these smaller refineries depended heavily on creative and colorful branding and design to attract potential customers, creating a kind of golden age of gasoline and oil advertising.
By / 18 April 2013
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Though nearly extinct today, the British open-top sports car was once king of the enthusiast motoring landscape. MG’s, Triumphs and Austin-Healeys were the heavy-hitters of the time, and each one is explored in a fascinating, detailed, yet light-hearted and entertaining way in the BBC documentary “The Golden Age of the British Sports Car”, presented here in its entirety for your viewing pleasure.
By / 10 April 2013
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Dutch artist Ron van der Ende creates only slightly three-dimensional works that pack a dimensional punch belying their modest 6.5” depth. Using only found objects, van der Ende uses a roughly 3mm thick layer from old doors, wood floors, and other sources of disused fragments of our modern industrial life and then lays them on top of a bias-relief sculpture, endowing them with a hard-worn and authentic patina.
By / 03 April 2013
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Before he dabbled in art, Berlin-based artist Damián Ortega drew political cartoons for Mexican magazines and newspapers, which is evident in his work’s wry but playful sense of humor. Ortega aims to take familiar objects with modern cultural relevance and reinterpret them into new forms or contexts in a surreal way, thus endowing viewers with a new perspective on the normally common or mundane. He often works with cars, bikes, scooters, and semi-trucks.
By / 27 March 2013
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We’ve stumbled across some useful links that help break down the complexities of drawing a car into a handful of easy-to-follow steps. The results, provided you’re able to follow a few simple instructions, are surprisingly detailed. Also shown are examples of more advanced car designs by students or professional artists. It's inspiring to think that these artists likely started out drawing simple cars like those shown in the links we've provided.
By / 21 March 2013
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Colin McRae, Sir Stirling Moss, Sir Jackie Stewart—all three are indisputable racing legends, which also happens to be the name of this superb BBC documentary series we recently stumbled across. Each video features a different host (each one a charming and accomplished Brit) and follows the path of a driver through time, illustrating the history behind their heroic careers with the aid of family, friends, colleagues, and competitors alike.
By / 14 March 2013
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As a kid, I was initially attracted to cars by colors and shapes, I still remember my neighbor's Smurf-blue MGB—my first love. As I grew I learned to appreciate cars for other reasons: freedom, speed, engineering, the skill involved in driving well. These are the things that nurtured my love throughout childhood, and continue to sustain my passion for all things car as an adult.
Above all these things, though, is the sound.
By / 06 March 2013
6 Comments
Design your own Volkswagen Beetle, Volkswagen Bus, Porsche, or Type 3 with the site, BusSelecta.com. Bus Selecta first began in 2001 as a place to make your own VW Bus customizations. Since then, they've slowly added to the selection with pre-1973 Porsches, VW Beetles, and most recently, early and late Type 3s models. This is a fun site for vintage car people, whether they're looking for modification ideas for physical cars or just having some fun.
By / 01 March 2013
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An empty Goodwood track is the stuff of dreams. An empty Goodwood track combined with one of the most iconic Ferrari's in the world provides a rare visual treat. DK Engineering has been housing Sir Stirling Moss's #7 for over thirty years and couldn't resist taking it back to its spiritual home.
Enjoy the video and have a great weekend!
By / 20 February 2013
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Mike Kim studied transportation design at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, has interned in Japan for Toyota, and is now working as an automotive designer for Toyota in Newport Beach, California. We recently came across some of his great designs and are excited to feature them today.
Click through to view Mike's designs.
By / 08 February 2013
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This video consists of exactly one minute and fifteen seconds of pure bliss. This brief lap gives us so much to love like the sound of the ITB's, masterful driving, moody weather and the contrast of the colorful helmet, and the driver's first pump at the end of what is apparently a personal lap record. We would give a lot to have the opportunity to hop in the driver seat and have a go around in this incredible sounding NSX. Drive tastefully (and quickly), indeed.
By / 07 February 2013
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Design can take a seemingly ordinary thing and transform it into a beautiful piece of art that you normally wouldn't pay attention to. Helmets, for most of us serve one purpose in safety, but for others is a blank canvas for art. We recently ran across the the 21 Helmets exhibition, which debuted in Portland, Oregon, and showcased some fantastic designs on the seemingly ordinary helmet. Click through to see a few of our favorites from the show.
By / 29 January 2013
3 Comments
I have a special place in my heart for the BMW 2002. It's the car that has been with me the longest and one that will continue in my passion for a whole lot longer. I came across this BMW 2002 drawing by industrial designer David Mucci who publishes the wonderfully curated motorcycle blog Moto-Mucci. He hand-drew it for his girlfriend from a photograph he took last year in Germany. Lucky girl! Now if only we can convince him to make some prints for those of us in the 2002 community.
By / 25 January 2013
5 Comments
We spend a lot of time looking through photos of cars on the internet, in books, and in magazines. In these photos, it's common to see people posing with their prized automotive possessions. Posing with cars is something every car enthusiast has done, but for some reason there seem to be an outstanding number of images wherein individuals sprawl across, stand on, or pose in otherwise completely awkward positions in relation to their vehicles.
By / 18 January 2013
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There are many ways we petrolheads get our car fixes, and with everything being digital these days, it is easier than ever. As fantastic as the internet is, it's nice to step away from our computers and pick up something tangible to read. The car magazine industry is dwindling, since more and more of the publications are moving exclusively to the internet. Car magazine GranTurismo steps in and brings the passion to continue the analog format, which we don't want to see disappear.
By / 17 January 2013
Classic car website, Chromjuwelen, run by our friend Ralf Becker, recently debuted some beautiful motor oil products, called Chromjuwelen Motor Öl.
The incorporation of Stefan Marjoram's vintage car watercolor paintings into the packaging of the limited-edition, collectors tin-box of Grand Touring Cool Mints.
By / 02 January 2013
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This post features work from two different artists: PJ Tierney from Limerick, Ireland and David Siml from Prague, Czech Republic. Digital artist PJ Tierney designed a series of 20 posters to celebrate the beginning of the 2011 FORMULA 1 World Championship season. Czech designer David Siml created the website and project PosterBar, which aims to offer quality wall art while giving young artists the opportunity to participate in the project.
By / 18 December 2012
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It seems one can make an automotive sculpture out of anything: paper, plants, sand, metal, and more. We have some favorite sculptures to share today. In 2011, artist Jonathan Brand created pieces of a 1969 Ford Mustang out of paper. He began with 3D drawings on a computer, printed out the images, and then cut, folded, fit, and glued everything together. Jonathan and his father restored an actual 1969 Ford Mustang, which was the inspiration for the project.
By / 11 December 2012
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You may have heard Kavinsky's music on the Drive soundtrack with the song Nightcall. Kavinsky is back with a video for his song Protovision, and it features a car we have a fondness for: the Ferrari Testarossa. Nothing is better than seeing and hearing the Testarossa flex its muscles to this '80's-sounding tune while blasting around the streets of downtown LA.
By / 30 November 2012
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Today we're excited to feature two artists who are very different in terms of medium and style, but who are each exceptionally talented in their own right. Both artists are able to evoke emotion in their work by using color and composition, and that's inspiring to us. Enjoy and have a great weekend!
By / 16 November 2012
1 Comment
Happy Friday! The holidays are nearing, things are getting busy, and we've still got a lot of video footage to edit, so stay tuned!
In the meantime...since BMW Motorsport was created forty years ago, we've put together a roundup of BMW M Racing for all you fans out there.
By / 07 November 2012
What are you up to this weekend? We've been in the San Francisco Bay Area filming a few different car projects, and we'll be here through the weekend. We can't wait to share the videos with you when they're finished. As always, we came across some inspiring automotive-related things on the web this week and would love to share them with you. This week: Bond cars. Enjoy!
By / 30 October 2012
These illuminated tires were developed by The Goodyear Tire Company in 1961. The tires were made from a single piece of synthetic rubber and were lit by bulbs, which had been mounted inside the wheel rim. The tires were intended to be produced in a variety of colors. Can you imagine the effects we'd have in time-lapse photography if these were around today?
By / 24 October 2012
Over here at Petrolicious, we're looking forward to this autumn weekend (even if it doesn't feel much like autumn in Los Angeles!).
We came across some cool automotive things around the web this week and wanted to share them with you.
