"The Truisms In The '99-'00 BMW V12 LMR..."

Again I come to you with another installment of the BMW art car. There are more of them than I thought. This week I’ll be informing ya’ll on the fifteenth (15th) installment of the BMW art car series, which might just be the last one of the series. This particular one is by American conceptual artist Jenny Holzer and involves BMW’s V12 LMR.

The BMW V12 LMR was a Le Mans Prototype built for sports car racing in 1999 and in 2000. The car was built through an alliance between BMW Motorsport and Williams F1, and was to be the successor to the failed BMW V12 LM of 1998. It is famous for being BMW's only overall victor of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Jenny Holzer, covered the 15th Art Car with surprising messages which she says "will probably never lose their relevance". The expression of her concept is based on traditional features, colors and graphics of the racing car design. Chrome letters made of reflecting metal foil, outlined with phosphorescent color, give the text an almost vibrant lighting effect. What is crucial for the perception of her word art is the context in which it is presented. "Protect me from what I want" – can be seen written atop the racecar (see picture below). My favorite truism on the car has to be the quote "You are so complex you don't respond to danger" – it seems fitting for the world of motorsport.

Apparently the art car was dropped from the 24-Hour Le Mans race. Two other V12 LMR not brandishing Holzer’s truisms raced. One of the V12 LMR s placed third and the other placed sixth during qualifying. In the end the BMW failed to take the team's championship, losing to Panoz by a only two points.

I believe that the BMW V12 LMR designed by Jenny Holzer is still on tour with other BMW art cars and will hopefully make its way stateside before returning to Europe in 2010.




~Ronski

My mama told me...

My mom has always told me too much of something becomes bad. It's usually true but I guess the Covini manufacturing company didn't heed my mom's advice.

They've created the Covini C6W Sportscar. The "6W" stands for "6 Wheeler." That's right...the car has six wheels; four in the front and two in the back. In addition, the car has a targa top. Now, I'm sure sure a car with six wheels is just for attention purposes and maybe be put on display when talking about "freakish" cars. However, Covini claims that having six wheels instead of four is advantageous for the car's performance, and that includes better braking/grip/comfort and less risk of front tires deflating and hydroplaning.

I'm not sure about all that but I know that if you want to get looks for the car you drive, this will definitely do the job. If two hands are better than one, I guess six wheels are better than four.









-Rack of Lam

Lesux Driving School?

Fontana Track for all the Los Angeles people.


You either have two choices, spend 2 hours with the IS performance models or spend the half Friday off with Lexus employees how to drive the car for $295 dollars. Here is the link to sign up for the program

http://www.tasteoflexus.com/performance/eventlocations.asp

This first course puts you behind the wheels for 2 hours for the IS and GS model line up. Or you can have a full half day with one car(IS-F) and one driver all for $295, that sounds like a stellar deal.

It seems as if the marketing group at Lexus has been geting off their arses, and really taken a step forward.

MINI HONDA?

Honda R&D Americas not only designs daily drivers such as Civics, Accords, etc. but now they are making a miniature car for Hot Wheels. Yes its maybe only a small scale model car, but this will be a collectible for people of all ages!

Hot Wheels asked 4 other car manufacturers to make these concept cars for Hot Wheels 40th Anniversary. The picture above shows how the prototype will look like. It is shaped as the Honda icon "H," and styling is reminiscent of the old 1960's racing cars.

The Torrance location in case you want more infomation:

Honda R&D Americas, Inc.
Human Resources Dept.
1900 Harpers Way
Torrance, CA 90501-2746
Fax: 310-781-5677
E-mail: personnel@hra.com

These babies will be available in retail outlets in May. So be on the lookout!



info: http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/News/articleId=125905#2

- Thai Spyce -

"Andy Warhol's 1979 BMW M1"

Here's another installment of another of the many BMW art cars. This particular one is quite alooker and was designed by famed Pop Art czar Andy Warhol.

"I tried to portray speed pictorially. If a car is moving really quickly, all the lines and colors are blurred." Says pop artist extraordinaire Andy Warhol. Whereas the other artist who were asked to design the BMW art cars first of all painted their pattern on a 1:5 scaled-down model called maquettes and then had their design transferred to the actual car by assistants, the Pop Art legend Andy Warhol painted the 470 hp BMW M1 himself from start to finish. It's reported to have spent no more than 23 minutes painting the car. After finishing painting the car Warhol ran his fingers through the paint to leave a personal touch.

The car raced only once, in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1979, driven by Manfred Winkelhock (Germany) and the Frenchmen Hervé Poulain and Marcel Mignot. It placed sixth overall and second in class. I believe it's on tour with other BMW art cars and will eventually make its way stateside.






~Ronski

Bippu? No its not a new Sanrio character

V.I.P. Styling aka Bippu


Junction Produce Toyota Celsior

Osaka, Japan

In the 90's, driving a Mercedes S-Class or a BMW 7-Series, surely would get you pulled over or killed. Rival gangs and police often targeted these sedans since, most often than not, the driver was linked to the yakuza.

So as rumor or legend has it, they began adopting a new form of fixing up cars in order to create a lower profile.


Junction Produce LS400

Now typically these cars do not focus the upgrades on speed, rather huge wheels, bodykits, exhausts, and all the negative camber that can possibly be tucked in.

People, nowadays, have been "VIP-ing" minivans and smaller compacts, but the true VIP models are the big boys. The Toyota Celsior (read Lexus LS), Toyota Aristo (read Lexus GS), Nissan Laurel, President (read America is not cool enough to get them) & Cima (read Infiniti Q45) and a host of other cars are known for the standard VIP treatment.


PrussianBlue Lexus LS430

A couple brands that I hold in high regard for their VIP styling is Junction Produce, WALD, Fabulous, PrussianBlue, etc.

So now you know a little info on the VIP world, its time this modifier grew up and started his own VIP project!


Works Lexus SC430

Good Times

Mister Philthy

Fur R E

Have you ever considered the power of name branding? There are so many things out there that would be considered standard otherwise but just because there is a high-end name slapped on the product, that somehow justifies an inflation in pricing.

I notice this a lot with cell phones. Prada releases a phone with LG and somehow, a standard phone's price is jacked up a few hundo. Lamborghini also released a phone in collaboration with Nokia and same thing happens; price tag goes up. Ferrari also did a collaboration with Motorola to release their RAZR V3Maxx and all that's different from a standard RAZR was probably the Ferrari logo and some wallpapers on the phone. I was thinking to myself, "WTF...if a car manufacturer makes a phone, I want that damned thing to look like a car." Well, once again, I've eaten my words.

There's been a phone released that is a Ferrari F1 ON a phone. It's fully functional with a 2.2" LCD touchscreen, MP3, etc. It kind of reminds me of toys back in the day where they combine a phone with pretty much anything. It was the nonsensical combination that was appealing to me as a kid. That appeal is not so much strong now that I'm an adult. Anyways, the phone retails for ₤96.54 which equates to about $191.25 USD. And no, I don't think it's an officially licensed product ;)

Quite frankly, anything with the Ferrari branding is pretty player in my opinion...but I'm not going to be too quick to pick this thing up. I think you'll look more ridiculous than cool with this thing on your ear but that's just me.



Love,

The Rack of Lam

VW Scirocco : A New Love

The new 2009 Scirocco will be made in Portugal, but it is still up in the air if the hot hatch will be released in the U.S. because of the presence of the GTi and the R32. What are we to do? I say we revolt against the VW CEO and petition to have this sacred car back in our pressence again. These new 2009 models will feature 200HP 2.0L engines.

The Scirocco first started in the mid 1970's and ended in the early 90's. This car offered stylish body lines to great responsive engine packages. The fact that we might not get this car will be truly upsetting.

But it is confirmed that a demonstration 2009 Scirocco will be made with 300HP and will be driven by a former WRC and Le Mans winning drivers. This will be done exclusively at the Nurburgring track

HD READY SCION

Yes. You heard right. In the near future, Scion will be offering future vehicles with the HD radio technology option. This will potentially increase sales for Scion since they are OWNING the car market.

"Since Scion customers are in tune with audio technology, it makes sense that we enhance our already outstanding audio offerings for them," said Jason Adang, Manager/Accessory Audio and Electronics Planning, Toyota Motor Sales, USA. "Digital HD Radio technology is ideal for our youthful, tech-savvy customers who will enjoy the wide range of content available on HD Radio channels."

I think it's great that Scion is doing this because as we all know Scion primarily appeals to the younger demographic. And you know how those young bucks get with their sound systems. PURE BASS! And now all the tech nerds can listen to their anime and trance songs without worry.



- radioink.com


::: Thai Syce :::

"1977 BMW 320i RLE..."

"I wanted to use painted lines as a road, pointing the way for the car. The design also shows the scenery through which the car has driven. You could call it a list of all the things a car experiences - the only difference is that this car mirrors all these things even before it takes to the road," says the late and great Roy Lichtenstein, as he talks about his then creation of what I call the “1977 BMW 320i RLE (Roy Lichtenstein Edition)”.

If you look more closely at Lichtenstein's art piece, you can recognize imagery of a passing landscape of green grass and fence posts. A sun is also represented on the door panels whose rays merge with speed lines. Also noticeable are the typical Ben-Day dots Lichtenstein is known to use in his works, like in his world-famous patings using comic book like imagery ( i.e. Drowning Girl ). The clip below provides a better visual on the art piece. If you look carfully on the old gentleman’s table you’ll see scale models of other BMW art cars: all of which have been designed by other famous artist…stay tuned for fure articles of those.

Lichtenstein’s car competed at the 24-hour race at Le Mans in 1977. It had placed second in its class and an impressive ninth overall in the race. This car is one of many BMW art cars designed by other well-know artist, and is still in possession by the good people of BMW…but it’s projected that Lichtenstein’s car and others like it will tour the states sometime before 2010, before heading back to Europe.




~Ronski

Panthera

In following with the aim of showing a new concept car as I did in my blog post last week, I'm going to introduce you all to a new one that really caught my eye...and that is the "de Tomaso Pantera."

The Pantera was a sports coupe that was produced by the de Tomaso company from 1971 to 1996. Originally, the designs were created by Tom Tjaarda. As early as late 1971, Ford began to import the car into America, and also, the original Panteras were powered by the Ford Cleveland V8 (that would probably explain why I feel the look of this newly updated concept Pantera has remnants of the Ford GT).

The new Pantera concept design is by Stefan Schulze and is based on the Lamborghini Gallardo platform. In my opinion, it looks like the Gallardo, the Bugatti Veyron, and Ford GT all had an orgy and out came this bastard child. In other words, it's a work of beauty. What's really cool about this concept car, I feel, is that Stefan Schulze really modernized the classic design of the car. I respect modern designs that hearken to the designs of older times.

Stefan Schulze is a German 3D artist and designer. He won the Peugeot Design contest for his Peugeot 4002 concept back in 2004.

In case you don't remember, Vince Neil (lead singer of Mötley Crüe) was driving a Pantera back in the 1984 accident that killed Hanoi Rocks drummer Nicholas Dingley. Sex, drugs, and rock 'n roll...and death by car.





















Your partner in crime,

The Rizack of Lizzle

YUM : AE86 and Toyota Sports back from the Dead?

The rumors have come true. Toyota will be releasing a RWD drive coupe, an homage to when Toyota used to be cool. it is said that it has been inspired by the 1985-1987 Corolla GT-S. The only kicker is that this car will be a joint venture with Subaru. Subaru will be supplying the boxer engine power plant, but all construction will be handled by Toyota in their Gunma plant. It is said that the car will be in development by 2010, also a 2.5 liter Turbo power plant will be available.

Hopefully this will revive Toyota's racing sensation . Sure they have NASCAR wins, but those cars are not accessible to the public. Another key feature for this car will be the affordable pricing, hopefully it will not break the $30K mark for the highest level tubo version.

Its all great and "COOL" but to me it takes away from Toyota using a Subaru powerplant. Everyone in the world wants to see a 4-cylinder naturally aspirated motor.

POTHOLES: A MAN'S BEST FRIEND

Don’t you hate potholes? No I am not talking about the ones on your face, but the ones on the goddamn road! These friendly disruptions on the ground can cause damage to your Yokohama tires and can ruin your vehicle suspensions.

So who has the worst potholes in the United States? Michigan. How big are these potholes? As big as a Chevette dude. So I found out that the Michigan Transportation Team decided to have a month-long competition to see who can find the best shots of potholes in Michigan and winners received cash prizes up to $300!

Shoot. I’ve crashed and burned in some serious potholes in my time but this takes the cake. Who their right mind would drive in these things? If this is such a problem how come no one is doing anything about it? Why are people still driving? Ride a bike why don’t you. It’ll help with the obesity rate in Michigan.
Here are some photos of the “best” potholes in Michigan.




-Thai Spyce –

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"Toyota & GM Recall"

This just in: Toyota and General Motors have announced the recall of approximately 660,000 manufactured in their new United Motor Manufacturing Inc. plant in California. The recall is due to the fact that the cars were built with faulty window issues.

The issues-at-hand is that the bolt that holds the passenger and driver side glass. It’s these bolts that made way for complaints ranging from the side windows getting stuck to the whole glass unit shattering during operation. The automobile makers as well as the National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration have received over 500 complaints, which included 36 reports of injuries and one crash and an estimated 12,000 warranty complaints involving the defect prior to the recall.

The recall includes the 2003-2004 Toyota Matrix and Corolla, as well as the 2003-2004 Pontiac Vibe. The recall involves more than 540,000 Toyota Matrix and Corolla vehicles and almost 123,000 Pontiac Vibes. If you own one of the mentioned vehicles please contact your nearest Toyota or General Motors dealership to have the situation remedied.

And now you know…and knowing is half the battle.


~Ronski

What was that? A Civic with a body kit? No, a Kia!

So check it out, Kia is almost poised to release their Kia Koup, a front wheel drive 290 horsepower, 289 lb-ft. torque 2.0L, mated to a 6 speed automatic, paddle shifting transmission.

The name sounds stupid but with power like that who cares?

With a twin-scroll turbo, direct injection, hmmm sounds familiar right? Well the motor comes from the GEMA family, the same one that powers the Evo and Caliber SRT4.

So now we got a Kia, with a shit load of power, a great warranty and whats that? Brembo brakes to safely bring you to a stop. Hopefully it gets a Kia price tag as well right?

Don't really have a price tag yet, but imagine that it will give the new Hyundai Tiburon which is due to launch this year, a run for its money!

As far as styling goes, looks like they took an FG Coupe civic and put it on steroids, kind of like this one!





So well I guess Kia came up a little short in the style department, but they copied a decent looking front end and it moves... Go Kia!

Air Mazdas

Concept cars have been around for decades now and all the prototypes do is pretty much garner "ooohs" and "ahhhs" from consumers and maybe introduce some new technology and styling that usually never come into fruition. I don't care though; I like looking at them.

Well, Mazda just came out with a new concept car they call "Taiki." The car has really caught my eye because of its obvious futuristic styling but also the concept behind the concept car. The car's aesthetic is based upon the flow of wind. They pretty much tried to best convey the flow of air through the means of automotive expression. The exterior lines are inspired by wind flowing through a Harogomo, which in folklore are the robes that allow a celestial maiden to fly.

With that said, a dream of mine has always been to own a concept car and drive it around in a white t-shirt, shorts, and flip flops. That'd keep people wondering.

















-Rack of Lam

Production Done for Mclaren SLR

it has been confirmed that the production for the Mclaren SLR will be over and the last models will be the Roadster variant.

I think I am actually very glad that this car is ending production. The SLR to me represents a car that any person with no brains and money can have. This model totally deviated from the Mclaren roots of pure supercar.

We can go through the points of why this car can just suck it.

1) Supercharger? Any real supercar uses turbos because of the high efficiency.

2) SL65 AMG has a slightly detuned engine and is crazy fast, and more than half the price.

3) Race car? Nope not here just a car to cruise around town and show your friends how fast you can get up to 35MPH.

4) Automatic transmission? Unbelievable.

I am embarrassed for Mclaren really. The GT-R was so much more car, sure it was nearly twice as much but at least one would know it could survive around town and on the race track. Middle seat driving position? Titanium tool set? Matching luggage. I figure anyone that could spend half a million on a car could certainly buy a million dollar car.

In the future MBZ will unveil the SL65 Black series that is rumored to have excellent performance and Mclaren will unveil a new supercar the P11. Hopefully it will bring mclaren back to serious driving, rathen than these Mickey Mouse years.