Photo Potpourri

My friend's young daughter on her first Ferris Wheel ride, a few years ago, at our local country fair. Her father was with her, but can't really be seen from this angle. All photos clickable to enlarge.

Azaleas. Spring can't get here soon enough for me.

David Austin roses, known for their incomparable aroma and gazillions of inner petals.

Posters of the 1971 Chevrolets—in clockwise order from top left,  the new-for-'71 powered clamshell tailgate, translucent "wood" sided Kingswood Estate; the Camaro RS with those neat "nerf" bumperettes and Endura ring around the central grille; the Corvette; the Monte Carlo personal luxury coupe; the Chevelle sport coupe. I've had these since 1971—forty years ago!

My hybrid pink irises which I've moved from house-to-house. They always bloom for my birthday.

Pink Garden's Lilacs. This shrub must be one hundred years old.

More stuff. Items range from my mid-century modern Grundig Majestic console radio/record player at left, to my circa 1790 cherry secretary cabinet at the right, one of my prized possessions. Those small framed oil paintings surrounding it are from Germany. My parents bought them in the 1950s. My Edison Gem cylinder player is on the small table in the center, with a few of the cylinder containers in front of it.

The beautfully turned details of my 1870s marble-topped pedestal table, which I believe was a wedding present for my mother's grandparents.

One of my pieces in the midst of being created. This shows the painting layers almost finished. This image also shows the paints and polyurethane cans and brushes and tapes and all the assorted detritus that I use when creating.

Rabbit's Eye View—My pink Irises as seen from the ground. Sometimes I just like to lie on the ground and see the world from the viewpoint of the little creatures that live outside.

Camaro-based Sedan Coming to Chicago?

According to a report in Autoblog.com this February 6th morning, Chevy will show two new concepts this coming week at the Chicago Auto Show. One of them is rumored to be based on the rear wheel drive Camaro platform. Speculations range from a Z/28 version of the new Camaro, currently the SS is the top model, to a new sedan. The second concept is anyone's guess as Autoblog writes. 

I chopped this Camaro sedan a couple of years ago. While there is ZERO chance of an actual Camaro four-door, I'm posting this chop to show that the proportions of the Zeta-platform Camaro work quite well with four-doors. Perhaps the car will be a new Impala? For my "Concours,", I raised the roof of the coupe and widened the rear window, which narrows at the bottom of the coupe, one of my biggest pet peeves of that design. I think widening it at the bottom as I have done here, lightens up the entire design, making it look less "pinched" and more contemporary.

Society's "Astor 400." Dilatory Domiciles?

Just the thing to keep track of your friends, circa 1916.

M Y   C O L L E C T I O N — During the Gilded Age of the late 19th century, "400" became synonymous with the country's wealthiest people. The "Astor 400" referred to the number of guests invited to Caroline Webster Schermerhorn Astor's lavish Manhattan parties, the number of guests that supposedly fit in her ballroom, the creme de la creme of New York's Social Register society members. The links above reveal the details of this society matron's life and parties designed to weed out the "riff-raff" of the millionaires, most likely the old money versus the new money...

Illustrated is my copy of the 1916 Summer Social Register, which I refer to often, rofl. This was a way to keep track of all of your wealthy friends, to help with sending invitations to your summer garden parties, or perhaps to facilitate meet-and-greets at any number of wealthy summer enclaves. The book begins with approximately 20 pink pages of updates received too late for the bulk of the book, titled Dilatory Domiciles—apparently "Updates" was considered declassé! Weddings, births, deaths, and newly-built summer mansions are included in this section.

The main interior pages begin with the key to the book's listings, top image, with little symbols representing the family's Sloop Yachts, Schooner Yachts, Steam Yachts and Launches, as well as specific places such as the Corinthian Yacht Club of Philadelphia and the Eastern Yacht Club of Boston, and whether the family was "abroad," or had "arrived." Specific summer home addresses are listed, as well as family members and contact information. Email addresses and phone numbers are oddly missing, as are ZIP codes, lol. I've noticed a typo/syntax error on the left page of the spread with the key. It ends with "To insure the finding of a name ..." and it should be "To ensure the finding..." So much for high-brow editorial education!

Interestingly, I've found the last names of two branches of my mother's family in this book, the Sanborns and Beatties, but they certainly weren't our immediate family. Many pages are dog-eared with entries circled in pencil, and the pages have obviously been leafed through quite a bit, but I really can't say why my family owned this book.

Oddly named letters game dates to 1934-35. "Society" had nothing to do with the game itself. Perhaps there are 400 separate letter pieces inside, but the name was clearly meant to evoke the "Astor 400," the highest of the high society of the day.

M Y   C O L L E C T I O N — A table-game dated 1934-35 produced by the Einson-Freeman Publishing Corp. of New York City seemingly wished to be associated with this high-brow group. The box is filled with the cut-out cardboard letters which I spelled my name with, above. In short, the game seems to be a form of Scrabble without the points attached to each letter. Interestingly, there is absolutely no mention of "Society's 400" or any other sort of class distinction in creating words. In fact, at the end of the lengthy, and wordy (sorry!), instructions, it states: "All the usual letter, word, and sentence games referred to in magazines and books may be played with these letters." So it's really just a box of letters to be used as the player pleased, with a very cynical marketing attempt at being "classy."

B T W : 

Game makers weren't the only ones that attempted to cash in on the cachet of High Society. Above, the 1952 Packard Patrician Four Hundred sedan. This illustration is from the Packard dealer brochure that year, found via Google Images at the Packard Info website.

Even General Motors seems to have been trying to evoke an earlier, more classic time with their new-for 1962 Chevy II lineup. The base models were called 100, the mid-level trim was the 300, and the top-of-the-line versions the Nova 400. The convertible above was limited to the 400 series for the first year (Image found via Google Images). Do I know for a fact that the Nova 400 referred to the antiquated "Society 400?" No, but it's a good guess. I have no idea however why Chevrolet skipped the 200 nomenclature.

U P D A T E :  

Image found via Google Images at CarHobby.com.

Monday, December 6th—I was just re-reading the December 1992 issue of Collectible Automobile, an article about the 1958-62 AMC Ambassador. I didn't remember from the first time I read it almost 20 years ago, that for 1962 only, the top-line Ambassador, above the Custom trim level, was the 400! Apparently, this "society" reference was really popular in the early 1960s. I wonder how many more 400s I'll come up with now that I've opened that door! 

1962 was the year that the Ambassador shed nine inches from its wheelbase, dropping to 108 from 117. This meant that the Classics and Ambassadors were virtually identical except for taillight shape and trim levels. Maybe AMC felt that with this downsize, the Ambassador needed all the class it could get and gave it the 400 moniker.

The 400 name was dropped for the 1963 model year, when AMC fully redesigned their senior lines with VERY attractive new bodies, complete with curved sideglass and body sides stamped from one huge expanse of sheetmetal—something Lexus touted as a quality development in the 1990s. All trim levels were renamed with this redesign, changing to 880 for the base model and 990 for the Custom and 400 levels.

• Wiki article for the Ambassadors of this period.

Red, White and Blue—On a Diminutive Scale

There has been an email floating around the web for a few years of "regular" cars squeezed down into tiny, Hot Wheels/roller skate looking devices. When I first received it I was amused at the concept, but not the execution. They weren't photoshopped very well. Yes, they were amusing, but I thought the concept needed to be executed a bit differently. I created several of these miniatures, and present three of them here today. From the top, the red Ford GT/Kei (Kei is a market of tiny cars in Japan with engines of 660cc and under). I'm pretty sure this was the first chop of mine featured on the Autoextremist website several years ago. In the middle is my small '63 Thunderbird. At the bottom is my '61 Impala-lite.

You'll notice I didn't just up the tires/wheels and proportionately "squeeze" the cars. I shortened overhangs, hoods and trunks, and changed some character lines on the cars to smooth them out for their newer, shorter overall lengths. I like to think, in another dimension, in a vastly different world where gas mileage was always a priority and garages were legally limited to 12 feet long, lol, my cars might actually have been designed by Detroit's stylists.

Chevelle 2 door Wagon by Johnny Lightning

Looking just a bit crude enlarged as it is, this is Matchbox-sized, 3 inches long, this 1965 Chevelle 300 2 door wagon is one of Johnny Lightning's odder choices for a scale model car. These wagons were scarce when new and not all that collectible now, even though the greenhouse was clearly meant to evoke the classic Nomad of '55-'57. I placed the little car directly on the scanner to get these photos, hence the odd angles! This scale model dates to 2003, and is one of the reasons that drew me to Johnny Lightnings in the first place—the more rare an original production car is, the move I like to have a model of it.

I'm Seeing Red Today

Chevy's new Cruze, in artandcolour's pillarless coupe bodystyle. I was going to go back and touch-up all three of these chops, dating back about 18 months, but I just never seem to find the time. Plus, I'd rather just do new chops when I have the time to play. So enjoy these today, lol!

I think the fugly Dodge Avenger would look best as a smaller Magnum sport wagon. I think it almost looks like a natural, so much so that I have to wonder if they made a sport wagon first, but for marketing reasons only produced the sedan.

Lexus CS250—How about a small hybrid from Toyota/Lexus that doesn't look like it's a game piece for New Monopoly? This was obviously a Corolla to start with, but I lowered  and widened it, gave it much more classic details, and didn't try to put 25lbs of design into a 5lb grille shell. Sometimes a grille is only a grille. 

From the SHOULD NEVER SEE THE LIGHT OF DAY file:

A Dodge Avenger sedan chop that didn't exactly cure the original's ills, lol. I tried to make the Avenger's existing odd rear door window shape work more with the overall roofline by adding a wraparound rear window. Then I tried to make the rear taillights work with the new rear window by making them full-width, an old Dodge Charger trick from the '60s. I lowered the car on it's suspension, added quad exhaust and even added a couple of smoked glass 'windows' in the tailgate to make reversing easier. With the proliferation of rearview cameras now, this probably wouldn't be necessary.

All photos are clickable thumbnails as always.

Details Make All the Difference in the World

Click image to enlarge to close to full screen. Chevy's new Volt on the left, and the equally new Cruze on the right. Sometimes I make big changes in my chops, to make entirely new cars. Sometimes I just make small detail changes to show that I think the real designers could have changed just a few things to make the cars better looking. This is an example of the latter.

The original press photos for the Volt and Cruze. How many changes can you spot in my chop, lol?

C H O P S — The biggest change I made to the Volt, on the left, was to replace the odd black paint under the windows with body color. I also changed the rear side window and door shapes. I also added a bit of darker color at the bottom of the car. Chevy most likely used the black paint under the windows to make the body sides seem less tall. I did the same thing, but by moving the darker paint to the bottom, I've created a more 'classic' look. I also changed the weird front body color grille to a darker argent, or charcoal color. I filled out the shape all the way to the headlights, and to keep the modern two-piece Chevy grille I added a thin chrome molding with a larger Chevy 'bowtie' in the center. I made a few more changes, which you can find on your own. lol, but overall I think the Volt is still 'hybridy" looking, still contemporary, but less awkward and bulbous. I think it looks more like a $40,000 car now too.

The Cruze has had less work done to it. Basically I added a black roof to blend the sunroof in better, and I added darker paint and a chrome strip along the bottom of the car. I painted more of the headlight coves a gray color to go better with the glass portion of the headlights. I think the Cruze is very good looking, and my changes are really only details. They could actually just be a different trim level, maybe and LTZ model, to use an alpha designation Chevy has used in the past.

N O T E — I'm going to be out of the house most of Sunday. I'm going to photograph flowers that Mary is designing for a wedding. I'll get shots of the wedding party flowers, the wedding venue flowers and the reception flowers. I'll also have plenty of time to wander the estate it's taking place in, a turn-of-the-century mansion and grounds that were left to its small city several years ago and is not a public space available for rent for parties and weddings. It's right on the water, so I should have some nice pics, and I know Mary's flowers will be gorgeous.

The Next Caprice for the General Public? Nope.

My chop for a 2011 Chevrolet Caprice passenger car. This automobile actually exists in very similar form, but is only sold in Australia and the Middle East. So far.

C H O P — This Chevrolet Caprice is soon to be introduced in the United States. For realz! BUT, and there is usually a 'but' in everything, it will only be available for use as a police car. It seems odd to go to the trouble of certifying a car for sale in the States and not sell it to the public, but that's the case for this car. I can only assume that the final price might be too high for Chevrolet's 'usual' market, as it would probably have to be sold for $42-50K. IF you enlarge the image above, you can see that at least in the Middle East, this Chevy comes with a rear seat DVD video system with monitors in the rear headrests, a pretty nice touch. I can only assume that this car will be subsidized heavily for the police fleet market to make it affordable for American communities. A slightly shorter version of this car/platform was recently sold in the US as the Pontiac GTO, and was withdrawn after a few years due to low sales and ultimately Pontiac's demise as a marque.

When I heard rumors of this police car coming to the States, I created this luxury version for well-heeled Bow Tie buyers, adding more trim along the rocker panels with darker rocker panels to make the car seem lower and longer, and I added full-width taillights with some extra chrome too. Full width taillights are not necessarily a Chevy styling cue, although some smaller Chevys have used it before, but I felt that the entire car was not very  Chevy-like, so I went with what I thought would look good regardless.

The actual upcoming United States domestic market Caprice in police-car trim. I think this might be the first time that a police-car will be sold in the United States without a related passenger car on sale as well. You can read a bit more about it in today's Autoblog here.

U P D A T E — An anonymous comment below corrected this post. The last version of this platform sold as a Pontiac, a short wheelbase version of this Caprice, was the G8, not the GTO. The GTO was an earlier coupe version of the Australian Monaro coupe. Thanks, Anonymous!

Once a Mercedes, Always a Mer. . . Not So Much!

Starting out as a Mercedes Benz CL coupe, this new Chevy Bel Air is a favorite chop of mine. It incorporates several classic Bill Mitchell GM styling cues—a flying-buttress roofline, trademark "2-hole" Chevy taillights, and the pillarless coupe styling that the original 1950 Bel Air brought to the masses. Just about the only Mercedes left in it are the front fender bulges and rear valance panel with quad tailpipes. The louvered rocker panel trim piece wouldn't necessarily be functional, but is a styling detail that Harley Earl and Mitchell both would have loved. You know the drill: click images to enlarge.

This slightly tongue-in-cheek Ford Crown Victoria chop is a bit lower in resolution than I work in now. It dates back a few years. The donor image was an S63 AMG sedan, but the only Mercedes left in it are the rocker panels and rear valance/exhaust pipes. I wanted this large RWD Ford sedan to evoke the Crown Victorias of the early '90s, hence the 6-light DLO, although the C pillar window treatment is actually a bit '70s inspired. A full-length chrome beltline modling incorporating the door handles, is a touch that goes back to the '30s on many cars, as well as early '60s Fords. Rover first brought this styled molding back in the '90s on its last UK-built cars, but I think it could work on today's cars if done right. The front and rear styling was meant to be "Super" Fusion in appearance, although the chrome molding on the trunk lid with the Ford logo centered on it is very '68 Torino. The slight indents on the hood and trunk lids suggest Ford's trademark dual paint stripes used on it's performance models. The vertical headlights evoke the '65-'67 fullsize Fords, and the polished silver front passenger door is a nod to the Crown Vic's long-standing record as a police vehicle.

This Thunderbird is based on an image of the CL coupe, just as the Bel Air above was. I'm sure by now you've recognized the rear diffuser with quad exhaust and the rocker—I think they work really well so why change 'em, lol? My Thunderbird chops usually continue the 'real' Thunderbirds—the posh 4-5 seat luxury coupes that first entered the market in '58. This Tbird uses the classic indented trunklid of the '64-'71 models, but takes it a step further by indenting the rear window too, creating a glorious 3D piece of glass-probably enormously difficult and expensive to produce! Large square multi-element taillights and pillarless 2 door coupe styling are more Tbird cues, and the broad C pillar with Thunderbird logo round out this return to sporting elegance!

'Bu with Two

Whatever happened to bodystyle choices? Bring back 2 door hardtops!

C H O P — Almost all of the cars my father brought home when I was growing up, were 2 door pillarless hardtops. We had the occasional wagon, or sedan, but the vast majority of family cars were 2 doors. In the last 15 years, bodystyles of new cars almost entirely consist of 4 doors and SUVs. Many of my chops are sedans made into coupes, for the very basic reason that the pillarless coupe is my favorite type of car. Here is a relatively plebian Malibu, with a flowing roof and pillarless construction. You can see I added slight flying buttresses to the C pillars, in a nod to the '66 and '67 GM intermediate coupes.

Tropical Thunder: RWD Hot Hatch Enters Fray with Opera Windows?

Hot hatch Southern California-style a la artandcolour

C H O P — Long before the recent Aveo RS concept hit the car show stands, I chopped an Aveo 5 door into this little sport hatch with rear-wheel drive proportions. I especially like the formal Lincoln Town Car-esque C pillar window treatment I worked into this 150 inch B segmenter, lol. I can imagine the Chevy Bow-Tie engraved or laminated into that small vertical pane. The Aveo name is slightly embossed into the lower rocker panels, optionally picked out in contrasting color as seen in this example. The shaved doorhandles are a classic custom touch. A bright cheerful chop for a late-to-start but sunny Saturday afternoon. 

Shock New Crossover Coupe Has Only Two Doors! (I need that new sarcasm glyph)

X4/h

C H O P — In a retro move sure to shock the automotive audience right out of their Eames lounge chairs, the newest Teutonic crossover coupes come with, wait, drumroll please, only 2 doors. In the States, three drivetrain choices will be available, including a turbo 4 at the bottom, a full hybrid all-wheel drive mid-ranger, and a twin turbo DI 6 at the top—the new X4/t4, X4/h and X4/t6.

The rear hatch is powered and opens in a unique manner: the rear glass slides up and over the roof, and the painted portion of the tailgate powers down and inside the body, resting totally out of the way, leaving a wide open aperture for luggage. Kudos to anyone that remembers the full sized 1971-76 GM wagons' clamshell tailgates. In those cars, the rear window was powered in all versions, with the tailgate manually lowered unless optionally power assisted. I can't think of an earlier powered rear hatch/tailgate on a production vehicle. The idea wouldn't become popular for another 20 years. In the case of this X4 however, the rear glass slides over the roof, not inside it. Chop based on X6 of course!

X4/t4

B T W :

I N F L U E N C E S — These two Bimmer chops use 'floating' backgrounds. I grew up looking at car brochures, probably the earliest reading material of mine. It was a big thing in my family, every September, to go see the unveiling of the new cars. The brochure art of the sixties was at a zenith I'd say. My '64 Tbird catalog is large format, heavy stock and features not only onion paper in the front, it has a cloth-type art paper cover evocative of the Landau vinyl roof. The interior photography is all highly stylized and saturated with colors. Pontiac was still using artists to paint their new car advertising, Buick used illustrated interior art. Oldsmobile, later in the decade, placed cars on plain backgrounds and feathered in a setting to suggest how many activities and good times could be had with a new car. I guess I was pretty influenced by the artwork in those PR pieces, and I'd say my chops reflect that aesthetic much of the time.

A more obvious use of this sixties feathered/floating motif is in this early chop of mine, the Chevelle Camino, a shortening of Chevelle El Camino of course.

Can't you just hear the opening theme for Hawaii Five-O right now?