Some of the car related detritus I have collected over the years (there's a whole stack of printed material also, manufacturers brochures etc) I've been waiting for the right moment to use all this stuff.
Tuesday 24 April 2007
Sunday 22 April 2007
I've got a Silver Machine.
(well me dad had one back in the early 70s)
1. 1/100 scale diecast model Ford Capri MkI photographed/manipulated and drawn over in fotoshoppe/printed onto a4 sheets cut and sellotaped together and affixed to board (primed with white acrylic) formerly used as base for model scrapyard.
2. Same process but smaller print taped to small box canvas
3. Silver Capri 2.0 S for sale in Kingstanding (not far away from where my MkII Ford Escort seized up one morning on the way to work!)
1. 1/100 scale diecast model Ford Capri MkI photographed/manipulated and drawn over in fotoshoppe/printed onto a4 sheets cut and sellotaped together and affixed to board (primed with white acrylic) formerly used as base for model scrapyard.
2. Same process but smaller print taped to small box canvas
3. Silver Capri 2.0 S for sale in Kingstanding (not far away from where my MkII Ford Escort seized up one morning on the way to work!)
Sunday 15 April 2007
Friday 13 April 2007
Tuesday 10 April 2007
Pick Up Culture
Fuzztone with Chevy C-10 Lichfield 2005
I love these utilitarian vehicles.
An American Icon exemplifying an honest work ethic and the image of good ol'boys partying on the weekend with an endless supply of Pabst Blue Ribbon and Metallica cranked up high on the stereo.
An America of the imagination I suppose. Influenced by movies and dreams of escape. Endless blacktop stretching to the horizon, Motels, Diners & Truckstops. Strange when I consider that most of the film influences that spring to mind come from work that edges towards darkness: Blue Velvet, Duel, Vanishing Point etc.
Phot Credit Eve Arnold The Misfits. Marilyn Monroe on the set of "The Misfits" Colour photograph1960
So a workhorse vehicle, faithful loadlugger, criss crossing the prairies and rolling into town. Also a symbol of freedom perhaps, taking the place of the horse as the farm hands mount of choice.
tbc
Opel Fruitless
During the 1970s and 80s my dad had mostly Opels as company cars. This has inspired an enduring and nostalgic love of the marque and I have owned several Opels myself.
Arrival
Here you can see the board that I found in the street which I subsequently used as a base for my 1;43 scale junkyard diorama. The Caravan came from The Acme Toy Company in sunny Erdopolis and is home to my alter-ego Duwayne Almann Kellog.
Trois Citroens (Why I like driving in France)
In mid-2005 the UK was home to 60.2 million people, of which 50.4 million lived in England. The average age was 38.8 years, an increase on 1971 when it was 34.1 years. In mid-2005 approximately one in five people in the UK were aged under 16 and one in six people were aged 65 or over.The UK has a growing population. It grew by 375,100 people in the year to mid-2005 (0.6 per cent). The UK population increased by 7.7 per cent since 1971, from 55.9 million. Growth has been faster in more recent years. Between mid-1991 and mid-2004 the population grew by an annual rate of 0.3 per cent and the average growth per year since mid-2001 has been 0.5 per cent.
Source: http://www.statistics.gov.uk/CCI/nugget.asp?ID=6
Here are a few useful facts. There are over 24m cars on the road and the UK now has one car for every 2.1 people. While over 71% of households have at least one car, 22% have two or more cars. With UK sales reaching around 2.5m in 2002 it seems that more people than ever are buying cars.
Indeed, it has been calculated that if all the new cars bought last year were parked together, they would reach a distance equivalent to London to Edinburgh and cover 27 lanes of motorway.
Although cars are generally an easy and convenient way of getting around, the roads are becoming more and more congested. Road speeds in central London before the congestion charge was introduced were as low as they were 100 years ago: about 16kmh (10mph).
Source: http://www.statistics.gov.uk/CCI/nugget.asp?ID=6
Here are a few useful facts. There are over 24m cars on the road and the UK now has one car for every 2.1 people. While over 71% of households have at least one car, 22% have two or more cars. With UK sales reaching around 2.5m in 2002 it seems that more people than ever are buying cars.
Indeed, it has been calculated that if all the new cars bought last year were parked together, they would reach a distance equivalent to London to Edinburgh and cover 27 lanes of motorway.
Although cars are generally an easy and convenient way of getting around, the roads are becoming more and more congested. Road speeds in central London before the congestion charge was introduced were as low as they were 100 years ago: about 16kmh (10mph).
Source: http://education.guardian.co.uk/primaryresources/story/0,,916132,00.html
UK land area (Km2) = 242,900
(Includes the four constituent countries, excludes the three Crown dependencies (768 km²), the 13 British overseas territories (17,027 km²) and the British Antarctic Territory (1,395,000 km²), (1,655,695 km² if including overseas and disputed territories)
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_and_outlying_territories_by_total_area
With an estimated population of 64 million people, France is the 23rd most populous country in the world. France's largest cities are Paris, Marseille, Lyon, Nice, Toulouse and Nantes.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/France#Demographics
France Land Area (Km2) = 551,500
Includes Metropolitan France only; the entire French Republic (excluding Adélie Land) covers 674,843 km².
France Car Ownership: 29 160 000 cars(Ministère de l'Equipement, des Transports, de l'Aménagement duterritoire, du Tourisme et de la Mer,http://www.equipement.gouv.fr/statistiques/chiffres/transpor/transpor.htm#10,as of 31 Dec 2002)
So we can see that the UK population is similar (give or take 4m!) to that of France with almost twice the land mass. This information plus the fact that the French construction industry knows how to build bloody roads is the reason why I like driving in France!
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