CHECK OUT THIS COLLECTION OF SPECTACULAR AUTOMOTIVE DIGITAL ART. The LATEST Addition appears right after Rick' intro.

  I'm not really one to talk about myself but per your request, here's a bit of a bio . . .

My whole life I've had an interest in cars, and my brother Jim is to blame. When I was growing up in the fifties, Jim (who is ten years older than me), taught me to recognize the year, make, and model of just about every car that cruised by in sleepy old Kelowna, BC. He made quite a bit of spare change betting friends his six-year-old brother could name nine out of the next ten cars to go by. Sadly, I was too young to know I should be asking for a cut of the winnings.

The cars of the thirties, forties and fifties remain my major area of automotive interest, but both older and newer ones can also catch my eye as well. Particularly if they look good and/or go fast!

For years I've gone to car shows and automotive museums all over the world. Almost every trip my wife and I have made, has included an automotive destination of some sort. In fact, on our honeymoon, we spent a day at the original Harrah's Auto Collection in Reno, Nevada. Thank goodness she puts up with my love of all vehicles.

After graduating from "Building Technology" at BCIT, my work experience began as a building construction inspector, followed by years of architectural drafting, then technical illustrator/writer for Western Star Trucks and finally computer graphic arts both freelance and as Art Director for a label printing company, all of which gave me the technical experience to explore my interest in creating digital artwork with an automotive theme. 

Cheers,

Rick       

            CLICK ON THE FOLLOW FOR A REAL TREAT.     

https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0vJtdOXmJKQxAc

See new additions details below, as added by Rick . . .

October 10, 202

Hi All,

The 1933 Ford is one of my favourite cars, bar none. When you take the classic lines of that car and add in all the modern attributes like: a more powerful engine; better brakes, steering, and suspension; roll up windows; air conditioning, etc. This is what you get Dave’s Speed ’33. Add in one of the nicest paint jobs and the result is spectacular. A ’33 only better, much better.

You can see my illustration of this car in my shared album: https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0vJtdOXmJKQxAc

Cheers, Rick

Hi All,

Some are saying that the end of the Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) will happening in the next two decades. With that on my mind I thought it would be interesting to do an illustration showing the beginning of the ICE age. 

In 1885, working in facilities little more than a garden shed, Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach designed and built a "high revving" small gasoline powered four cycle engine. To test its viability to power a road vehicle Gottlieb and Wilhelm quickly built what they called a Reitwagen (Riding Car). I'm sure they realized this "vehicle" was not their best design, after all, they just wanted to see if their engine could propel a vehicle carrying human passengers down the road. Almost by accident, they laid out the design for what would become the motorcycle.

Even though this goofy looking device only hit a top speed of about twelve kilometres an hour and actually caught fire during its five kilometre test run, it proved the possibility of motorized transportation. Although Daimler died just five years after this, he had started revolution away from horse-drawn transportation. So the next time you're enjoying a drive in your latest vehicular marvel, say a little thanks to Gottlieb and Wilhelm for getting the ball rolling...

I saw a replica of the Riding Car at the Teknik Museum in Sinsheim, Germany – a great display of cars, motorcycles, airplanes et al.   I've just added this illustration to my shared photo library. To view it click one of the links below in the June 6th or May 4th section.

Cheers Rick

ps to see a Reitwagen in action, click the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGiy0XcTPjk&t=99s

Hi All,

In the early eighties, when the construction industry tanked under high mortgage interest rates, I found myself unemployed. One night when I was having trouble getting sleepy enough to head off for bed, I picked up pencil and paper and started doodling. Drawing always had a calming effect on me. Usually I sketched cars, but this night I was surprised when a robotic cartoon character emerged. It was a combination of a computer monitor for a face along with a set of wheels to make him mobile. Before long I had a rough drawing of what later became a real "imaginary" friend, I named Huxly*22. 

Each morning I would sit at my drawing board until I had created a newspaper daily strip (see two samples attached below), featuring Huxly, his nephew Chip, a cat called Silhouette and for some unknown reason, a gullible and goofy human called Kelly. 

I had a lot of fun drawing and writing Huxly. He usually had a sarcastic comment or corny point of view on every topic. And he was not shy about playing tricks on Kelly or teasing Silhouette the cat. Lately I've been revisiting Huxly and I’ve added a pic of Huxly describing how he came into being and showing a picture of his "family."  

I know it’s just a lot of silliness…  Cheers, Rick

ps I’ve Huxly’s family portrait to my shared photo album – anyone can view it at:

 https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0vJtdOXmJKQxAc 

Hi All,

I saw this recreation of "Herbie" from the movie "The Love Bug" in Winnipeg Beach, MB at their annual Show N Shine show in 2019. We came up on this car from behind and I wondered, "Why does this Beetle have two radiators jammed side by side in its engine compartment?" When I got to the front of the car, I saw why, there was a big V8 engine stuffed in where the spare tire, gas tank and a bit of luggage would normally be found! 

With the hood and the trunk lid closed, the car looked for all the world like another cute little Herbie recreation. The builder of this car somehow got all the new machinery in under the original body, there are no extra bulges or scoops added to cover the modifications. Look inside and the full roll-cage and racing seats and belts are a clue to something nefarious is going on here.  

This is the most challenging rendering I’ve done to date. I think drawing the engine took longer than the rest of the car.

Anyone can view this image and the rest of my illustrations in my shared album at: https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0vJtdOXmJKQxAc

Cheers, Rick

ps I usually delete the license plate from my drawings, but this one is so perfect… HER8IE   

Sunday April 4, 2021

Hi All,

So this is the third '32 Ford I've drawn in the last little while. The first was an absolutely beautiful classic highboy hotrod, the second a scruffy-looking hotrod pickup, which my brother Jim said if it were his, he would immediately have painted a nice smooth and shiny deep burgundy colour - he's not a fan of the "patina" look. Truth be told, I agree, paint that's as smooth as glass with a mirror-like deep gloss looks great. So, here's my illustration of another '32 Ford, this time it,s of my friend Dave's roadster pickup which is still one of the nicest '32 Fords I’ve ever seen - its paint, a deep, smooth, gloss black. I’m still learning how to "paint" shiny and reflective surfaces on the computer and this was an interesting challenge to say the least. 

For years, hotrodders have called '32 Fords "Deuces", which The Beach Boys made famous in their song "Little Deuce Coupe." While the film, American Graffiti centres around a yellow deuce coupe, still one of my favourite films. 

I was surprised to learn that only 593 "open cab" or AKA roadster pickups were built in 1932, making this a pretty rare Deuce. All of them were built specifically for commercial use and featured a wheezy little four cylinder engine. This roadster pickup has a very healthy “Hemi” stuffed into the engine bay.

Hope you like it...   Anyone can view this image and 109 others in my shared album at:   https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0vJtdOXmJKQxAc                         Cheers, Rick

Richard has posted a NEW PHOTO on

March 17th, 2021

  CLICK ON THE FOLLOW FOR A REAL TREAT.     

https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0vJtdOXmJKQxAc  

Museum (a great diversity of automobilia on display), The Mullin Museum in Oxnard, CA (the main theme being European cars like Delahaye and Bugatti) and the Grand National Roadster Show in Pomona, CA the highlight of things automotive on this trip.

This car was the winner of the 2016 America's Most Beautiful Roadster award, and was competing again in Pomona for that title when we saw it (another "grander" car won in 2017). But THIS car really caught my eye for its honest simplicity in the classic style known as a "Highboy." Which is characterized by having an unaltered '32 Ford Roadster body on its original frame rails. In the late 40's and early 50's this was a way to make a car that was cheap to build, fast and fun to drive.   

Recently I've learned that Darryl Hollenbeck, the owner/builder of this car and his wife argued about the colour to paint the car, he wanted bright green, she wanted brown. They resolved their dispute with a colour in between, they call it guacamole. I think more like pea soup. Regardless of what you call it, it’s perfect. 

View this shared album at: https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0vJtdOXmJKQxAc

Cheers, Rick  

Hi All,

I spotted the car this illustration is based on at the McCurdy Show and Shine in June of 2019. Although not completely stock, its classic lines have not been diminished by the modifications done to it.

Lee Iacocca, the Vice President of the Ford Division of the Ford Motor Company wanted to create a new car that would appeal to a younger demographic - the design brief stated: "It would seat four, have bucket seats and a floor mounted shifter, weigh no more than 2,500 pounds and be no more than 180 inches in length, sell for less than $2,500, and have multiple power, comfort, and luxury options."  Oh yeah, and "Ya gotta make it on the cheap!" To keep costs down, the Ford Falcon economy compact, formed the structure of the new car - initially called "Special Falcon," then "Allegro," then "Cougar," and finally "Mustang."

Three design teams within Ford prepared designs to meet the brief. Joe Oros headed up the winning team of designers consisting of Gale Halderman, David Ash Philip T. Clark and Charlie Phaneuf. The fastback was designed in secret at Phaneuf's studio. Once management saw the car, they gave it the immediate go-ahead. Although sales of the Fastback were less than the other two models, it was chosen by Carrol Shelby for the high performance version of the Mustang he was hired to create - the Shelby GT 350.   

Halderman drew the sketch that formed the basis of the design. https://www.hagerty.com/media/automotive-history/the-sketch-that-launched-the-mustang/ 

Work started on the design in 1962 and the car's historic official public debut was at the New York World's Fair on April 17, 1964. Initially, coupe and convertible versions were available. These early cars were marketed as '64-1/2 models. In September of 1964, the '65 models were introduced, including the fastback model (my all-time favourite Mustang). The Mustang was a runaway sales success from day one. Ford dealers sold 22,000 cars on its first day and 400,000 in the first year and hit 1,000,000 sales within two.

To see this illustration an please go to my shared photo library here: https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0vJtdOXmJKQxAc

Cheers Rick  

Surprising Fact: Mustang Serial Number One (5F08F100001) was sold on April 14, 1964, at the George Parsons Ford

dealership in St. John,s, Newfoundland, Canada

Joe Oros https://auto.howstuffworks.com/joe-oros.htm 

David Ash https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L._David_Ash

Gale Halderman https://www.motorcities.org/story-of-the-week/2020/remembering-gale-halderman-the-man-behind-the-ford-mustang, 

Charlie Phaneuf (fastback)

Philip T. Clark (the designer of the running horse logo).  

A fuel shortage caused by the 1956 Suez Crisis meant that fuel was again rationed in the UK - sales of large cars tanked. Leonard Lord, the head of the British Motor Corp, stated that a "proper miniature car" was needed. To that end, he laid down his requirements in a design brief - the car should be contained within a box that measured 10x4x4 feet and the passenger accommodation should occupy 6 feet of the length. Purchase price to be as low as possible and fuel economy as high as possible.

Sir Alec Issigonis was assigned to design the car. Following Lord's design brief he created a vehicle that maximized every square inch of space in the car. By using sliding glass instead of roll-down windows in the doors, it opened up the space normally occupied by the window winder mechanism to be storage bins. Turning the welding seams of the body panels outwards meant no space was lost inside. Turning the engine sideways meant only 20% of the car's length was occupied by the mechanicals. Using tiny 10 inch diameter wheels lessened the amount of space the inner fenders needed. Rubber cones rather than conventional steel springs were used in the suspension for all four wheels - again saving interior space. An added benefit of this suspension was the go-kart like handling praised by driving enthusiasts.  

If you've never driven or ridden in a classic Mini you'd be hard pressed to appreciate the amount of space there is inside. Four adults fit with "reasonable" space. When it came to luggage space, the trunk lid was hinged on the bottom like a pickup truck tailgate - large items too big to fit IN the trunk, could be accommodated by leaving the trunk lid down and lashing the load in place (maybe not ideal in typical British rainy weather, but handy in a pinch). 

The car became a reverse status symbol in the 60's owned by many famous people including: Twiggy, Steve McQueen, Peter Sellers, Enzo Ferrari, James Garner, all four Beatles and even Mr. Bean!   

There were many factors that caused the end of the "classic" Mini: poor build quality, union strife and ultimately the inability of the Mini to meet ever stricter crashworthy standards. BMW bought the rights to the brand and set about creating a new Mini and it was introduced in late 2000. Although being significantly larger and heavier than the original, it still looked like and drove like a Mini. 

Nowadays BMW produces a whole range of cars and suv's under the MINI brand.

Sir Alec Issigonis was the designer of the Mini. 

 https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0vJtdOXmJKQxAc             Cheers,   Rick  

TUE. 2021-01-12 CITROEN 2CV

This is my illustration of a Citroen 2CV I saw at a car show called Les Petites in Vernon a few years ago. It is a 1968 model, which I thought must be one of the last years of production. But it turns out the 2CV was made until 1990! Forty-two years without a major change, not bad for a weird little French car. Development of the car had begun in the 1930's, but the Second World War got in the way of its production. It was formally introduced to the public at the Paris Salon, December 7, 1948. 

The design brief for the car specified it must be affordable by the average French farmer. That same farmer and three of his adult friends, along with 50 kg of farm produce must fit in the car and they should be able to travel to market at 50 kmh. As well the car must be able to traverse a plowed field with a basket of eggs in the boot without breaking any. As well, the fuel economy must approach 3 litres per 100 km. Hence the original 375 cc flat twin, air cooled engine producing a whopping 9 horsepower. Over the years the size of the engine grew, as well the power went up, first to 12 then eventually all the way to a healthy 29 hp.   

Citroen's designers and engineers took on this challenge and came up with a remarkable car that met all the brief's specifications. Over 4.2 million 2CV's just like this one were built, but if you include all the variants: vans, pickups and all wheel drive vehicles, the total is over 8 million!

Here's a short video of Chris Harris driving and describing his own unrestored 1957 Citroen 2CV. This guy has driven just about every high performance car there is, and here he's enjoying his "Tin Snail!" At the end of the video, note that Chris is sitting outside the car on its front seat (it was easily removed), handy if you're having a picnic.

     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGIwvoLPoAU

Thursday 2020-12-20  1965 Mustang Mach

I was fortunate to be in the right place at the right time to snap some pics of my friend Bruce's debut of his completed '69 Mustang Mach 1 Sportsroof at one of the few McCurdy Corner Cas Shows this summer. Hopefully next year the car shows will be back. 

I've shown the car from the back as I've always liked the way the roofline is done. If I had to say which classic Mustang is my favourite, this would be top of the list. I believe Gale Halderman was the designer responsible for the look of the Mustang. Sadly he died this year, here's a link to his obit:  https://motorcities.org/story-of-the-week/2020/remembering-gale-halderman-the-man-behind-the-ford-mustang

You may need to highlight and copy the above and paste it into your browser

Motorcycles played a big part in my mis-spent youth. After my first motorbike, a little Honda Super Cub, the rest of my bikes had 2-stroke engines. I liked the simplicity of that engine, it has just three moving parts: the piston, connecting rod and crankshaft - no camshafts, pushrods, rockers, valves or any of the other complications a 4-stroke engine needs to operate. In my motorcycling days I had six bikes with 2-stroke engines and managed to break only one. I also liked that 2-strokes usually made more horsepower per CC than 4-strokes. In motocross racing for example, 250cc 2-strokes race against 450cc 4-strokes. However there is a downside to getting big power from a 2-stroke, it can have a very narrow power band. Kawasaki took that route with their H1 500 triple that came out just after the Suzuki 500. At 4500 rpm the Kawasaki made about 15 horsepower, at 4800 maybe 18, at 4900 it was about 20, then at 5000 rpm 60 hp! You better be ready for that sudden burst of power or bad things happened. It wasn't nicknamed "The Widowmaker" for nothing.

Suzuki took a different approach with THEIR 500. They tuned their engine to have a wide power band and while it was fast enough, it was nowhere nearly as quick as the Kawi. When it came to its engine and frame layout, again it was the opposite of the Kawasaki. The Kawi had the engine as close to the rear wheel as possible, the Suzi had the engine far forward in the frame, putting more weight on the front wheel. Even though I tried many times, I could not get my Suzi 500 to pull a wheelie, while the first time I test-rode a Kawi I had a hard time keeping the front wheel on the ground. My Suzi 500 always felt stable and confidence inspiring - a joy to ride! 

Back in the 60's and early 70's, 2-strokes were very common. Now if I see on the road, I stop and listen, they seem so exotic. How things change. 

What killed them was their poor exhaust emissions. It was easier to switch to 4-stroke engines than figure out how to clean up 2-strokes. That might be starting to change, but that's a story for another day. Again, for another day, would be my reminiscing about my LAST bike, a Suzuki GT750, a water-cooled, 3-cylinder, 2-stroke 750 - affectionately known as the 'Water Buffalo'.