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Click on any image to get the bigger picture |
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This second page consists of more of the same with the emphasis concentrating on the artwork. There’s plenty more where this came from and later on, I will be delving into some of the 70’s stuff. Again, only a handful of people have ever seen these images before. |
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After Tim Cook’s full-size ’56, he moved onto this new ’55 Chevy Pro Modified which was very successful, later becoming the six-second machine of Henri Joosten. The paint scheme was based on a few rough sketches that I did and later on I went down to Canvey Island to apply the lettering, having come up with a Tim Cook logo letter design. |
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Tim Cook came up with a fitting sponsor for the car with Britvic 55 soft drinks. The company was based near where he lived so it was a logical move. This side view was scaled from an actual photo, which is how I like to work for accuracy. |
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This front angle of the car was sketched from scratch, putting a grille in the car, as it didn’t have one at the time. The car would have looked quite effective had the deal come off, I think. |
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Like all the illustrations in this series, it was done in watercolour based gouache and acrylic paint on illustration board. |
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To complement the racecar, Tim’s Transit van and trailer were treated to the same colour scheme to present a co-ordinated image. Hand drawing the Britvic logo accurately was time consuming and getting the curve of the logo when in perspective was tricky. |
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Finishing off the package was this sketch, which featured a design for a crew uniform and a promotional T-shirt. Going the extra mile with presentation can sometimes pay off. (Tell me about it - Ed) |
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On the previous page, we saw Steve Read’s Top Alcohol dragster in BP colours, which never came off. Later, the car was resplendent in a rival oil company’s colours with the Castrol GTX banner. This was the artwork that got the ball rolling on the original car before the Bob Meyer chassised 5-second car debuted. This was relatively straightforward to do, as the Gary Ormsby Top Fuel car had set a precedent for the design but getting the logos right was paramount. |
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While having been editor of both Custom Car and Volksworld magazines, Keith Seume had been campaigning his wheelstanding VW Pro machine (as would be called now) with much success. I prepared many sketches based on his orange and white colours (some of which will be used in future) but the car was never painted with the intricacy of the scheme. Beetles are a challenge because of the many compound curves. |
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One of the better blown methanol cars of the late 1980s was the Kopex Chevy Berretta of Terry Revill and Mark Newby. Mark instructed me to do three designs on the ex-Joe Amato/Rune Fjeld machine, two of which were of their ideas and finally, one of my own. I was flattered that they chose mine and this is it! The Leamon brothers crewed on the car who now race in Comp Bike. |
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Wayne Sanders started his driving career on four wheels but after his dragster, he progressed onto the Pro Stock bike scene and was very good at it - especially considering he’d never ridden a bike before! |
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Having designed the scheme for the Viking Tyres Chevy dragster, Wayne commissioned me to do the Pro Stocker and I did the helmet, leathers and a logo too. |
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This is Wayne Saunders on the bike once the paintwork had been finished. I seem to recall that this burnout shot was taken at a Cannonball meeting at the Pod around 1989? |
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This is another example of the event shirts I did for Santa Pod in the early to mid '90s. I’ll explain about the origins of them later but this is a depiction of a generic methanol dragster, taken from a shot of a car in National Dragster, featuring a handsome big Crower injector scoop which no-one ever used to my knowledge over here. Note the Union Jack TMD in the lower right of the illustration! |
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Back in 1993, I did something for myself. I really liked the Bentley Continental R and thought it would make a dandy Pro Mod. I still do! Anyway, Tim Baggaley who was editor of Custom Car at the time, thought it would be a giggle to do it as an April Fool for the April issue. |
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The car had a fictitious well-to-do driver and apparently, an Australian magazine rang up and wanted to know who Lord Melchett was and when would the car be appearing! Note the name of the car on the doors. |
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Professional model making is something I get more involved with nowadays. Back in 1989, I was asked by Nimbus Motorsport to make a current 300-inch wheelbase Top Fuel car. No kit was available then, the nearest being the 270-inch streamliner of Don Garlits, so I semi-scratchbuilt what was arguably the worlds first 300-inch car in 1/25th scale. The body and wing panels were done in plastic card with the nose piece made from a section of AA map light! The paint was white cellulose on the body panels. |
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In the early '90s Jon Lovett from Redcar had made a name for himself in the black and gold McGee-powered Top Fuel machine that he shared with Stuart Vallance. He had come from a Top Alcohol dragster and Jon was the British hope in the class at the time. In 1993, he approached a new company with a Top fuel proposal and this is how the car would have looked. |
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One thing that Jon had in his favour was a genuine Peterbilt cabover tractor unit. His idea was to extend the wheelbase of the truck and get a trailer rigged out with a hospitality unit, together with a large sleeper cab. Notice that the living quarter windows are not just simple oblongs and such a rig today would really cause a stir! |
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Many moons ago, Don Prudhomme visited these shores with his famous Army-sponsored Plymouth Arrow funny car. I recall him having a face like thunder all weekend and the car didn’t perform. Later on, the H&H chassised machine had much success with Bill Sherratt behind the wheel, but the Cannonball is seen here in the hands of John Niedowidz (?) and that’s Roy Phelps himself with his hands over his ears in the background. |
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In 1986 I was experimenting with a technique called pointillism. Basically, you do an outline illustration of something and any shading is done with a series of fine dots, the closer together and denser, the more shadow there is. Its straight forward but flippin’ time consuming, which is why I haven’t done one in years! In this case, the subject is the 392 Chrysler methanol-burning Cockney Rebel altered of Vic Hammond and John Bolton. The car lives today in the form of The Mob, but this time on nitro! |
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Back in 1978, Gene Snow from Texas built his last nitro funny car with a Tony Casarez chassis. The car was shipped over here and became the Satan’s Sledge and later the Grass Cutter of Chris Filsell. Following that, the car passed into the hands of the Frontline team with Andy Craddock driving. I designed the paintjob and did the lettering, striping, grille and what I called my ‘chemical garden’ headlights which were finished at 4am down in London! This however, is John Spuffard at the tiller of the now Showdown machine, having the engine let go spectacularly! |
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During the eighties, Geoff Martin campaigned the Oxford Builder Jaguar-powered Reliant Kitten / Robin regularly with partner Andy Gibson. I can’t even remember the circumstances, but anyway, I did a painting of Geoff’s altered for him depicting the 10 second machine in burnout mode. It was done in gouache on illustration board. My small involvement with the car was that I painted the race numbers on the rear side ‘windows’. |
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Some may remember when Jon Webster ran his wheelstanding Mercury Comet. When the car appeared it was a primrose yellow but in ’93, Jon fancied the car in a dark blue and this rendition shows how it would have come out. |
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All material on this site is copyright and should not be reproduced without permission |
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