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Click on any image to get the bigger picture |
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Time for another mixed batch including pictures of cars progressing from artwork, through to the finished result. Plus a few oddball one-off pictures and some forgotten cars are in there too. |
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I’ve always liked the hind quarters of a Ford Pop – particularly in a race car application. I fancied doing a series of close up views of various machines but only got as far as this one, owing to the time it took. This is Al O’Connor’s Al’s Gasser, taken from a view in the pits with a new background added. On the back can be seen the Motorhead logo from the band of the same name. It was done in black Bic biro and coloured pencil on illustration board. |
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Paul Watson had bought a Dodge Dart race car which was sprayed in straight red. He wanted to give it a new identity and was inspired by Al O’Connor, hence naming the car Grumpy’s Gasser after his own nickname. I was asked to design a logo for the car, whilst adding some sponsors names and this is how it came out. |
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Here I’m applying the last of the signwriting to the Dart, probably on a Saturday night in an Essex garage. As I recall, the lower stripes were a pain to do since the car was in the middle of a hydraulic ramp and the posts either side hindered the masking process. Luckily, they weren’t too wobbly. In an ideal world you’d paint a car in a bright, airy well lit studio but site work ain’t like that! |
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This is the car completed and competing in anger in Super Gas. The Dart went on to be the subject of my first Custom Car four-page feature, but we weren’t finished with it yet . . . |
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Paul Watson wanted to give the Dart a makeover to reflect the C&S Racing banner and fancied something different. First, I designed the C&S logo and drew it out actual size on my wall at home to make a template for the doors, so the sides would be even. If the design looks familiar it’s because the car looks the same today in the hands of Paul Marston and became a Street Machine feature car. |
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After 10 years, dare I say, the car still looks pretty good which is not bad going for a boxy Dart. |
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The trouble with revamping a race car is that it often happens in winter. A freezing cold garage in the depths of an Essex farm is not an ideal painting environment. The Dart was in base coat yellow and purple – I applied everything else including the checks and stripes. I made a rod for my own back with the complexity of the C&S logo but it beats using just block capitals. |
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In 1973 I was in secondary school and learning to draw, absorbing hot rod culture and the finer points of a John Buttera funny car chassis. Cricket didn’t do it for me. Anyway, I happened across this character I created that I’d forgotten about; ’the Wolf’, driving his blown Chevy pork chop on 99% nitro! I did a few of these cartoon-like creations and located this between the covers of an old book. Gawd knows where the rest are . . . |
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Back
in the early days of Pro Modified, there weren’t too many runners and the
pioneering cars weren’t as sophisticated as today’s offerings. This is the seldom seen Pinto of Alan Collins
but I don’t know its origins or what became of it. |
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This is the Seconds Out Bantam-bodied altered, one of many six-cylinder Jag-powered altereds of the time running on methanol. Some neat airbrushing on the exploding head graphic on the side is worthy of note on this mid-1980s car. |
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As I recall, this Bantam-bodied altered was 440 Chrysler-powered and the driver’s name was Andrew Killick. I only ever saw it run at Avon Park and I used to like the car but the last I saw of it was with a hole in the side of the block. I was quite taken with the swept forward look of the roll cage for some reason. My description of this and another slingshot as having a ‘neo-gothic’ rollcage still tickles my pal Mark Norton to this day! |
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This was an early sponsorship proposal done for Pro Stock bike racer Jack Valentine using the colours of German company TEP Elektronik. In a way, it’s just as well it didn’t come off as Jack’s Suzuki always looked nice and bright in yellow with red trim. |
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Nowadays, the use of computer-generated vinyl is widespread but back in the 1980s it was a new and expensive process. I remember a crewman on Dennis Priddles’ Britool sponsored Top Fuel dragster telling me how much the signs cost and it was reputedly hundreds of pounds. Alternatively, you could have had gold or silver leaf, airbrushed chrome, etc and I know which I’d have preferred to see. Note the unusual wing struts. |
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One of the better looking Pro Comp cars was the Chevy Monza of Anders Lantz. The class was of course the forerunner of Top Methanol funny car and this Roach sponsored Monza looked a treat with gold lettering and the blower and injector sticking way out of the hood. Look out for cars like this in 2008! Oh yes and on nitro too! |
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Robin Read developed the 2.5 litre Daimler engine into a 7 second nitro-burner but this first chassis on the Bad Habit version of the dragster ran on methanol. The car had some really colourful lettering and a ribald cartoon on the top cowling. I painted Robin’s crash helmet, replicating the Bad Habit logo on the top above the visor. |
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Stan and Paula Atkin have been racing or some years now. Stan built this Rover V8 powered Ford 100E for Paula which started out as a total street car. Modifications included nitrous and I was asked to design some bright graphics for the car as the deep purple colour was rather too subtle. It looked just black very often, but Stan didn’t want to re-spray what was a well finished paint job. He painted the dayglo stripes and I added the lettering. Later, having been sold, it hit the streets of Scotland with this paintjob! |
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A ground-up race machine was being prepared for the Pro Rover class and I drew a body in white sketch for the Atkins. Stan had approached JE Engineering as a sponsor and wanted a rendition of the car. All I had to go on was the logo on a black and white fax. Stan apologised as that was all he had, but told me the colours were red and white. I added the pink and lilac stripes to liven it up and I believe the artwork was instrumental in them getting the deal. |
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One sunny Santa Pod evening found the finished 100E out for a photo shoot. This was for Custom Car magazine, but was never used as the car appeared in Street Machine which meant I lost out. I did the extensive lettering and striping on the car, together with the grille, headlamps and tail lights. Stan prepared the glass-like paint and Paula put the 100E into the 8’s. It won ‘best appearing car’ at an award ceremony. |
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Nimbus Motorsport asked me to prepare a scale model of a 300 inch Top Fuel dragster. No kit existed, the nearest being the Don Garlits streamliner so I decided to hack it up but rather than use guesswork, proper engineering drawings to scale were prepared. The chassis was lengthened with styrene rod, the rear wing widened, new roll cage added and a fuel tank scratch built together with much of the bodywork. |
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The finished replica with the body removed to reveal the chassis. Only the major fuel and ignition hoses/wiring were added and note the cut outs in the front for steering clearance. The dragster was repainted twice with new colours. I do quite a bit of model making nowadays with some classic dragsters and funny cars in the pipeline. |
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Around 1980 I think, at Santa Pod on a windy, cold but bright day. Hardly a soul at the facility but some Pro Comp cars came out to play in May. It was a privilege to see the Page Brothers Panic Chevy T try out the track in marginal conditions. I can’t recall if the car managed to run a seven but the wind really was bad that day. I also don’t know if it was Dave, Gary or Clive in the hot seat. |
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