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Click on any image to get the bigger picture |
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Some recently rediscovered
artwork lurking between the pages of a reference book and the story of my
hand-painted badges, make up the bulk of this page. |
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Here’s a selection of badges. From left to right; Krypton - Dave Wilson’s Pro Comp dragster, Imagination - Rick Fielding’s slingshot, Oxford Builder - Geoff Martin’s Reliant Kitten altered, Paranoia - Brian Thomas’ Jag altered, Neon Star - Graham Barrs’ Pinto, and Animal - Mick & Wayne Saunders T altered. |
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Top row from left to right; Tequila Sunrise - Barry Giles’ Jag T, The Stones - funny car and Pro Comp, Readspeed - Steve Read Pro Comp. |
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Bottom row from left to right; Panic - Page brothers' Monza funny car and finally the Frontline Top Fuel team of Andy Craddock and Steve Clark with both early and late logos. |
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Finally, two of the more complex designs. The Tony Froome Sundance funny car was tricky because of the sunrise and gold/silver paint while the Bad Habit badge was very hard just to plan where the colours went. I initially made about 10 and Robin Read asked me for a few more depicting the Bad Habit nitro/Daimler dragster, but I had to refuse as I could not face doing them! |
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Though this is recent
artwork, the subject is an old one. |
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Again, more recent art though most will have not seen it. I was commissioned by Rob Loaring and Nick Davies of the Havoc AA/Altered team to do a pen and ink T shirt design. This is a close-up of the Bantam, concentrating on the car minus the lettering to show the detail in the Chevy engine and chassis, all of which is on view. A modern doorslammer with a smooth front end would have taken a lot less time to do, but luckily I like to draw complex engines. |
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One of a series of pen and ink drawings, this one depicts the Donovan-powered Readspeed Top Methanol dragster with Steve Read at the wheel. Many of these drawings appeared in Fire Up magazine which had black and white reproduction and so fitted in well. |
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The yellow and red Suzuki Pro Stock machines of Jack Valentine from Shaw near Manchester were the killer combination back in the 1980s and early '90s. This was another B&W drawing done in the pointillist (fine dots for shading) style, which again, appeared in Fire Up. |
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Rounding off these pieces of art is the California Kid nitro Fuel Altered of Clive Mechael. Again, with the Hemi on view, there are plenty of pipes and wiring to draw, plus things like tyre tread and lettering to consider. |
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This picture was taken in Zandvoort, Holland around 1987. John Spuffard used a nitro Donovan and a damaged ex-Nobby Hills Challenger body to come up with the pretty but short-lived Showdown funny car. I designed the paint scheme and applied the striping and lettering. I also did the airbrushing on the headlights and finished spraying the grille at the Pod under portable lights late at night! |
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One of the many Jag powered T’s of the 1980s was the Solar Storm, a particularly well turned out car. This was one of my earliest pieces of coloured pencil art dating back to 1984. Prior to that, the last time I had done any art was at school back in 1975 and even that was a fully detailed AA/Fuel Altered! I only had eight colours of pencil so any car I did had to be covered by those shades. |
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One of my favourite doorslammers of the early 1980s was the Frenzy injected Firenza of Dave Collis. About the nearest thing we had to a Pro Stocker back then, running in the A/Modified class. I find it hard to believe I did this admittedly fairly rough drawing almost a quarter of a century ago. |
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Marion James was the driver of the Instigator, a dragster based on the ex-Ray Hoare Turbo Saxon chassis. I remember that the team used to tow the car down to the start line with a hearse and a couple of the crew members would sport top hat and tails which was a nice touch. |
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The Time Bandit of Paul White was one of many Chevy-powered T- bodied altereds that have appeared throughout the last few decades. |
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On the front cowl behind the engine on the Time Bandit T was this helmet and mask motif that I designed and painted. I was quite pleased that occasionally a few people would notice this feature in the pits and take a photo of it. |
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In the early 1980s there were a handful of motorcycle-engined dragsters such as the Lo-Litre and this one, the Exile driven by Dave Ellis and a couple of other guys. The Exile was Kawasaki powered and ran 8’s with nitrous, which was none too shabby for the time. |
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This is Robin Read at the helm of the Bad Habit dragster with its blown Daimler powerplant. If you compare this picture to one of the earlier ones with the badges, you can see the Bad Habit logo and how tricky it was to reproduce. |
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Kenny Coleman currently runs a supercharged dragster with much success in Super Pro, but many years back he ran the Stampede Maverick which had quite a history before this in the hands of the Blue Rose team. This was taken at Santa Pod on a November day. |
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The Rubellion Daimler-powered Austin Ruby is still around in the hands of John Attridge in a much modified stripped down form for the street. This was a shot of it in its early incarnation coming round to run at the Pod around 1979 I think. |
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This was a study on the line of Paranoia taken on slow 50ASA slide film and was one of Brian Thomas’ favourite shots of the famous Jag-powered altered. The car is still around today in the hands of Martin Holgate. |
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A short-lived and rather strange dragster was the Pontiac-powered machine of Robin Wilby. Supposedly a Top Fuel car, I first saw it at North Weald and later it came to the Pod on a November day but wasn’t initially allowed to run. Eventually, it made a solo pass with one slick smoking followed by the rear axle letting go with the pictured aftermath. I never saw the car again. |
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All material on this site is copyright and should not be reproduced without permission |
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