Favourite Photo

I found this photo (Below) on another forum and i thought everybody has probbably got a favourite pic of thier car
Show us your Favourite pic of your Pride & Joy.

Beautiful photo with the fireworks and Harbour Bridge in the background.
Love the Camaro and Yellow is one of my favourite colours.
Very very nice.

Hi JP
You dont have to put one up.......Your Signature pic is plenty good enough.

Maybe not my favourite Photo but I think my Favourite Car.
This is what my next car will be.

This one I like simply because it was a test of my new Camera, it's cropped from a larger image like the one below.
To say I'm well pleased with my new Canon, is an understatement, although I'm on a steep learning curve.


Not sure it's the pic but this one is about the same as what I cropped the image above from.


The car? Gio may be able to tell you what it is.

Hi Pete,

Is this a TEST???

Toyota's first car ~Model A1 (Prototype - built from dream to reality in 5 years) by Ki'ichirō Toyoda.

A combination of a Chev engine and a DeSoto Vehicle imported from the States because they where the leader in their fields.



Did l pass

Giobus wrote:Hi Pete,

Is this a TEST???

Toyota's first car ~Model A1 (Prototype - built from dream to reality in 5 years) by Ki'ichirō Toyoda.

A combination of a Chev engine and a DeSoto Vehicle imported from the States because they where the leader in their fields.

Did l pass

I could of told you that, and I'm not in the trade. .....ok I watched Mega Factories last week.

Nice pic Carps, what camera/lense etc if you dont mind me asking?

I take it that is a toyota museum in Japan? I have always wanted to make a trip over there and check out the museums and other parts of the Japanese car culture, I am actually planning something for next year hopefully

None are mine but I think it's a cool photo

OK Dave, you've really done it now. You asked for it. I just couldn't possibly post only one photo. I spent a good hour cutting it back to just 10. What follows is a mix of other people's cars I would turn gay for, cars I have had access to, cars I own, and lastly THE car I would own if I had all the money in the world. So here goes.

Lust after these






Have been / are mine


[/URL[URL=https://s1272.photobucket.com/user/Big-Vic/media/MyCamaro-BrightRodRun_zps4b7dbe48.jpg.html]

And THE ULTIMATE

Gio, Gio, Gio, what am I going to do with you.

The A1 prototype is slightly different, many of the details are different, the biggest being that the A1 grille bars run vertically.

This is the AA Saloon, which was the first production model and the badge/mascot was the result of a public contest.

Only one original car is known to survive and that car is on display in as found condition at the Louwmann Museum in Holland. Louwman purchased the car from it's Russian owners a few years back. Nobody knows how it came to be in Russia but it was still in daily use.

The car pictured is one of three cars completely hand built using the original blueprints and tooling (Toyota never throw any tooling away) to display during celebrations of the companies 50th anniversary. So effectively, the cars are only 25 years old, although the deign and technology is over 75 years old.

The body is slightly smaller than the Chrysler Airflow that was Kiichiro's inspiration and yes, the engine and chassis were unique but based on Chevrolet deigns and technology of the day.

Chevrolet had actually been in production in Japan since the mid 1920s, so the design and engineering was well known to young Toyoda-san. The Chrysler styling he saw whilst undertaking genchi genbutsu activities during the cars development phase in the early 1930s, which included visits to Chrysler, GM and Ford.

Only 1,404 Model AA saloons were built and the price when new was 3,350 yen, in todays mAustralian money, that's about $35.00.

Longroof, these shots were taken at the Toyota Automobile Museum in Toyota City, it is one of the worlds finest auto museums and has a great mix of vehicles from all corners of the globe. However, it's strength is that it has the best collection of Japanese cars anywhere and indeed gives a great insight into the Japanese industry and how the Automobile influenced the nation.

In Nagoya, at the original site of the Toyoda Automatic Loom-works, the Toyota Heritage centre tells the story of the Toyoda family, how Sakichi invented the machines that would build the foundations for what was to come and how the business developed. I guess this may be the beginning of another thread, if you guys are interested, once I finish the GNRS thread, which still has many more images to come.

Regarding the camera, my first digital was a Canon EOS10D purchased over fifteen years ago and it has delivered more than two million images without a hiccup. Whilst shopping the Hobby centre of Tokyo recently, I wandered into a camera store and they had the just superseded Canon EOS IDX models for what is an insane price, so I just had to buy one. It's a whole different ballgame to the EOS 10 and the image quality is out of this world. My 'standard lense is a semi-pro (red line) 28-135, although these shots were taken using the red line 17-40. I also have a 28-105 and for longer stuff, use the 70-300 lens. Hopefully by the time I head to the US in August for the NSRA Nationals and Bonneville, I'll have worked out how to operate it well enough for a better than 80% success rate. I also usually carry a pocket sized Nikon and/or one of the JX series Nikons, for those times when the Canon card is filled or the batteries are exhausted. One thing I love about the new one is that it works with either 8 or 16 gig CF cards, with a 32 gig SD card as back-up. According to the manual, the battery pack is good for 4,000shots on a single charge.

This post is producing some amazing Pics, Hey Vic not sure I'd wanna turn Gay for any car but then I might consider it for that Impala fastback or that Mongrel Camaro that is just pure animal,
Sam, That must of been a Lowrider convention, cool 50's cars

Well done guys keep the pics coming this is a great thread. Everyone must have a favourite Pic.

My all time favourite car is a truck!

So without trying to hijack this thread, please allow me to fill you in on the story of Spencer Murray's magazine project, which became my favourite vehicle and the world's most famous pick-up truck.  

The project was conceived not long after my birth, in the September 1953 issue of Rod & Custom magazine. That first feature story was about the installation of an OHV Olds' V8 into a 1941 Chevy passenger car chassis. 

Not long after Rod & Custom Magazine editor, Spence Murray, purchased a brand new '54 Chevy Pick-up cab which he planned to mount on that chassis. It was delivered on a pallet to Sam's Auto Body, where proprietor Sam Gates, chopped the top 4 inches. It was then taken to Valley Custom in Burbank, where the body was sectioned 4 inches and channelled an equal amount over the '41 Chev car chassis. 

Here it is outside Valley Custom Shop in 1954. 
 

And at home with Spence Murray early in 1955. 

 
And here before the bonnet was sectioned and scooped, sometime in 1955 
 

Over the next five years, the truck was worked on by a veritable who's who of US customising. It went through Gene Winfield's shop, Barris Kustom City, Moon Automotive, Geraughty Automotive, Offenhauser, Hedmen Cragar and Colgan Upholstery. 

After 2,500 Rod & Custom Magazine reader suggestions and at a cost of almost $10,000 the truck was finally completed. The construction story was published over 24 issues of the magazine and the '41 Chev chassis was replaced sometime during that process by a heavily modified '50 pick-up chassis.

By the time it was completed, the Rod & Custom Dream Truck incorporated every customising trick in the book! Because it is the vehicle upon which 'the book' was based.  Front and rear grille openings are made from 1953 Studebaker lower front pans, the headlamps are aftermarket units with open mesh backing and tube framework over which the hoods were formed. The bonnet and roof scoops are fully functional, and antennas are mounted in the rear fenders, with the rear-most of the three Buick portholes in the lower pick-up bed sides being the exhaust outlets. 

Here it is at an outdoor show in Los Angeles around 1957, in primer almost ready for painting. 
 

The first paint-job in lavender pearl, was striped and scalloped by Dennis Rickleffs. 
 

It was later re-painted pearl white with Purple scallops, interestingly, the shortest lived was also the most remembered and popular paint scheme and the one that's on the truck today.

It was not until the June 1957 issue of Rod & Custom Magazine, after the fins were added, that the truck was finally given it's name, when it appeared on the cover with the headline banner proclaiming that at long last the The Dream Truck Is Finished!

The truck was now wearing the candy lime green and purple pearl paint-job, by Larry Watson. 



Over the next two years the truck was displayed at 44 rod and custom shows across America, being viewed by over 2,500,000 fans. Then, on October 22nd 1958, whilst being flat towed behind Spence's new '59 Chevy pick-up to a show in Des Moines, Iowa, it was destroyed after a tyre blew on the tow pick-up and both trucks rolled down an embankment at the side of the highway 90 miles west of Wichita, Kansas. 




Spence had the wreck shipped back to California where George Barris quoted $3,500 to repair it. In 1958 that was a serious pile of money! So, unable to fund the repairs, the mechanical components were stripped out and sold off. Then the remains of the body and chassis were sold to a guy in Pasadena for $150. 

The wreck changed hands a few times over the next couple of years, each time for $150 and then it simply disappeared. 

Some 20 years after it vanished, freelance photographer John Lamm snapped these shots of the truck's remains in a street in Stockton California. The shots eventually found their way to Rod & Custom magazine where they were published. 


 


Seeing the remains of the Dream Truck spurred a fellow named Bruce Glasscock on a mission to track down and purchase the wreckage. In 1983 the truck was eventually purchased and quickly 'restored' by Glasscock. he painted it in the white pearl and purple scallops as it was after the lavender and before the lime colour it was when wrecked. He then drove it extensively, including to the first KKOA Nationals where it was as big a hit, just as it had been in the 1950s, 

In 1985 it was purchased by Kurt McKormick of St Louis Missouri, who performed a full chassis off restoration with drive-train and a new interior, done to match perfectly the truck's final 1958 condition. The paint remains as it was done for Glasscock's restoration. 

My first encounter with the Dream Truck was about 1957 when I was given a copy of the June '54 Rod & Custom magazine that details the chop and section work done to the body. It includes a neat picture of the truck cab sitting on the pallet beside a stock pick-up. 

Whilst I was already car crazy, I'm inclined to believe it was that magazine which turned my head and lead me on a lifetime of involvement with hot rods and customs, I still have it as well as the Sept '53 issue. Come to think of it, I have a complete collection of Rod & Customs magazines.

I followed the truck in R & C magazine stories, from it's beginning to demise and then the discovery of the wreck and subsequent restoration. In 1990 I met and became friends with a great bunch of guys from the St Louis Street Rod Association, of which Kurt McKormick is also a member. In an all night bench-racing session I told my new friends of my passion for the Dream Truck and could not understand why they just laughed. My good buddy Mike Keehn, each time I stayed at his home in St Louis over the next few years, would say we must visit Kurt's home, but somehow the planets never seemed to align and make that possible. Then in August 1994 all the planets did come into alignment and through a rather humorous series of events I found myself in Kurt's driveway as he opened a garage door to reveal two vehicles, draped in car covers. One of the pair instantly had my total attention, it's shape unmistakable to me and Kurt was kind of surprised that I had recognised it instantly despite the cover. After drooling over the truck, I got to take it for a spin around the block, I was more nervous doing that than on my wedding day or any time I've driven a million dollar prototype vehicle, which made Kurt and the guys laugh

Here's my all time favourite Custom as it appears today.








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I've been a member of the St Louis Street Rod Association for many years now and always make sure I visit my favourite truck when I'm in the St Louis area.

Shige, always has a few for sale at his Yokohama Store




Seriously considered dragging this one home.

Nice one Carps, those crown utes are amazing. Attending the Annual crown picnic in Japan is on the bucket list for me mate, will make it one year haha

Anyways, some more random pics you may like













And for the TBIRD boys