We've joined the Chromjuwelen family today.  One of our favourite websites Chromjuwelen also aggregates a number of motoring blogs on its site; we now sit alongside some great content from other worldwide sites.

Whilst we're talking about 'behind the scene' stuff, I'm going to be giving the site a little aesthetic massage in the coming weeks, so keep an eye out for that.

We have a couple of new features on the way as well as getting back to more regular posting now that we've got some more time on our hands again.

Thanks for keeping with us, we hope we're providing you with what you want.

 

So a little while ago we were thinking about cars that didn't get modified that much, ones that also had bags of potential.  Sitting pretty at the top of the list was the MGB, cheap, plentiful and a great shape to work with.

Recently I set out to find some modified examples.  There are a lot of V8 conversion floating around, what is good to see is the number that have received some kind of aesthetic modification, not all perfect to our eyes but at least people are trying things out.

The home of a lot of these cars is the American site British V8.  If you look through their page of MG conversions you'll find some really interesting work done on the MGB platform.

Here are a couple of our favourites :



Don Coleman's car not only packs a 4.9ltr V8, but also has a really nice look going on, the dished Intro Custom Wheels are a nice addition with a cleaned engine bay and some serious detailing completing the look.

Read all about it here




Terry Schulte's car has smoothed out the body nicely with the removal of the front bumper, clear indicators and some subtle flares.  Whilst I'm not a great fan of the wheels, they actually match the details in the engineering.

Read all about it here




How about a car from the UK now, Darren Jones' Sebring kitted V8 is a mean purposeful looking car, but it didn't start out like that.  With pretty much everything upgraded the finished article is as eye catching as it is fast.

Check out the full build up from tatty rubber bumper car to roaring V8 Sebring here




Finally a break from the V8, Kyle Bingham's SR20 DET powered car is scare on detail and has been floating around the net for a couple of years.  Is the smaller 4pot turbo power the future for MG modification, or just the stuff that great sleepers are made of?

There isn't much info on the site, but some more pictures can be found here, if anyone knows any more we'd love to hear it.


To our eyes there is still some way to go before the perfect marriage of aesthetics and power is made in the MG scene, but we're keeping an eye on things and will jump up and down excitedly the moment we see it.

In February we wrote a little list of things we'd be expecting more over this year’s shows, with a few big ones still to go and a few already gone let’s see how on trend we've been this year.

On the up

Retro Tourism - The increased cost of air travel has probably put a little bit of a slow down on this one, however there has been a lot of movement from the UK to Europe to go to some of the bigger shows, as well as rumours of people travelling from New Zealand to the UK!

White Cars - Still not making a huge splash in the Retro side of things, still big news in the more modern car scene, with manufacturers getting in on the game as well.

Actually Buying Japanese Cars - Whilst the rate at which people have been buying Japanese car hasn't gone up hugely, they are definitely selling, and the values are going up accordingly, as people look around for winter projects I suspect a lot will have something Japanese on their list.

Retro Focussed Publications - By writing this it became true as we were one of them,.. and we cheated because we knew Retro Cars Magazine was returning.

Body Coloured Rims - Still not seen very often, however interesting wheel detailing is definitely on the up.  So we were half right... maybe.


Going down

VW Split Screen Campers - Okay these were never going to go down exactly, but they have moved out of the reach of many people, Type25 and the later VW T4 vans seems to be making waves in VW circles, whilst others are looking further afield.

Boring Wheels On Fords - Every time I see a show report for a Ford show I scan the photos for some interesting wheels, every time I see some it makes a little glow in my heart.

Ebay Bargains - We were right on this.  However ebay has changed their search and now I can't find anything,.. so there are probably loads of unfound bargains waiting the person who can use their mangled search.

Rained Off Car Shows - Seeing as I'm co-running the Retro Rides Gathering this coming weekend I hope we're right on this!

False Rat Look - Yes! What’s more people that have been putting a lot of effort into their rat rides get a bit more respect because of the lack of lazy rat looking.


With Vallakra and Edition38 Shows to go as well as a whole bunch of others across the world I'm not counting our chickens just yet, but I think we've done okay so far!

So it has been a while since we had a link log entry, the internet is still full of great car related sites, so lets have a look at which has been rocking our socks for the past few weeks.

First up this is a really retro set of photographs the Shorpy website is a fantastic collection of old photographs, it has much to look at, for us though the best stuff is in the classic car section : http://www.shorpy.com/classic-car-photos many hours can be lost studying these little snapshots of a world long gone.

Next we're off to Sweden for some racing cars, the Modsport Drivers Associations has a really nice website with reports, pictures, results and film clips.  It is easy enough to follow what is where even if you don't speak Swedish, you can see some outstanding racing cars : http://www.modsport.scorpionshops.com/index.htm

Where to next in our international whistle stop tour of the internet,.. Why Japan of course.  It is no secret that we love the Japanese scene here at RSM, so we thought you might also enjoy this build up of a Nissan 510 Drag racing car, from purchase to first race and beyond.  Fantastic! : http://www.0-4factory.com/510DRAG-1.htm

So on to our video.  One of our stated aims when we started Retro Scene Mag was to reflect the world wide Retro scene, this video perfectly reflects the reality of competing in Hillclimbs, really well filmed and evocative of how it is lived.

Usually I'd do a rare car entry about something there is only one or two of, they are often relics of great ideas that didn't pan out, or were ahead of their time.



This isn't a rare car in the same way, it is more a car of interest, something that should be more than a footnote in the history of classic cars.

Glas would already be known to anyone with an interest in microcars as the company that bought us the Goggomobil.  Founded by Andreas Glas the company’s primary business was sewing machines, at least until the end of World War 2.  Post war they produced the Goggomobil, but more interestingly for us in 1964 they started building the Glas 1300GT.



The 1300GT was a very pretty car, designed by Frua, powered by an inline 4 1290cc, single overhead cam engine.  Later the 1300 was beefed up and available as a 1700.  In 1966 the cars had a facelift and in which the round headlights were replaces by sharper rectangular lights, the lines of which created a more angular wing profile too.

Glas became part of BMW pretty soon after with the Glas 2600 GT being produced as a BMW and later beefed up to 3 litres with the 3000GT, essentially the design was the same but with BMW badges, if you line up the BMW cars from 1967 together you'll notice one stands out from the crowd, the Glas.



What piqued my interest in this car is this photo of a 1300GT racing, it is apparently taking part in Group 4 1970, however that would seem a bit late for it to be in international competition, does anyone know any more?

More information on the 3000GT can be found here

You can find out much more about this cool car on the Glas Club website

They say that smell is one of the strongest aids to recollection, that you can be transported back to a time or event by the whiff of whatever you associated with it.

For me that smell is racing fuel mixed with burning rubber.  Pretty much every weekend of my formative years was spent at Brands Hatch watching some form of motorsport or another, from Group C and touring cars, to Mighty Minis and Honda CRX'.



Each year I move further away from this time in my life, houses, jobs, moving, responsibilities all take me a little further away from the carefree time when Sunday was all about getting the best photography spot at Druids, then the days after waiting for the photos to come back from the developers.

So every chance I get now days I'll grab and head over to a motor racing circuit, it almost doesn't matter what it is, just to be out and enjoying cars racing round a track is good enough.  If it can be an event like the HSCC Historic Festival, or this weekends Castle Combe Classic Carnival then all the better.  Now not only do I get to shed responsibilities for a while but I also get to meet up with a whole load of new friends I've met in the intervening years.  What could be better, racing, cars and friends?

I'm sure I'm not the only one for whom the smell of cars triggers happy thoughts, am I?

 

Isuzu are not a company you would usually associate with sleek supercars, however for at least one brief moment this was the world they played in.  At the 1969 Tokyo Motor Show Isuzu presented the first of two concept cars, the Bellett MX1600.



The car had a mid mounted 1.6 litre engine from the GT-R version of the Bellett powering the rear wheels.  Inside the car was a two seat sports affair, and being Japanese is was right hand drive.  In 1970 Isuzu presented a second MX1600 concept car, the imaginatively named MX1600-II.  It was only subtlety different from the 1969 model, mainly in the front end styling.



Sadly the car never made it into production or it would have provided an interesting counter point to the ever popular S30 platform Nissans, as well as acting as a predecessor to the Honda NSX in terms of Japanese super cars.

The car was designed by Tom Tjaarda, who worked at Ghia, Pininfarina and Italdesign, his hand can be seen in many Pininfarina cars of the 60’s from Fiat to Mercedes.  Most notable here is the DeTomaso Pantera, whose design is said to be a direct descendant of the Isuzu MX1600.

Sadly I have no idea where about these cars live now days, does anyone know?

It is easy to take for granted now the idea of 'trying out' car modifications on your car before doing them, a quick lap around photoshop and you'll be able to alter your cars colour, ride height and wheels pretty quickly.  More radical modifications can also be performed, or if you are lucky you'll have a Busselecta type web page for your car.

There was a time before all this was at hand, back when skilled illustrators were required to fulfil these visions.  One of the best known illustrators in the UK is Steve Kirk, with the work he did for Street Machine magazine.

Initially the idea was in two sections, in the first Street Machine magazine from May 1979 we have a Motorvation section that concentrates on modifying details:



Here we can see some illustrations and text around bonnet scoops, the section was introduced with the text "Street Machine's idea sketchpad. Each month I'll be trying to stimulate your imagination with ideas bridging the whole customising spectrum from detail topics".

The partner to the early Motorvation was "Custom Profile" :



Here the Austin Cambridge is taken as a base and illustrated in a number of different guises.  This section was more than just pictures and went a bit more in-depth into the technicalities of achieving the look.

Later in Street Machine Magazine's life the two sections effectively became one, each month a theme was picked and Steve was provided with guidelines for cars to draw and back they would come.  Motorvation was a great way of expressing ideas and stimulate thoughts, it is a shame that we no longer get this monthly injection of ideas.

The ideas are still as valid now as they ever were, here is a little selection

December 1996 'Pro Street' theme:


February 1999 'Roadsters' theme:


January 1993 'Morris Minor' theme:


November 1979 'Street Racers' theme:


There was once hope of a book, but I don't know how far that ever got.  So for now we just need to scour ebay for back issues of Street Machine to get our Motorvation.

Time for another feature here at Retro Scene Mag towers.  This time its an account of our trip to the HSCC Historic Festival, it came at the end of Racing Car Week for me and Simon so we were excited to be going.  It didn't disappointed, click the link below to learn more:

HSCC Historic Festival Feature

Now we've been a bit slack getting our features up and together, particularly now that the blog seems to be flowing nicely, we shall attempt to rectify this and get out Worthersee and Berg Cup coverage up in the new couple of weeks.  Also we are likely to start tweaking the website a little over the next few weeks, we'll keep you updated of any changes.

Thanks for sticking with us, and please help to spread the word.

I was going to start this entry as the first in a series of "What If" ideas.  The basis being; take an idea that a manufacturer should have done and take it to its logical conclusion.  What if Volvo had started racing the Volvo 240 Estate in touring cars rather than waiting for the 850.  What if the Mk2 Fiesta has been developed for rallying instead of the Mk3 Escort.  Those kind of thoughts.

My big idea for today was "What If Alfa Romeo had built a Group B rally car".  I was a bit scuppered on this as a what if when I found out that they did, they just never saw it to its conclusion.


Alfa's Group B car was based on the Alfa Sprint.  Taking the lovely Sprint as a base they removed the rear screen and seats before shoe horning a the GTV 2.5 V6 engine in to drive the rear wheels, creating a 2 seat rear wheel drive coupe.  The project was killed off by Alfa Romeos financial worries before they produced the 200 road going examples required for homogulation.  It is believed that only one remains at Alfa Romeo's museum.



You can still take this and What If it though.  What if they hadn't stopped with the Sprint, what if later they had developed the 33 in the same way.  What if Group B hadn't stopped, what would the Sprint Group B car have ended up being like in its second or third evolution?  What if you got a Sprint and a beyond repair GTV then decided to build your own version?.... now there’s a thought.