reddsun1

well I guess when GM had pictures of ferrari's all over the Vette studio, you could call the Z06 a knock off too 339827[/snapback] They hung Ferrari pics? Heh, that must have been done to provide inspiration or something? "This is who we've got to beat, boys..." or something. All things considered, they did pretty doggone good, as "budget" sports cars go. I only wish I could be fortunate enough to get a chance to flog the bejeezus out of a Z06. I kinda dig the old "Stingray" styling cues they put into the car. I wonder if the shape is cleaner aero-wise than the C5? Got a chance to see the C5-Rs run in the rain at Road Atlanta, and when observing the "rooster tails" they threw up in their wake at speed, there was a lot more turbulence in the air coming off the back of those cars, compared to others like the Porsches and Saleens [i know, there are a lot of other extraneous factors; i.e. rear wings, etc. at play]. I'll give you that one, A7; the reverse scoops on the fenders behind the front wheels that runs down the body does look awfully similar. But everywhere else: the general sihlouette; the shape of the greenhouse; the shape of the headlight bezels; and if you took away the little upper grill opening at the hood; it all makes me think more than anything that it's supposed to look like "Supra's little brother" or something...

Anybody notice a less-than-subtle resemblence between the latest Hyundai Tiburons and the last gen. of Toyota Supra? Too bad the performance isn't as close...so does that make the Tiburon a "knock-off"?

Now here's a funky looking number. Apparently this little diddie is based on the Honda NSX. Built by Mitsuoka Motors, this car is called the [get this] Orochi Nude-Top Roadster. Is it just me, or does this car have a really wierd looking grille? It has an almost cartoony look to it; the combination of that little "smiling mouth" grille [which is kinda silly, considering it's a mid engine car] with the big "wide eye" headlights. It reminds me of nothing so much as a big-eyed girl--maybe even an anime girl--smiling and batting her eyes at you, being "cute." One thing's for sure though: the designer is definitely a Speed Racer fan. The similarities are very subtle, given the rounded, organic edges of the design. But they're there allright. This thing is like an homage to the Mach 5. Or is it just me? Observe the rear quarters; the hip-line "brake duct" vents, the raised [what do you call them: nacelles?] pseudo headrest vents on the rear decklid. Also observe the "three-prong" nose shape, albeit much more blunt and rounded, but still just noticable. There's the tapered hood bulge, sharpening almost to a point towards the front of the hood. Yup, I'd say this is a modern "interpretation" of the Mach 5 [i guess it'd more accurately be called Mach a Go Go's car?] It's pretty fugly, but still not as hideous as those god-awful and obviously-Corvette-based kit cars that are for sale here in the US. IIRC, there are some pics of those somewhere waaayyy back amongst the earlier posts in this thread?

No sir, I don't like it. What does that glass roof do for structural rigidity [pshuh, as if I really knew just how much impact that had]? Still, I'd rather have a stiffer chassis for a "performance" oriented car like that, if given the choice. LOL, I dare anybody to hop in that thing on a hot summer day wearing shorts. Given car makers' penchant for leather interiors in more sporty vehicles, it ought to make things real interesting. I saw an interesting reader comment on the new Saleen 'Stang in a mag that said something to the effect of: "Steve Saleen finally designed a good looking car and how'd he do it? By making the back end look like a Plymouth Barracuda..." When you look at the tail lights, it's kinda on the mark.

Just watched the trailer. WTF?! Took me a sec to get over some parts, like: gotta watch a couple of times so as to get the gist of what's being said without losing too many background details; and is that guy playing "Wharf" in...blackface?! It's like they knew the makeup was bad....and they just. didn't. care! Interesting casting choices, to be sure... Still, the quality and apparent effort shows that some folks have way too much free time on their hands. Looks like it ought to be pretty funny. The space battles are dang cool.

Saleen builds the GT's? I didn't know that. But it makes sense, their experience with "specialized" car construction with the S7's and all. That said, you'd think they'd have the hang of it by now...

The irony is not lost on me here: an awful lot of those Japanese cars--Toyota specifically--that are built to such "higher" degrees of quality are built here in the US plant in Kentucky. Same for BMW, with their plant in Georgia [i don't know what respective models ea. plant builds though]. After seeing a TV special on Lamborghini, I can better appreciate just why their cars sell for such astronomical figures. You're paying for man-hours, that's for sure. Their cars--and I imagine it's much the same for Ferrari--are assembled largely by hand. And the amount of "TLC" that goes into the building process! The steps to which they go: like hand grinding to deburr every engine block, assigning each engine to only one builder, etc; it's pretty amazing.

Psst! Hey genius, here is a clue: I'm not the one who originally made the comparison. You actually helped proved my point. And you are right of course. The 5.7 litre V8 hasn't been used in the U.S. at all. It is a pity they never used that engine in the Corvette. Didn't use the 5.7 litre V8? Do you mean a specific model/type of that motor? That's just the 350c.i. small block. My raggedy ol' Ford has a 351C, and they called that a "5.8L V8". Only a difference of 1 cubic inch displacement, but they decided to round up with their figure, while Chevy on the other hand, rounded down. They've always been kinda skewed with their conversion figures. In regards to German cars: if the magazine pundits are to be believed, a general summary of the quality of German autos could be "keep this past the warranty period, if you dare." Of course, we know that's not always the case; Porsche after all built their reputation on the dead-bolts reliability of thier sports cars. It's largely why so much of production-based sports car racing [at least in the US] usually turns out to be a Porsche parade, with only a smattering of other makes here and there.

Blasphemy!! No, seriously--that red SHOEI helmet is sweet! By the way. What do the captions in the pic say?

Macross helmets are cooler, hands down. Well, in a fanboy anime geek-ish, otaku kind of cool way... Yeah, I'd rock one o' them Macross helmets if I could get my hands on one....so what? Yeah, right! Like anybody on this board wouldn't go "zooming" and "swishing" around their house/apartment/flat/etc, helmet donned and 1/48 VF-1 in hand, if they had one in their possession? You know you would!

Yup, the Elise is pretty much credited with bringing that company back from the brink, isn't it? It's the car that sort of "returned to its roots" in regards to design philosophy, i.e. the Colin Chapman school of thought: make it as light as possible; then, remove some more weight. That's pretty much in keeping with the English "character" of car design though, wouldn't you say? If you had to sum up the "national character" of [sports] car designs amongst the major player nations in a phrase or less, how about: America: There's no substitute for cubic inches; shoe-horn a big ol' V8 in that sumbitch an watch 'er run like a scalded cat! Britain: It's got to be light, light, light; small displacement is fine when there's a high power/weight ratio. Germany: Precision engineering; like a surgeon's scalpel, the driver utilizes the car as a fine tool. Italy: Passion in design; it must be beautiful, evokative--move the soul of driver and bystander alike. What about Japan? How could one describe their automotive "character"?

Okay, anybody else got a name for this disturbing new trend towards putting rediculously oversized and goofy looking chrome wheels onto old "boats," i.e. older, full size sedans and classic cars [for the most part]? It seems to be a distinctly rural phenomenon; down here "in the country," guys seem to love doing this to draw attention to their rides. Rice Boys everywhere must be breathing a collective sigh of relief at the draw of much deserved contempt and scorn [at least that's what they ought to be getting] from thier own otherwise cheesy looking socio-cultural statements...."whoa man! that thing looks even shi--ier than MY ride!" Don't get me wrong; I kinda like big old sedans--my first car was a boat: '79 Buick Park Avenue. That joint was straight up smooth, man. It's bad enough that they decide to decorate their rides with such gaudy, oversized excesses in chrome plating; but they usually demonstrate their absolutely sh-t taste in their selections--picking designs that totally clash with the lines of the repsective car, or some goofy chrome-pinwheel-lookin-sh-t that'd look just plain stupid no matter what you'd have put them on. What should we call these wagon-wheeled dork-mobiles? Any suggestions?

Aw, this is nice. Apparently this concept coupe has a s'charged 6.0L V8 and Corvette underpinnings. Doesn't seem like a retro design nearly so much as it seems like a deliberate, well thought out direction from the outset. This one-ups cars like the T'bird, Chev SSR, New Beetle et. al.; cranks the "inspired by past designs" feel up a notch. Only so much you can do with the contemporary, "jelly bean on wheels" modern car layout, I guess. I say this because it's not some custom bodyshop makeover, but rather a "factory" concept from Holden.

Hmm, sounds like somebody found a good way to fu-k up something that was already cool on its own merit. Doesn't surprise me.

Didn't a slightly modified ver. of that NASA design wind up in an anime? Wasn't it in the Patlabor movies, along with futuristic looking F-16's? Wasn't that plane used as a testbed for the high-output engines that eventually developed into those found in the Raptor?

Just saw The Warriors on TV last night. Woah, been a while since I've seen that one. I remember seeing this once in a blue moon or so as a kid on late night TV/cable. And whaddya know, it just so happens this one's been "remastered" and will be coming out on DVD. Nothing like a little good ol' American exploitation of old titles to cash in on the nostalgia kick. Actually, that's cool; this was one of my favs as a kid. Looks like there'll be a video game too, to be released by [now ain't that a coincidence] Rockstar games. I've not been following the recent threads on this company or the controversy surrounding them. But I ain't been under a rock, either. I know their titles [bully? the hot coffee d'load?] have been drawing a lot of flak--and attention--lately. Foolish development decisions? Or calculated risks to keep their names fresh in the consumers' consciousness? This game appears to follow the events/plot of the movie quite faithfully, so they should be able to avoid serious backlash, I'd think [ideally, it'll be no worse than what's already been deemed "suitable" for TV?]. Well, since this re-releasing/developing old titles theme could potentially prove a cash cow and pick up steam, I just wanna know one thing: Is anybody in talks with John Carpenter to try to develop a video game ver. of Escape From New York? and if there isn't, why the hell not?! Any other ideas/suggestions for cult-classic/B-movie/70's-80's movies/TV that could make for profitable game titles? --Escape From New York [c'mon! who wouldn't wanne be Snake Pliskin?] --Enter The Dragon [kickin a$$ like in that u'ground scene? Gimme a Hell Yeah!] --Mad Max [make Toecutter face-plant that KW w/out getting creamed yourself, take down Bubba Zinetti and the other scoot jockeys w/your driving skills and sawed off shotgun!] --Blue Thunder [uncover secret plots, utilize various spy/attack missions, try to recreate the breathtaking air chases w/out splattering yourself all over downtown LA!] --Kiss and the Phantom of the Park [okay, okay jus' kiddin'. I had to throw that one in. Cause "Everybody knows Ptaradactyls can't stand the screech of a guitar!"] comeon, I know I'm forgetting some good ones, ripe for the picking...

Well that's quite a graphic display of physics at work: "two objects cannot occupy the same space at the same time" Or is that just from that line from Timecop?

Yowzers! When you guys decide to take a disliking to somebody, you really dislike them! Tough crowd, tough crowd!

Same thing for the Maranello. On a street car anyway, a wing that big is just superfluous. The speeds necessary to see any benefit from it--and those big brake ducts--would be highly illegal and just ludicrous on the street. I guess those, along with intercoolers-in-the-front-grille is the automotive equivalent of a peacock's plumage, or a gorilla's silver back fur; i.e. a visual display to enhance perceived "prowess." Looks kinda cool though, when not done to excess...

Saw the first ep on CN; whoa, that's just some seriously stupid sh-t. But hey, it's right up their alley, with the stuff they're putting on Adult Swim now. WTF is up with that construction-paper-cutout toon with the mouse?! "Watch or die! Watch or die!" Damn, it's like muh fuh's don't even have to try anymore. Just tack together some stupid sh-t and get your show on the tele and call it a day. Jemstone: that avatar is like, seriously warped! So twisted and disturbing; yet, cannot, look, away...

I agree.... Unfortunately, the real story that sparked that bit was angering...just makes me wish there didn't have to be a need for reports like that. The things we do to each other...sad, so sad.

LMAO, that's so funny. But the anime fan in me thinks that's pretty cool too. But hey, has anyone considered the possible fallout from all this? --"Hah! In your face, Trekkie!" --"Screw you, Otaku!"

Okay, last one, I promise.

Hoowah! Adrenaline on wheels! Gotta love 'em.

And, some more eye candy. Sorry if some of these have already been posted. But some of the truly beautiful ones bear repeating....