What you see is the inner makings of a wooden car, a full functional wooden car. And the saga of the college graduates continues, the wood car is a graduate project for Joe Harmon of North Carolina State University. The wood will be used in as many places as possible for it to be a completely running wood based vehicle, everything from the body to the chassis’ will be wood. The expected weight of the car is 2500 lbs and a clocking in at an expected 600 horsepower. Harmon’s website aka splinter vision has diagrams, pictures, videos just about everything possible to allow people to see and understand the process of making the car as well as following its progress. Harmon will be showing the car at the IWF (International Woodworking Fair), from August 20th-23rd.
Apparently some kids actually go to college and do something besides get drunk and party, junior Jake Loniak is trying to move up the ranks to be on the level with the guy who invented this. Loniak’s exoskeleton motorcycle, Deus Ex Machina is the future of human travel, and definitely the future in cool movie vehicles. The vehicle (hard to call it a motorcycle) would be in an upright/stand up position when parked so the rider could step into the suit/exoskeleton of the vehicle to start it, then it would lower itself in the 3 wheel drive position. With the use of 36 artificial pneumatic muscles the vehicle is able to move with the body movements of a driver, topping off at 75 mph and powered by lithium-ion batteries. There’s a video demonstrating the vehicles proposed movements and how it how would look like being used, you can watch that video here. I’m going on record and saying I think you will see this in a movie soon, probably Batman’s or James Bond’s next vehicle of choice.
You should know by now that concept cars are something of the liking at TTS, so to not slow the trend down any here is another. The Lexus Nuaero designed by Swedish graduate Jon Radbrink for the Royale College of Art graduation show in London. The Nuaero has motors in the wheels, a touch screen dashboard that controls all the cars info and comes without pedals. That’s right, the car is driven and controlled completely by the hand, if you need to break you push the steering wheel away from your body, just think of it as being a pilot on the road.
This is iRobot futuristic right here, this concept car was designed by two students at the IED (Instituto Europeo di Design) in Turin. The design was created in collaboration with BMW for the “Designing the BMW of 2015″.
This is the future of yachts, the “Raven” designed by Mael Oberkampf. I’m not a big fan of the water or the beach or boats, and I can see how having some huge yacht could be fun. But this is much more to my liking this would give me a new found love of the water. It would feel like I was driving a spaceship on water. It says the ‘Raven’ was inspired by Wally, I have no clue who or what Wally is but I’d like to thank him/her or it for inspiring Mael Oberkampf to design this.
The Bugatti is my goal car, you know that car you strive to get one day. And if the regular Bugatti Veyron wasn’t enough they had to go ahead and do a Bugatti Hermes edition, which had all the styling done by Hermes. So, I’ll be dreaming up ways for me to get me this car and when I do you can trust, I will not be making it look anything like this, sorry no pink panther mobile for me.
WeJetSet is my favorite travel blog, period. There post cover the globe in such a fascinating way, hitting everything from food, to architecture, to retail spots, they even cover travel activities you can do. Some highlights from their recent editorial givings, are the likes of the BMW museum, finding out that Hermes has no end in sight in finding ways to expand the brand and give new ways for people to spend money on them. While Chanel and Karl Lagerfeld celebrate 50 years of handbags, art, and apparently something shaped like a spaceship. And all the way over on the eastern coast designer Junya Watanabe opened his collection, eYe, he did for Comme de Garcons, in Hong Kong.
The 2008 British International London Motor Show kicked off, and showed some of the best car designs in the industry. It’s not one of the more well known or popular/serious car shows but it’s like a little hidden gem. If you head to its more secluded exhibition space you’d find rare sportscars and new twists on tiny electric cars.
Made in America, that slogan isn’t used as much these days then it was say 40 years ago, but now we can bring it back. Austin based Ronn Motor’s has made a hydrogen fuel injected hybrid, the Scorpion, that doesn’t look like a box with wheels. Ronn Motor’s was able to build an eco friendly car without having to sacrifice the design aesthetics of a sports car. The car uses “hydrogen on demand” technology which generates water and turns it into hydrogen to pump into the car. You can get the Scorpion in 2009 if you have $150,000 to spare.
I have a love and hate relationship with concept cars, I love most of their designs and innovation but I hate how they most often just stay concepts and never get put into production. But like all love/hate relationships you love to keep hating and love to give yourself more torture and agony by finding more reasons to love which just means you’ll ultimately find more reasons to hate. So, I’ve found 8 new reasons why I love concept cars, but just like the cycle goes I also found 8 new reasons to hate them. Fast Company’s 8 concept cars that will never be put into production, but should be.
Standing at the Red Sqaure in Moscow since July 6th, this enormous hourglass has been counting down the launch of the new BMW 7 series. The hourglass is 11.90 meters high, weighs 40 tons, and has 180,000 silver balls that were used to cover the incased BMW which gradually revealed itself as the balls funneled from the top of the hourglass to the bottom. You can visit never-stand-still to see the clock countdown the days and hours til the launch. BMW is by far the leading car maker when it comes to creativity.
I don’t travel much so I live vicariously through the We Jet Set travel blog. It’s sorta like a love/hate relationship, I love there write ups but I hate that I never get to go too any of the places, like not ever being able to get the “cool” girl in highschool. Take for instance they just gave me another reason to visit the land down under and home to Jack Dundee, Australia, to stay at the Limes Hotel. But alas, I still sit here writing about Limes and Australia clearly not booking a flight, oh the torture. Then they hit me with another jab to the gut, they informed me that since I am not an inhabitant of sunny California the land of palm trees and celebrities, I will not only miss out on the next Lohan x Spears siting, I also miss out on getting one of the 500 electric Mini’s being made. So you can feel my pain right? I do have to admit to one thing it’s more of a love relationship, I only slightly hate them. Kind of like how I just slightly hate the fact that I have to watch the movie Hitch every time it comes on.
