New artwork!

[SRD art]

As you guys are getting to know me you've noticed I do a little magic with drawing cars in Adobe Illustrator. I've been drawing cars since I was 12 when I got my first CarToons mag, remember those? Eventually I found my way into transportation design in college where I soon realized I didn't much like designing new cars. After working as a graphic designer for several years I decided to get back to my passion and have gotten more serious about drawing cars and building hot rods.

I get these crazy ideas all the time and since I can only afford one real project at a time I have built many in the computer. Just wanted to share a few fun Ideas I've played around with. I'll try to keep my posts to mostly PT cars and will update with new ideas here and there. Thanks for lookin!

[SRD art]

Here's the first. Back when I started going to watch drag racing around '86 I remember this primered old Opel Kadett that was tubbed with like 14x32 slicks in the back. Seems he ran 9s or 10s with it. That car was so small and so cool it's never left my memory. One day I got a crazy idea and wondered how a PT Opal might look. I figured a V8 would be too heavy and throw off the weight bias I started looking at other options. A 4 banger seemed too small so what's better in an 1800 lb car that Buick imported for us than a Buick 3.8T? 400+ hp and 600+ ft lbs and a whole lotta woohoo! Make it dual purpose- have it tubbed for 335-30-18s for PT duty and 325-50-15's for drag duty. De-tune the boost for autocross and crank it up for 9 second 1/4 mile passes. A couple years back after I drew this I looked around for a Kadett but had zero luck finding one. Now I'm too involved with my wagon and Novas, but maybe one day...

Carbon fiber hood, bug splat yellow-green, and fat 18" meats.

[elcamino80]

those are quite easy to find over here it would be a cool car for sure and nice rendering

[SRD art]

Here's another one I wish I had built. Once upon a time I had bought a 74 Buick Apollo for parts for my Nova. One of those I wish I hadn't gotten rid of. I've always thought the Buick GSX was a bad doggie but being a light weight X body fan I put the two together. I understand the 350 and 455 Buick blocks are the same size and I've heard they're about the same weight as an SBC so doing a warmed over torque monster 455+ in a 3200 lb Apollo would rock. Throw on some suspension goodies and 17" billet Buick wheels and we're good to go- an Apollo GSX street fighter.

[SRD art]

One more for today. I did a vendor booth at the World of Wheels/ Autorama in Salt Lake City this past March. For my display I wanted to do a late model car but didn't want to do a more common Mustang or F body. I also wanted another Mopar and something that would stand out in a crowd, so I did a crazy 300C. I used to know a guy that had a 300 and although it wasn't an SRT it still moved and handled well. I wondered what it might look like with a blender mix of old school Mopar, pro-touring, imsa, and homie tuner styling. What I ended up with had mixed reviews, some loved it and some hated it, but all in all it drew a lot of attention at the booth so it served it's purpose well.

[SRD art]

those are quite easy to find over here it would be a cool car for sure and nice rendering

Thanks, and tell your buddies that are looking for a project to build one!

PS, where are you? Wonder how much of a pain it is to import one...

[SRD art]

Here's a "PT" truck illustration I did for school. It was a class project so I got to design the visuals...

[SRD art]

A couple Novas. First one is my 73 hatchback that my son and I will start on next year. The 67 was for a client.

[astroracer]

Hi Ben,
You do some really kool stuff.
I've sent you an email through your Website. I want to talk to you about Bad Ast.
Mark

[WS6]

Good looking art Ben. As for your Apollo, that would be a great build. DSE makes parts for those cars too!

[cobragt]

Very cool! I had an Idea of using an Olds Omega done as a 442. Here is a link to a guy that built a model of a PT Ventura GTO Judge

http://homepage.mac.com/ssven5/Sites...tura_page.html

Here's another one I wish I had built. Once upon a time I had bought a 74 Buick Apollo for parts for my Nova. One of those I wish I hadn't gotten rid of. I've always thought the Buick GSX was a bad doggie but being a light weight X body fan I put the two together. I understand the 350 and 455 Buick blocks are the same size and I've heard they're about the same weight as an SBC so doing a warmed over torque monster 455+ in a 3200 lb Apollo would rock. Throw on some suspension goodies and 17" billet Buick wheels and we're good to go- an Apollo GSX street fighter.

[SRD art]

Thanks guys. That is one great looking model!


Here's another I did for the vendor booth. There's a couple Cobra clubs here as well as Kirkham's Motorsports http://www.kirkhammotorsports.com/ where they hand build aluminum Cobras. I did this one to appeal to those guys. I think this one was amongst the top attention grabbers, glad I did it.

[SRD art]

Here's another dream car of mine. When I left Florida for design school in the mid 90's all I had to drive was my street/strip 73 Nova. Was a fun car to drive but with 560hp, 4.56 gears, and 4500 stall converter it wasn't exactly something I wanted to drive across country to be my college commuter. A friend of the family had a broken down 84 Chevette that had 83,000 miles on the clock and needed about $300 worth of work to get it driveable. I decided to buy it, got it running, and managed to keep it running for another almost 90,000 miles until it finally gave up the ghost. It was SLOW but got 33 mpg and was still a fun car to drive, especially after I lowered it 3". Here it is pictured lowered with 17" wheels and 205-40-17s.



So as I was getting close to the end of design school I started making plans for the "cheVETTE". These cars are actually a great project as they're already rear drive and weigh only around 1900-2000 lbs. They also share the same front suspension as Fieros so there's a lot of aftermarket parts available, including drop spindles, tubular control arms, coil over conversions, and 13" brakes. Plans for mine included a boosted aluminum LS motor, full suspension upgrade, and tubbed to fit 335-30-18's out back. Here's a photo of the car when 1968CamaroSS Sam from the forum stopped by with his 335's to see what I was up against.



Besides the monstrous rear tires and 204-40-17s on 17x7 Boyds, for styling changes I wanted to smooth the body just a little. I wanted to get rid of the ugly front bumper (See below) and put on something smoother that integrated the front air dam. That meant moving the parking lights so I placed them in the grille. I removed the outdated side marker lights and added a modern import style units closer to the door as well as more modern mirrors. Door handles were changed to vertical units and an aluminum wing was added on the back for a little more aerodynamics at higher speeds. Colors are 'Vette Sunset Orange Metallic and black, guess I got a thing for orange and black cars.



I suppose I wanted something that I could tease all the fast and fart pipe tuner boys that at a quick glance seemed to fit in with them, but also something that could play with the Euros in the canyon and American big boys on the autocross and drag strip. Unfortunately it got to the point that I had too many "to-be-done" projects and not enough room to store them so the Vette had to go. Another "someday I wanna..." project. Enjoy the art!

[SRD art]

Not exactly a PT car here but I'm always looking for the ultimate vendor booth hauler. Ever see one of these? Its a 37 Chevy Army bus.





Hmmm, a little body work, and updated chassis, low pros on big 10 lugs, bags, and a late model Chevy Duramax diesel drivetrain. Yeah....

[Tony_SS]

Ben I love that VETTE project you had going on there! Those would be a lot of fun with a supercharged or boosted ecotec 2.4.

[SRD art]

There was a guy that I found online that was doing the Ecotec in a 'Vette, but last I saw progress had stopped. Guess we're all in the same boat, every so often the shop closes for a year or two. ;)

[SRD art]

Here's one I recently finished for a client. It's a 56 Belair that'll have some subtle mods to the body to smooth it over, 18" wide rear wheels on new style pro street tires, a REALLY cool interior, and under the flip nose a 900 hp on pump gas 3" Hilborn injected 632" BBC.

[SRD art]

Couple client's Elkys..

The first is a '66 for a small shop that does minor builds and restorations. Basic crate 350 in this one with some mild suspension upgrades, big brakes and shaved handles and emblems. Meant to be a nice weekend cruiser.



This second '59 is in progress for a guy who owns a paint & body shop. Although it won't get raced much it'll have some suspension goodies under the fuel injected 409 backed by a 5 speed. The goal is Black and silver "smooth as glass" paint in a nice cruiser that will see some nice weather street duty.

[go-fish]

I would love for this to come to life. Ever done a fish/torpedo?

[Chadly B]

Ben, really enjoying your art and vision, I'm saving my money for a rendering right now....hopefully ready to give you money and details next month....