How would you like to enjoy a Porsche in your kitchen or a Lamborghini in your office? Many premium automobile manufacturers have collaborated with other prestige brands to share design knowledge and create some amazing products. The combination of attractive design, sound engineering and high quality materials is hard to beat. It creates desire, provides convenience, longevity, and a pride of ownership. Upscale automobile manufacturers have long recognized this and are eager to transfer those design and manufacturing skills to other products in their quest for world domination.

It seems obvious that if you produce something beautiful and well made of outstanding materials there should be a line of customers at your door. It is not quite that simple. Sound design principles must be followed and at some point the cost/value relationship becomes an issue. Good design can actually keep costs in line and elevate value by eliminating waste, improving efficiency and creating beauty.

Porsche has been a leader in industrial and product design for several decades. Professor Ferdinand Alexander Porsche founded the Porsche Design Studio in Stuttgart in 1972 and relocated to Zell am See/Austria three years later. Since that time this studio has been the birthplace of outstanding designs. They have been recognized at internationally renowned design competitions such as the Red Dot Award.

During a recent interview, Roland Heiler, Managing Director of Porsche Design Studio stated, "We believe in the principle of timeless, functional and puristic design, and we are guided by our ambition to create products that are lifetime companions. Personally, I think that luxury is the privilege to be able to afford extraordinary goods and experiences. As for Porsche Design, such experience is not defined by lavishness and decoration but by reducing things to their essentials and by choosing high-end materials that guarantee functionality and a long service life."

Recently Porsche Design announced their collaboration with Poggenpohl Mobelwerke Gmbh and exclusive appliance supplier Miele & Cie. KG to present their first co-designed kitchen, the P'7340. This kitchen is distinguished by its innovative framework, purist styling and high-quality materials. Miele will be the exclusive supplier of all fitted appliances. The official launch is planned for sometime in 2008. Features will include, black lacquer and satin metallic surfaces, uncompromising aesthetics, assisted opening and closing, built-in ambient lighting and under mount stainless steel sinks with integrated countertop drainage channels. Extensive use of aluminum and anodized metallic surfaces allow hypoallergenic performance along with high loading capacities and weight savings. It is a veritable "tour de force" of kitchen design and craftsmanship. Direct parallels to the quality and engineering of their automobiles are unmistakable. With their new kitchen, both companies are responding to a trend showing an increasing number of men who display an interest in luxuriously appointed kitchens and cuisine. Poggenpohl, named after the late Walter Ludewig Poggenpohl, has been a pioneer of the German kitchen furniture industry. The brand is synonymous with technical and aesthetic quality as well as practical functionality.

...continued HERE on Motorburg.com

"A production street rod from a major manufacturer? I don't think so!", he snapped.

When the 1984 Corvette was released in 1983, it made a big impression on me. Not so much its exterior styling, but that engine with its plenum and injector tubes and those 16" directional wheels - really blew me away. So much so in fact, that those contemporary elements began creeping into almost every street rod design I did in those days. I began envisioning a very non-traditional hot rod with an all Vette drive train, including the wheels... a street rod if you will, with Corvette qualities! After countless drawings, I always came back to the traditional '32 Ford Hi-boy as the core element in the concept.

Now in the early to late 80's, I had the perfect vantage point to keep my eye on the street rod scene. Besides my driving ambition to design automobiles, I also had a graphics business (Top Flite Concepts) that took me to lots of the major street rod and custom car events. One day, during the late fall of 1985, while looking through the wares of one of the show circuit vendors, I noticed what I thought was a remarkable find: a 1/8 scale 1984 model Corvette kit by Monogram. What good fortune. All I would have to do is find one of those old "Big '32" kits by the same maker, and I was on my way to 3-dimensional fulfillment... planning to use only the Corvette's engine and wheels and as much running gear as possible. At 1/8 scale no less, but certainly a hell of a lot cheaper than a "real life" alternative. I continued to look but never did find the "Big Deuce" that year.

In the following year, mid-summer found me in Michigan at an NSRA rodding event. During the course of the weekend show, I had renewed acquaintance with a designer friend of mine who just happened to work in the Detroit auto business. He was always a "hot rodder" at heart though. After several lively discussions concerning the essence of automobile design, it came down to a conversation about "full envelope bodies" vs. "fenderless cars". I'd always been partial to the compactness of purpose of the latter, while his job requirements made him favor the former. Standing in the midst of all those exposed tires (thousands of street rods) I asked, "do you think Detroit would ever consider an open wheeled offering?" "A production street rod from a major manufacturer? I don't think so!" he snapped. He went on to tell me that hot rods and customs were all about "fun", and when you're faced with realistic parameters and guidelines, that's when the serious work of designing begins... I humbly declined to answer. He continued to remark, "You take away all that volume, and where ya gonna put all those modern and necessary 'pieces and parts'... not to mention all the safety and pollution-control features demanded of today's automaker?" Well, I guess I had just been "put in my place", and yet his words somehow presented an opportune and interesting challenge, no less. I still hadn't found the "Big Deuce", by the way.

All during the rest of the event and the long trip home, his words kept returning to my thoughts. So much so, that it helped me form a new direction with my little scale auto project that was still simmering on the back-burner. I not only had a challenge, but I had the guidelines to follow and all the pieces and parts to complete the job - all in that one Corvette model kit . Since a production street rod seemed totally out of the question in my friend's mind, it might be fun to imagine that possibility as a starting point. Then, if I could pare that Corvette envelope down to it's essence, removing all but the essential elements while maintaining all the necessary production car requirements, I might wind up with a fenderless "hot rod"... seemingly worthy of becoming a factory offering. A Corvette if you will, with street rod qualities! (Notice the switch in purpose.) Also, one of those parameters my friend was always talking about was product identification - so that was also high on my list of self imposed guidelines; it was going to be a street rod, but it was definitely going to be a Corvette. In fact; it was to include everything the production vehicle contained. Everything... minus some fiberglas of course. Now I'll have to admit, if my original intention was to put a late model Ford engine in a '32, and I'd found a 1/8 scale Mustang that fit the requirements, we'd be talking about a whole different "hot rod" right now (more on that just a bit later). So, parameters were set and finding the available time became the unknown quantity. Surprisingly, I never did any sketches of my new intentions, only the taking of a few measurements from some of the traditional highboy roadsters at hand, to get a sense of proportion. Working in 3-dimensions is a wonderful way to design, especially in scale.

Read the rest of this article over on Motorburg.com

Back in the winter of 1990/1991, the Premier Issue of Custom Rodder magazine featured an article about the possibility of creating and building what may be termed "essence highboys". The original 4-page article called MuscleRods was "wrapped" around a two-page photo presentation of Charlie Smith's "Vettester". This was the initial inspiration for the idea of using other "worthy vehicles" to create more radical scratch-built rod concepts. The formula? Take any desirable old car, preferably one that "had respect" to begin with, and reconfigure it into a fenderless roadster in a similar fashion to the classically customized (or repopped) Deuces of today. As the accompanying copy and captions of the original article were a bit long, the companion text has been rewritten to eliminate all but the primary points (which, unbelievably, are still as innovative today as when they were first penned over a decade ago). So, here's Part One (of 3) concerning some future thought about what we'd all like to be able to do in our million-dollar garages of the 21st century.

Considering the recent popularity factor of "retro-designing", if it ever becomes a fad to reconfigure popular automotive styles into early hot rod forms, fair game for such a transformation would be the coveted musclecars of the sixties and early seventies. What better way to capture the flair and flavor of high performance fun than to build a personal "Prowler" with the ponycar pizzazz of the past. As the above Camaro and the Mustang concepts below hope to illustrate, scratch-built hot rods appear to have an unlimited future.

Read and see more here on Motorburg.com!

Let's face it, this is a sedan that I used to laugh at when I was a kid. It was the closest thing to a Donald Duck Cartoon Car that Detroit ever built. But that was before we had a chance to ponder the possibilities. With just a few major moves, this "dumpy-side down" bathtub can surface as a showboat.

If you examine the actual modifications proposed, there's less here than meets the eye; however, although the number of changes are few, a couple are fairly big-time. To pay tribute to the Cadillac Solitaire Concept Car of 1989, we need to capture the proper "attitude". First, we must get it "in the weeds". The best way, I believe, would be to install an adjustable "air-ride" suspension system, and that may mean extensive chassis modifications to put this puppy on the ground for that "stone sculpture" look when parked. Then the entire body needs to be totally dechromed and all elements tweaked for that "ultraclean machine" look. Nicely shaped "bullet" rear-view mirrors pick up the aero theme while hidden headlamps replace the stock sealbeams and follow in the Caddy's footsteps (or should I say, tire tracks).

Most importantly, the entire top has to go south in what may be termed the crowning achievement. I'm not going to do the necessary research on the perfect replacement, but suffice it to say that we need the retrofitting of a more shapely roof section from a modern flush-windowed vehicle of similar proportions. Of course the sure-fire way to perfect the required look would be to hand-form the entire top out of tinted lexan or plexi, cutting windows to attach to the doors, and say to heck with Safety Glass.

The point is, with the major top-swap, hidden headlights and general sanitizing, this ugly duckling upside-down bathtub is magically transformed into "SuperDrip", the slickest aero-custom to come down the slipstream since that Cad Solitaire went on display. If you don't believe how little the body has been modified, look at the near-stocker posted next to the Cad Solitaire at the beginning of this article.

More photos and info here on Motorburg.com!

If you like to draw cars, and have done it with any significant zeal, you will undoubtedly reach a point where the graytone qualities of a yellow No. 2 pencil no longer satisfies your creative requirements. To fully express yourself, you'll want to put some color in your designs. Though seemingly a natural progression in the creative process, some will find color rendering to be more or less an obstacle... a somewhat daunting task presenting quite a "roadblock" to their further conceptual endeavors.

So if you find yourself spinning your wheels at this barricade in the road, let's see if we can't get you back up to speed again. With the following; I offer up one way I've learned to deal with the task. Keep in mind that this series of "step by steps" is not meant as a definitive instructional... it's merely an example of one color rendering procedure, aiming only to serve as visual reference, inspiration and encouragement. Good luck and I hope you enjoy the rest of your trip. Don't forget to honk when you pass me by.

There are many ways to do what follows. I'm going to describe a process done in a traditional fashion although the same results can be accomplished with a computer. A similar look and feel can be rendered with programs like Adobe Photoshop or Corel Painter while using a digital drawing tablet as an input device. Those computer programs can provide the look of the conventional tools we'll be using, such as pencil, marker, chalk and airbrush, while offering added flexibility to the rendering process. Miscues can be corrected without much sweat and your virtual tools will certainly be easier to keep clean. However, don't think you have to have a computer to get started. That yellow No. 2 pencil I spoke about earlier and good drawing skills are what's really essential to expressing your design ideas. All the other art materials (a computer included) are just extensions of that basic sketching tool. Don't put the computer before using your imagination and learning the basics of customary drawing methods, you'll be sorely disappointed. Above all... don't think that computers are going to provide a "Trick" that does the designing for you - they won't! With that in mind let's proceed from square one with an idea, a pencil & a few other basic tools. Ready now... let's round up some materials and color one up.

Materials and Tools:

The following is a basic list of the materials used in this demonstration. As we progress through each stage I'll discuss these items in a bit more detail.

Pencils and Pens - Yellow No. 2, Verithin 747, PrismaColor Pencils, Sharpie ultra fine.
Drawing and Rendering Surfaces - Tracing paper, Cold press art board.
Templates and Sweeps - for keeping the lines & color smooth and concise.
Markers - for filling in large areas of color.
Marker Airbrush Kit - for applying gradients of color.
Frisket - for isolating and protecting certain areas as you work.
Pastel chalk & oil sticks - for applying detail and background effects.
Ink and Gouache - for applying detail, backgrounds and highlights.
Bestine Solvent - to help smear the pastel & oil sticks around.
Workable Fixative - to protect the finished lines & color as you progress.
X-acto Knife, electric sharpener, erasers and a small brush - as further described.

The Rendering Sequence:

As we begin, please remember that this is simply "one way" to do automotive rendering. Everyone has or will develop their own style and technique. Have fun and take some chances, there's no way you can make a mistake if you simply try.

1. Everything has to start somewhere. This was a "quickie" sketch that started life on a legal pad during a telephone conversation. With a yellow No. 2 pencil always at the ready, it's fun to just "doodle" this way without much conscious effort. This little 3/4 view was about 7 inches wide and will do just fine as a basis for our demonstration.

2. Our next step is to "tighten" our sketch in preparation for rendering in color. Since the final design will be considerably larger, we'll need to transfer and enlarge the original sketch. I used an opaque projector to enlarge the rough design and it was then redrawn on Beinfang Parchment 100 tracing paper at about 13" in width (photo copy machines can also be used to make enlargements as well as mechanical scaling). There were two additional tracings made from the initial enlargement, each one becoming progressively more refined using Templates and Sweeps (drawing aids such as straight edges, ellipse guides and Ship Curves).

In this last of the preliminary drawings you can see I'm preparing to transfer the design to the final surface for color rendering - Towards the rear of the car you'll notice I've begun to add graphite over the line work so I can make a tracing at actual size. This is done with a well sharpened No. 2 pencil laid on it's side and then by "scrubbing" over the line work. Since I'm going to "flip-flop" the design, the extra graphite was applied to the front side of the drawing. Apply to the back if your drawing's orientation remains as is. Finally, placing the vellum drawing on top of your finish surface and tracing over the line work precisely will transfer the graphite and line art for the final rendering layout.

Read the rest of this in-depth article here at Motorburg.com!

This entry guest-written by Motorburg.com friend Henry Lehmann

Your former high school cheerleaders have renamed themselves "The Refrigerettes" and the old person you see in the mirror every morning is barely recognizable. Why not recapture your youth by restoring a classic automobile? The only limits to any project today are money and imagination.

It is possible to park your cash in a classic car and realize some excellent emotional returns. Imagine cruising your favorite road on a bright spring morning while peering through the windshield with 16 year old eyes again.

The basic criteria behind any automotive restoration are universal and for the most part common sense. What a project requires is extreme interest and unwavering commitment together with copious amounts of time, labor and money to get you to the finish line. The alternative is buying something finished and taking that cruise tonight while leaving the heartache to others. The choice is yours.

Choose your project carefully. The cost to resurrect a vintage vehicle can be huge and if the vehicle was rare and expensive in its day expect that it will be now. This also dictates that available information and replacement parts will be scarce. Thoroughly research the market. Understand what will happen to market value if the original configuration is changed. If the original wasn't built in sky-blue with a pink alligator interior, you should evaluate the market impact of your creativity. Bugattis or Rolls Royces with very low production numbers rely on rare or fabricated parts and few available skilled craftsmen. Muscle Cars of the sixties and early seventies with origins in high volume mid-sized North American cars allow for convenient and plentiful parts and information. In both cases strict adherence to original specification will pay big dividends when you decide to sell.

The Hot Rodding movement originating in 40's California embraces improvements to design and performance so here tasteful creativity can actually increase market value of a mainstream machine. These custom, one-off vehicles have their own class at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance, famous for showcasing the rarest, most expensive vehicles on the planet.

Modified vehicles are more desirable to enjoy in today's world----just try keeping up with freeway traffic in a pristine Model T Ford with mechanical brakes and little horsepower. Acquaint yourself with an operating version of your chosen project. You may be disappointed with the performance of 45 year old technology after being spoiled by even a mediocre new car. Creature comforts and safety features expected as "standard equipment" now, were unavailable back then. Sometimes reality can mess up a really nice dream.

Cars and trucks from the 50's thru 60's remain relatively plentiful and are very popular to restore or modify. There are a variety of sources for reproduced original parts or re-engineered assemblies conveniently available to support your efforts. Several of these manufacturers offer parts or assemblies that appear vintage but use currently available technology. This allows you to make your classic perform like a new car with the look of nostalgia.

There are complete, newly minted bodies made of metal or fiberglass available for some models. If you have a telephone and credit card it is possible to construct a remanufactured version of several highly desirable vehicles from parts delivered directly to your door.

Exercise your creativity and build a one-off custom or hot rod that is unique to you using a collection of new pieces. Your choices are virtually limitless. Keep in mind that any project should be a labor of love. The time and money you invest will exceed the market value in all but a few exceptional cases. Return on investment will be sensory. Who says you can't turn back the clock?

Start with the best available vehicle you can find. It is always more expensive and time consuming to restore an incomplete rusted hulk than a complete vehicle in reasonable shape. Make sure you have all the original parts needed since critical trim pieces from limited production vehicles made of "unobtainium" will be difficult and expensive to find or duplicate.

Should you do it yourself or pay professionals? Trailer queen or daily driver? Radical custom or pristine classic? You must decide before you begin. Be sure your vision and objectives align.

Once you decide, here are some tips. Expect surprises and unplanned expenses much the same as you would when tearing apart an old house. If you plan to do it yourself make sure you have the necessary skills. You will need tools and knowledge of old methods and technologies. You'll also need a clean, dry, and warm work/storage area. Take lots of notes and pictures before you start since it will likely be months before re-assembly begins. Clearly label and bag components during disassembly so they stay together. It will be almost impossible to re-marry separated assemblies thrown together in one big box. Keep the old parts to be used for reference or pattern making.

If you contract the work, obtain current references. Talk to the customers. The classic car dream driveway is littered with abandoned projects and unscrupulous or incompetent contractors. Keep your commitment through forethought and planning.

Follow these suggestions and you will experience the joy of taking a warm summer night's cruise in a restored classic or that muscle car thrill that you couldn't afford in high school. Who knows---you might even run into one of the Refrigerettes and share a cherry coke for old time's sake.