The Chrysler Airflow was a revolutionary though ultimately unpopular car, it was introduced in 1934 and was the first mass-produced car to be developed with wind-tunnel testing, overseen by none other than Orville Wright.
A close look at the cutaway section of this BMW 320 Turbo will reveal an almost aerospace sized turbo charger, tucked in under the exhaust headers on the right side of the engine. The engine itself was developed by McLaren, yes that McLaren, in 1978.
This phenomenal looking motorcycle was designed and built by University students Roy Norton and Thomas Kashe, they wanted to create a modern bike with a retro feel, something that would appeal to a younger generation, yet offer a hat tip to the illustrious past of the Triumph Motorcycles marque.
In 1928 a man named Ernst Henne bought a BMW R37, he then took it apart and thew most of the bits away. Once he had the bike back to its bare essentials he set about building one of the most successful record breaking motorcycles ever built.
Considering the staggering popularity of the Honda CB750 as a platform for custom motorcycle builders, I thought perhaps it would be a good idea to post this great cutaway drawing of the CB750’s engine.
The convergence of fine art and good engineering is almost commonplace in the world of international racing, this great series of cutaway illustrations show this convergence rather well. It’s fascinating to see totally the different approaches to super bike design employed by engineers from around the world, all with one common aim.
In 2010, as a design and engineering exercise, Magpul acquired a Buell 11125R and set to work on it. What you see above and below is the completed bike, and I can’t help but think it’s pretty remarkable. The Magpul Ronin is a…
Modern design trends tend towards the digitisation of formerly mechanical objects, often into an onscreen display. Whilst I understand the importance of progress I can’t help but feel a little nostalgic for a time before Turing’s idea really took off and the mechanical device was still king.
I count filmmaking amongst my unmanageably long list of interests, this short film by Kaimar Kukk about the Renard GT is a great example of what a talented film maker can achieve in 2 minutes.
Group B Rally was introduced by the FIA in 1982 and quickly resulted in cars that blew the lid off anything that had ever raced on gravel in the past. The cars were the most technologically advanced vehicles the world had ever seen, they were lightweight, exceedingly powerful and staggeringly unsafe machines that performed, essentially, like a rally version of a Formula 1 car.
This stunning Seeley Norton was built by Kenny Cummings and Dan Rose for the latest season of Cafe Racer TV. Amazingly the total weight of the bike is just 136 kgs (300lbs), that beautiful Norton Combat engine is race tuned and turns out 70+hp making this a highly capable track day bike.
Custom motorcycles come in all shapes and sizes, some builders add as much as they can to a bike, some remove as much as possible and some throw away everything and start from scratch. Motor Rock falls into the latter category. With this Kawasaki Z750 LTD build Motor Rock threw away the frame, exhaust, fuel tank, seat and rear suspension. They essentially started this build with an engine, some wheels and a pair of forks.
