Ace-Garageguy

Huge flake looks pretty cool when it's supposed to be over-the-top like this. I like it. Lotsa fun.

Language and word usage change over time. When I was a lad, in this country "car design" pretty much referred to the aesthetic specifics. Function of US cars was often very much secondary to aesthetic appeal, and getting all the greasy bits and passengers to fit under the skin was sometimes more afterthought than not. These were the days when critics of American cars made comments about "tortured sheetmetal", "chrome laden barges", etc. "Vehicle design" has come to include functionality and fitness for a certain task or market segment, but it's obvious from looking at cars like the Juke and Aztek that form doesn't always follow function when the marketeers get their fingers in the pie. I'm sure they're both reasonably competent "transportation appliances", but I always wonder how many clowns are going to get out whenever I see someone parking one. The best designs combine exceptional functionality with visual appeal. A Ford GT-40 is stunningly beautiful as kinetic sculpture, but fares rather poorly as daily transportation. Does that make it a poor design? No, not if you have part of the '50s mindset that "design" refers primarily to appearance. The best of the hot-rod designs are fast, handle well, and look good doing it. You ask "so how did Norm, Tommy, and all the rest figure out a way to do it and make 'em look good in the process? " Talent and years of experience, plus a willingness to experiment and change things that don't look "right".

Truly great picture, Greg.

The XR2 was a new one on me. I just looked it up...cool little car. I had no idea. You know, now I think about it, what a fine pair of sleepers you could build with a Pinto and a Fiesta.

Most excellent. I sold a not-too-bad Fiesta I'd bought for $100 (sold for $250) a few years back, had been thinking of much the same thing. Seemed like it would be fun to smoke some of the fart-can boys with a ratty old Fiesta. Should make a great little autocrosser too.

Kinda like 'em all except the coffin job.

I really need a chain gun. The ultimate "home defense" weapon.

I didn't realize there was a 1600cc version of the OHC engine. We never got it here. I had a hot 2 liter, and it would rev all day to 7500 and stay together. I'd love to build something really light with a full-house 1600 OHC.

Hmmm...Howard Johansen of Howard's Cams built this twin-tank lakester in around '49. Not too successful if I remember correctly, but interesting.

What a concept ! Nah, never sell.

Yup, my bad. My own Super7 Series II/III had been the London auto show car, and had a crossflow head on a 1340 bottom end (also all chrome suspension!). I just checked the kit and you are absolutely correct (as Mr. Welda's photo confirms), it IS the non-crossflow pushrod head on a 1340 . Still prepped by Cosworth with steel main caps and rocker stands though. To clarify the Pinto thing, early Pintos were available with the 1600cc pushrod "Kent" engine, as stated above. The 2-liter OHC engine, that shared no components with the "Kent" engine, was an optional upgrade. Both these engines responded very well to performance mods like Webers, hot cams and headers. The Kent engine was raced extensively as the basis of Formula Ford, and the 2-liter had an impressive list of racing accomplishments and Cosworth upgrades.

Great looking combination of bits. This is so radical, you might consider something like Sbarro's centerless wheels. Just a thought.

The instructions state it's a "1.3 liter Ford Cosworth" engine, which is really just an English Ford 109E 1340cc 4-cylinder with a crossflow head, Cosworth-built steel main bearing caps and rocker stands, etc., and two Weber 40mm sidedraft carbs, with a corresponding intake manifold and headers. The architecture and appearance of the engine (minus the Webers and headers) is very very similar to the early Pinto 1600cc pushrod engine, which was a development of the earlier engine, itself a development of the 105E non-crossflow English Ford mill.

Great stuff. Love all the mechanical bits and the home-built racer aspect.

Looks good. I always enjoy seeing otherwise unobtainable models created from what's available.

Everything you've done works beautifully. Good stuff here.

Merc driver musta been texting...

Somebody at GM liked it. I thought this was awful the first time I saw it too. I looks like a dress-up costume supposed to be a future pickup for a low-budget sci-fi flick. But I thought it worked on the Honda Element, implying cheap and easily replaced body panels in the locations they are most easily damaged... Same reason I think the black bits work on the Toyota FJ

Looks much like my results back in November of 2012, swapping the rear section of the Olds roof / upper body on to the forward section of the Chebby.

Exactly, and that is a very important point and a distinction it's necessary to make. "Personal taste" and objectively analyzed good-design are two entirely different measuring approaches. Just because someone happens to "like" something, that doesn't make it a "good-design". And if someone doesn't like something, that doesn't make it a bad design. I know it's impossible to exactly quantify "good design", but we can certainly say that some designs are "better" than others, based on how well the designers understood and employed the principles that are their primary tools.

But there ARE principles of "good-design", including the "golden ratio" noticed and employed by the Greeks around 2400 years ago...and probably much earlier in human history. http://www.geom.uiuc.edu/~demo5337/s97b/art.htm The cars, trains, jewelry... any objects designed by humans are far more likely to be perceived as being "beautiful" if principles of good-design are known and observed, than if they're ignored. And this is a perfect illustration of the point I was attempting to make. Thank you. The vehicle wasn't designed to be beautiful (a degree of "pleasing") but was done hand-in-hand with marketing to be "quirky" as you say, apparently, in an effort to appeal to a particular niche market. Marketing-driven design-by-committee rarely produces things of lasting beauty. The little frog-eyed Juke, looking like it's going to hop away at any moment, will surely be forgotten, or remembered as one of the "what were they thinking?" designs, like the equally awful Pontiac Aztek...another one that looks like no two parts belong on the same vehicle.

Good design... Horrible...

Flexible drinking straws can work beautifully, depending on what scale you're working in and what diameter straws you can find.

I sincerely appreciate everyone's comments. She's closing on the point where all the bits will have to be final-fitted and primered. Wish I had more time to work on this, but I'm glad for what little I have.

Yup. ...or... Same basic bits, just arranged and trimmed a little differently.