Hi, All;

A number of years ago, I went on a charity motorcycle ride, “The Love Ride,” the Grand Marshall of which was Jay Leno. This event was a yearly event to benefit The Muscular Dystrophy Association (Jerry’s Kids). It was billed as “The largest one-day charity event in the World,” often raising [...]]]>

Harley Show Bike

Hi, All;

A number of years ago, I went on a charity motorcycle ride, “The Love Ride,” the Grand Marshall of which was Jay Leno. This event was a yearly event to benefit The Muscular Dystrophy Association (Jerry’s Kids). It was billed as “The largest one-day charity event in the World,” often raising over 1 Million dollars for the MDA.

The ride started at the Harley Davidson dealer in Glendale, California, and ended at the recreation area of a dam near Castaic Lake, a distance of about 50 miles. After we arrived at Castaic, there was an area where vendors showed their offerings of accessories and products.

In 2003, this motorcycle was there. It was a company’s rolling billboard, and was very nicely done. I thought it was very clean, and uncluttered, so I took a photo of it. That day, the sky was mostly overcast, and gloomy. This bike was sitting under an awning, and if you look closely, you can how the hazy sunshine, partially blocked by the awning, caused an interesting pattern on the tank and fenders. I love how light and shadows create  unusual effects.

I normally use only black and white, but this picture really needed its true color for full effect, so I used art markers in order to render it realistically. I hope you like it. As always, please leave a comment either way.

Thanks for visiting.

Here we go:

The first vehicle is the first prototype of Dan Gurney’s Alligator motorcycle. Dan now owns the original of this drawing, his son, Justin, bought it for him as a present.

I have a personal attachment to this very bike. One morning, Dan rode my Harley, and I rode this Alligator up the Pacific [...]]]> Hi, All;

Here we go:

The first vehicle is the first prototype of Dan Gurney’s Alligator motorcycle. Dan now owns the original of this drawing, his son, Justin, bought it for him as a present.

I have a personal attachment to this very bike. One morning, Dan rode my Harley, and I rode this Alligator up the Pacific Coast Highway in Southern California.

The next car is a Bugatti which belongs to a celebrity, and car collector. It is spectacular, and so sexy.

The next car is a Mercedes/McLaren 555 SLR, one of the rarest of super cars. It is so over the top that you look at it and just gasp! Talk about making an entrance!

The next car is a Riley. It was built in England, and this very car raced in the 1930s! I was lucky enough to see it when its new owner brought it out to show for the first time. The owner bought a print of this drawing, and I still own the original.

The last drawing on this row is the first drawing of a car that I ever drew. My wife and I saw this car parked on the street one morning.  The owner was sitting in the car, and I asked if I could take photos of it. He said yes, and this drawing is the result.

The first car on the next row is one of the few drawings that uses color. It is a 1939 Alfa Romeo Corse roadster. A friend sent me the photo that served as the basis of my rendering. It was too beautiful to not draw.

The next car is of the new Ford Gt. This one is very special, though.  If you look at the door, there is a bump in it, as a kind of a joke remembering the similar bump in the racing Ford GT that won the 24 Hours of LeMans for both Dan Gurney and his co-driver A.J. Foyt.  This car actually belongs to Dan Gurney, his lovely wife, Evi, bought it for him for his birthday!

The next car is a little weird (see the story below), it is a Morgan 3 Wheeler.

The Hispano-Suiza is the next car. It has a V8 engine of 1,100 cubic inches! I saw this car when a celebrity car collector drove it to a place in Malibu, California. It is a beautiful beast!

The next drawing is of a Ford, which I believe is a 1940 convertible. The photo that I used for the drawing is of a white car. I screwed up a couple of the lines in the drawing, and I made it a black car because of it! OOPS!

The next rendering is of a 1932 Sedan, it is owned by a friend of a friend of mine, and is a beautiful car. It is so shiny that you can see the reflection of the concrete in the side of the car.

Saving the best for last, this is a rendering of a 1913 Mercer Raceabout. The celebrity owner drove it to a canyon location in Southern California. I drew this picture of this car as if it were from 1913. I removed all of the background that couldn’t be from 1913.  I love this car, and this rendering, it is one of my favorites.

I said that I would give the answers as to the subjects of these drawings. Here they are, beginning at the top row, left side:

Chris Economaki, sometimes I think that he has been an automotive journalist since before there were cars!

Next, Bruce Meyer, the man that formerly ran the [...]]]>

Contact sheet of cars and portraits

I said that I would give the answers as to the subjects of these drawings. Here they are, beginning at the top row, left side:

Chris Economaki, sometimes I think that he has been an automotive journalist since before there were cars!

Next, Bruce Meyer, the man that formerly ran the Petersen Auotmotive Museum, in Los Angeles. Now he runs the membership organization for the museum, assuring that it has a secure future. He is also a car collector extraordinaire!

Next, in the cap, is Walker Edmiston, he posed for this picture, then never got to see it before he died. Walker raced sports cars, had his own local L.A. TV show in the fifties and sixties,  and also did a lot of acting and voice work.

Bobby Rahal is next (you knew that one if you read the post about him.

Next is Al Unser Sr., four time winner of the Indy 5oo! I drew this portrait for his induction into the “Legends of Ascot” event in 2006.

Next to “Big Al,” is another one of my real heroes, Dan Gurney. I get to see him from time to time. A real classy guy.

Finishing out the top row is John Morton. Not only was John a great racer, but he taught many people how to race, as a racing instructor.

In the second row, is none other than Davey Jordan. In addition to being a legendary Porsche racer, he is a wonderful person. I attend a regular breakfast with Davey, and his terrific wife, Norma once a month, and am proud to call them friends.

Next is Tony Adamowicz, the man that never learned the meaning of “slowing down.” At 69 years, he is as fast as ever, and has raced very successfully in the last couple of months. If I owned a vintage race car, I would have Tony race it, it could have no better chance of victory!

Scooter Patrick is next. Another go-fast guy, Scooter has many interests, including his love of flying his own plane. I’m told that he flies it with the same joy as auto racing. That’s not hard to believe, his eyes light up when he tells me about flying.

Next is Derek Hill. Not only was he a successful racer, but he is a second-generation racer, his father is the late Phil Hill. I took the photo that served as the basis of this portrait at a literature fair, he was selling some of his father’s books, and prints of Phil’s racing photographs.

Bob Bondurant may have taught more people how to race than any other person alive today. He is still going strong, and I saw him this past April, and he looks great.

Jim Busby won the 24 Hours of LeMans, in class, TWICE! To have won once could have been a fluke, but twice, that makes you officially fast! He did it in a Lola/Mazda, and they still honor him for it.

Rick Knoop was Jim Busby’s co-driver at LeMans, and he is also Jim’s business partner. He is a super storyteller, and a very approachable driving star, like most of these guys.

Bud Meyer is next , he is from the family that developed the Meyer/Drake Offenhauser engine, the one that “owned” the Indy 500 for decades. Bud was a racer in his own right, setting several World Records on various dry lakes all across the U.S. He also raced inboard hydroplanes, very successfully. I’ve known Bud for more than fifty years! Once, when Bud was recovering from a racing accident, he asked my dad to race his boat for him. My father was a racer, but had never driven Bud’s boat before. In spite of that my dad won both races that day. Afterward, he told me that Bud’s boat was so beautifully prepared, it nearly raced itself!

Last, and certainly not least, is the perhaps the luckiest man in the World! Having won the 24 Hours of LeMans, Carroll Shelby knew that the chest pains that he was having were going to end his racing career. He didn’t have any money, and no prospects, but he had a charm that just made the impossible come true. He was the right guy in the right place, at the right time.

The Ford Motor Company realized that the average age of drivers was getting younger, and they took the risk to build cars for these younger buyers. They had to look good, of course, but they had to be FAST! Along comes a Texas car racer, and it was a marriage made in Heaven! Ol’ Shel may have embellished his story a bit, but the important thing is that he got it done, and he changed automotive history. He arguably started more people racing than other individual. A few years back, at The Petersen Automotive Museum, there was a dinner honoring Carroll. When they asked all of his former employees in attendance to stand up, they did, all sixty four of them! I wonder how many bosses could get that many people to honor them? Carroll Shelby is an American original!

Next time, I’ll tell you about the cars…

England has always had a number of unusual vehicles on the road, they all seemed to fill a need, like this Morgan 3 Wheeler of the 1930s.  A vehicle with fewer than four wheels was classed as a motorcycle, and was charged far less to register for road use. During the World-wide [...]]]>

Morgan 3 Wheeler

England has always had a number of unusual vehicles on the road, they all seemed to fill a need, like this Morgan 3 Wheeler of the 1930s.  A vehicle with fewer than four wheels was classed as a motorcycle, and was charged far less to register for road use. During the World-wide Depression, this was especially important.

While a young man might ride around happily on his own on a motorcycle, his date might find it less than fun, and when she became his wife, this was definitely not going to work! A natural result of being married, the children that inevitably appeared muddied the picture even further. This “car,” and others like it, served as the next step in the transportation hierarchy.

I like to think of this as the first hybrid, not because it has two drive systems, but rather two types of motor vehicles, mated together! I can imagine a tinkerer, working in his garage, with a motorcycle that has a broken frame (or some other problem), and a car with a broken rear axle. How long would it take to come up with the plan to cobble one of these?

I make this sound like something thrown together in an afternoon, in a barn, but it was actually produced by the Morgan Car Company, in England. A few years ago, at the Los Angeles Auto Show, in the Morgan booth, they had a blown up photo from about the time that this 3 Wheeler was being built! On one side of their “factory” were the four wheeled cars, on the other side, the 3 Wheelers.

While it wasn’t very roomy, it did afford some protection from the elements, and a little more comfortable seating arrangement, even if an infant were thrown into the mix. It has a windshield, larger seats, and mudguards (fenders), so you could arrive at your destination not looking as if you were dragged by rope to get there! Come to think of it, in view off the sloppy conditions in England, due to all the rain, mudguards is probably the better term to use!

This particular example has a 1,000 cc Matchless V-twin engine. This engine was quite advanced for its time, and even featured water cooling! It was probably a good thing, in view of the load that the engine had to pull. This one is in the private collection of a lover of unique cars, and he enjoys driving it immensely!

In case you think these were probably VERY slow, I met a man one day that used to race one in the 1950s in Southern California road races!

In case you’re laughing, we all might be running around in the near future in something that resembles these,  if some people have their way! After all, this is very green! Oh, well, it beats a bicycle, I guess.

This posting is about one of the nicest people that I’ve ever met, John Honiotes.  John runs a car show that is on every first and last Sunday of the month, at the Enderle Center, in Tustin, California.  John took over the show that used to be run by Larry Beck, prior to Larry’s [...]]]> Hi, All;

This posting is about one of the nicest people that I’ve ever met, John Honiotes.  John runs a car show that is on every first and last Sunday of the month, at the Enderle Center, in Tustin, California.  John took over the show that used to be run by Larry Beck, prior to Larry’s death from pancreatic cancer (see my earlier post about attending Larry’s memorial service).

John wasn’t at his own car show when I arrived there this morning, so I called him.  When he answered, we found out that he was going to be in a parade to honor veterans on Balboa Island this morning. Not only was he going to be there, but he was going to drive a 1941 Cadillac convertible, which would hold three survivors of the attack on Pearl Harbor! This is vintage John Honiotes! He is one of the most giving people that I have ever known.

John does things like that all of the time, and usually we only find out from others that he did them!  He often tells others about something that needs to be done, then digs in, and gets it done, without fanfare or publicity.  John is one of those people that others just like to be around. You can tell that he has arrived at his car show, everyone will be milling around him,  just to say “hi.”

John is involved in organizing and running some of the biggest car events in the local area, from his participation in The Coastline Classic show, to the Huntington Beach Concours, he is there, making it happen, or making it bigger.  I’m guessing that one day I’ll find that John was responsible for synchronizing the traffic lights in the Corona Del Mar area (not really, but it wouldn’t surprise me at that).

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that John couldn’t possibly get everything done that he does, if it weren’t for his fantastic assistant, Pilar Tellez, who just happens to be beautiful! Even if John had a blue suit, with a red cape, he couldn’t be in all the places needed to look after everything that needs doing. Pilar is the one that makes sure that all of the projects actually get done, and on time, involving some pretty hairy logistics at times!  I can’t thank her enough for all of the things that she does that make it so much more fun for all of us car show visitors.

If you find yourself in the Southern California area, on the first or last Sunday of the month, come on over to the Enderle Center, in Tustin, California, you won’t be disappointed.  If you Google “John Honiotes,” you will find directions to the show, as well as contact information. I’ll look forward to seeing you there!

I’m including a portrait of John that I did some years ago. Now you can recognize him. Click on the image to enlarge it.

John Honiotes

There are a few racers that I believe are just something special. This posting is about one of those, the late, great Phil Hill.

While I was growing up, I could hardly wait to read the newest issue of Road & Track magazine. I was then, and still am, a fan of sports car racing, [...]]]> Hi, All;

There are a few racers that I believe are just something special. This posting is about one of those, the late, great Phil Hill.

While I was growing up, I could hardly wait to read the newest issue of Road & Track magazine. I was then, and still am, a fan of sports car racing, but could be classed as a Formula One zealot! Today, I often drive twenty miles at 3:00 am to watch Formula One races live, with other similarly sick individuals.

I became aware of Phil Hill’s driving exploits through written race reports, then by watching him race at Southern California tracks. It was his racing in Europe that gave him a certain other worldly quality, though. The fact that he was racing for Ferrari cemented his reputation for me. Had I known how “interesting” it could be to drive for Enzo Ferrari, I would have elevated Hill’s status even higher! First of all, the money wasn’t enough to really qualify as a profession, probably. Drivers paid most of their own expenses, drove from race to race, worked at testing for many hours, and had abuse heaped on them for bad results. Add to all of the preceding, the fact that at any time, you could be killed, and it makes one wonder why anyone would do it.

There were some drivers that clearly had to do it, they were like clones of Jim Morrison (of “The Doors”), or another person that you knew wouldn’t live long. Phil Hill didn’t appear to be one of those, though. A friend once told me that he had read an account saying that Phil became so nervous before a major race, that he had to eat baby food for a week prior to that race! At first, I was shocked, then it occurred to me that he understood the risks, or he just wanted to do the best possible job, and not embarrass himself. Either way, that sounded oddly rational.

Phil Hill also had interests outside of auto racing. Through his co-ownership of the auto restoration company, Hill and Vaughn, he restored some of the most beautiful collector cars in the World. He had other interests also.  I had a friend that was an enthusiast of steam cars, and worked unceasingly on designing steam-powered autos, but he also loved what he called “reproducing pianos.”  I was told, in clear terms that they weren’t “player pianos!” They would exactly reproduce the original performance of the pianist. Unlike common player pianos, these were something quite special. My friend, Richard Smith, told me that he had found a great source of parts for the pianos, a man called Phil Hill, who lived in Santa Monica, California. In all the times that my friend had talked to Phil Hill, Phil hadn’t told Richard that he was the former World Driving Champion! From what I’ve heard, that was Phil Hill’s way.

As I said, Phil Hill was always one of my heroes. When I saw him at an event in Los Angeles, I asked if I could take his photo. He very kindly stood, in spite of his trouble in walking and standing.  He probably didn’t think twice about the encounter, but I was quite excited by it. I knew that the portrait that I would draw from that photo would be one of my favorites.

Fast forward to the following year, again in December, in Los Angeles, and there I was, and so was Phil. His strength had diminished, as his son Derek was pushing him around in a wheelchair, but he was there.  As I knew I would, I had finished the portrait. Now the only question was whether to ask Phil to autograph it. Parkinson’s had clearly taken over much of his body, but others were having things signed, so I went over to him also.  I asked if he would sign his likeness, and he took the pen, and started. Almost immediately, I regretted asking for the autograph! He was obviously exerting tremendous effort to control his hand enough to do the autograph, by the time he was finished, I was sweating! I thanked him, and rushed away, shaken.

I showed the portrait to many people, but mostly just friends. One day, my pal, the noted photojournalist, Tim Considine, called to ask if he could use two of my Phil Hill portraits for Phil’s eightieth birthday party! I asked Tim about how it would be used, and he said that the two images would bracket the video presentation that would run on the big screens as people talked about Phil Hill’s life.  I brought the originals over to Tim’s house, so he could photograph them, and incorporate them into the video. To say that I was proud to be asked to use them, would have been a gross understatement.

The next time that I showed them in public wasn’t as happy. I was asked to the viewing of Phil Hill’s body at a small church in Santa Monica, California. I took the originals along, in order to show Phil’s widow, Alma, but though I did show them to others, she was totally surrounded by friends, so she didn’t get to see them.

Below is the image that he posed for (the second one was inspired by photo taken by the remarkable racer and photographer, Denise McCluggage). I hope you enjoy them. The second image isn’t signed, it would have been torture to have Phil sign it too!

Unlike most of my blog posts, this one is about something that happened a couple of years ago.  I often go to the World’s greatest book store on Saturdays. It is called Autobooks-Aerobooks, but we car guys call it just “Autobooks.” It is in Burbank, California, and it has books about almost any car. [...]]]> Hi, All;

Unlike most of my blog posts, this one is about something that happened a couple of years ago.  I often go to the World’s greatest book store on Saturdays. It is called Autobooks-Aerobooks, but we car guys call it just “Autobooks.” It is in Burbank, California, and it has books about almost any car. To illustrate a point, I was there one Saturday, when Jay Leno came in (he’s there often on Saturday). He asked where the books on “Tatra” are located. In case you’ve never heard of a car called Tatra, don’t worry, most people probably don’t know what they are.  The salesman behind the counter told Jay that, if there were any such books, they would be “down that aisle.” Sure enough, Jay came back to the counter, with a book in his hand. Jay seemed impressed that they had the book, but a little dubious about it, as the book was written in Czechoslovakian!

Not only is Autobooks a great place to talk about cars, but there often is a car show in the morning in the parking lot behind the store. As if all of that weren’t enough, often authors, or photographers are there to sign books, or CDs. The people they ask to sign are usually very well known.

This particular day, I walked to the front of the building, after parking in the rear parking lot. A few friends were outside the store, and I stopped to talk with them, before entering. As I remember it, I was talking when struck dumb, in mid sentence! A vision of loveliness was right inside the store! Tall and tan, and young and lovely, and she wasn’t anywhere near Ipanema!

She was one of the most beautiful women that I had ever seen, and I wanted to find out who she was, and whose girlfriend she was. It never occurred to me that she was the celebrity autograph signer.  The time set for autographing arrived, and The Beauty sat at the table!

I had no idea of her identity, until I saw the sign on the table that said “Courtney Hansen, ‘Host of the the Powerblock, on Spike TV.’”  She had written a book, and was happily personalizing copies for her fans. During a lull, I talked to her, and found her delightful to converse with.  I showed her some of my artwork, cars and portraits, then asked her if I could take her picture.  She very graciously said that I could, which I did.  I’m not a great photographer, but I doubt that even I could take an unflattering photo of her.

I knew that drawing her portrait would be great fun, and I was looking forward to it.

It took a couple of weeks to complete the rendering, and called Courtney’s agent, who had given me her card on that day at Autobooks.  The agent asked to see how the portait turned out, so I sent an email with the image attached, and she thanked me.

I have never seen Courtney since, but I had a wonderful afternoon with her, and have her portrait to remind me of it.

Here’s that portrait, how do you think I did? Click on the image to see a larger version.