Spaced out Moonraker Volvo Rally Art Car

From the deranged minds that brought you the Tank Volvo and Helicopter, we have a space shuttle theme.

Not sure what the background to the idea from these particular overachievers is, maybe Moonraker, but they decided to do a space shuttle theme, with a trailer tent (its like a tent, but on a trailer) with a world on it.

Obviously, making a space shuttle out of a Volvo just doesn't work (you need a BMW 1600 for that, which we shall show you in future weeks), so they made their own space shuttle, mounted two side boosters (SRBs) to the Volvo, and effectively made the Volvo into the external fuel tank.

Then, bolt a great big round piece of metal onto the trailer, paint the Earth on it, and hey presto, you have your very own horizontal Space Shuttle Program, with a diagram of the Earth on the trailer behind incase you forget what your home planet looks like.

The team (the overachievers) even put in some pyrotechnics so that the shuttle actually looks like it has an exhaust trail! We like. Partly because it's always fun to see a bit of thought behind these things, and partly because the chance of the whole thing catching fire is greatly increased.

The trailer tent deserves it's own 15 seconds of fame. It was possibly the mankiest tent you have ever seen in your life. They think the previous owners bought all the camping gear, went camping once, didn't like it, packed the tent wet (remember it's canvas), and let the whole thing fester and rot for several years.

When the team opened the tent for the first time in many years, there were literally bits missing from the canvas, large sections in fact.

But quick to their aid came some drinking aids. They installed a set of optics in the trailer for each evening, and as long as you got far too drunk, you didn't notice the howling gail in the car each night. Or at least, I think that's how that was meant to work.

By Justin Clements Street Safari

MFP Mad Max Lemon Art Car In Hot Pursuit

Today's StreetSafari car was prepared for our US event, BABE Rally (Big Apple 2 Big Easy).

Instead of the European limit of �150-�250, the US event has a limit of $500. In 2009 when these pictures were taken the price had been increased from $250 to $500 in fact. Apparently $250 were getting hard to come by what with scrap prices getting higher.

With a doubling of the allowable car price, something quite impressive happened - the car actually got worse. You see, people were now unleashed and could buy whatever car they had dreamed of. And yes, people do dream of buying some of the mankiest car's imaginable.

For whatever reason, this team bought this wreck, and then had the bright idea to give a Mad Max theme to the car. From a distance this car looks brilliant, from close up, not quite so brilliant. The team were even busted by the neighborhood agency for spraying this car in their front yard.

After driving the car across the 1,500 of some great US roads the event ended in a Louisiana drag strip. Here, deep in the south where the mosquitos are big enough to drag you away, we set about "racing" the $500 against each other.

You've heard of the story about the hare and the tortoise? This was more like two tortoises. So imagine the commentator with a deep southern drawl explaining to the crowds why on earth these crap heaps were on his track, and you will have captured a very special moment.

By Justin Clements Street Safari

Break Time

Drag Race Time

More Break Time

Hot Pursuit Time

The Sauna - Riding the Alps in Style

The Sauna was built from a Volvo 240 and taken on CzechWrecks 2009, a 1500 mile 4 day journey starting from Calais, France through Swiss and Italian Alps all the way to Prague, Czech Republic.

What we have here is about 1/3rd of a ton of wood paneling being applied to the Volvo.

If you are wondering whether this wood had any impact on performance, I am assured it did. What performance they had to start with, remember that Volvo 240 are agricultural at best, that performance was soon zeroed.

Chris and Tom and their team built this car to raise money for charity and an opportunity to travel in their bath towels riding the sauna over some of the highest passes in Europe.

StreetSafari Rally Art Cars from the UK Now a Regular Feature!!!

StreetSafari, organizer of the world's best banger rallies, has teamed with Art Car Central to showcase some of the countless creations of our teams over the years.

For those unfamiliar with banger rallies, here is a quick introduction: buy a car on a budget (�250 or $500), repair it, make it legal for the road, take it on a journey across Europe or the States with other like minded people. Whether the car will end up in a foreign scrap yard or be taken back home is up to the team and is usually anybody's guess.

As one might imagine, part of the challenge is simply getting the car to the finish line. For most teams, the challenge starts much earlier. What seems to happen between buying the car and getting it ready for the start line is subject to paint, imagination and -- probably -- alcohol.

We get to see everything. You name it, we've seen it. If there was ever a famous car on television or cinema, we've seen at least five examples of it on our events. General Lee, Starsky & Hutch, the A Team, Ghostbusters, all done to death. We see rally themes from Audi, Skoda, Martini, Pink Pig, and just about any other you can think of. The quality of the theme seems to vary with the quantity of what the team has drunk, as much as with their creative ability.

Sometimes a team will just paint or decorate the car to a theme they made up. That's where we get the stand out cars.

Today's fabulous art car is a 1992 Volvo 480, with possibly the most intricate design we have ever seen in all the years and events that we've done. Its nickname on the event was simply "the Rorschach car" and everyone knew which that meant. When we first saw this car we made enquiries that it was being brought back to the UK after event, as it would be a crying shame to send this car to the crusher before it had enough time to be appreciated for the masterpiece that it was.

The story behind this art car is that two friends had bought it but had no idea what to do for a theme until they bumped into a rather talented artist friend. He then proceeded to draw all over the car and took about three weeks to do it. We believe the car was then sealed in a lacquer to give it a lasting finish, and we think the car is now in Glasgow somewhere.

From a distance, the drawing appears as one giant doodle. The closer you look, however, the more diverse and detailed the images become. A real piece of car art if ever we saw one.

By Justin Clements of StreetSafari
 

Porsche Rally 2010

This past Sunday, I was invited to take part in the annual rally organized by Porsche of Halifax.

It was another well-prepared and well-attended event, featuring Boxsters, Caymans, Cayennes, Turbos, Carrera 4Ss, Carreras, and the Panamera, about 25 Porsches in all.

We all gathered at Point Pleasant Park, and after a short rally briefing, we were on our way out of town towards the Annapolis Valley. To get there, we took the more interesting and curvy Highway No.1, a perfect road for the Porsches. I was navigating in a very sweet dark blue Carrera 4S Cabriolet ...

We made a pit stop in picturesque Wolfville, continuing on through Port Williams to the famous Look-Off. The normally stunning view was hindered by fog, but it is still a great place to stop and stretch.

Starting off again, we snaked our way west, downwards towards the coast, our final destination being Halls Harbour.

The event wrapped up in the picturesque little lobster village, where you can witness the famous Bay of Fundy tides, the highest in the world.

After a tour of the lobster pound, our lunch was booked in at the Hall's Harbour Lobster Pound Restaurant. We had a wonderful meal there, and we had time to meet new faces and chat.

I have to thank organizer and MC Steve Archibald for inviting me to such a fun and well-organized rally and his team, Kathy, Mary-Jane, Jeff, Chris and Kendall for looking after everything, with special thanks to Chris and Kendall for getting me there and back in such class.

All photos � Paul Chenard 2010

Porsche Of Halifax 2009 Rally

On May 24th, I had the pleasure of playing navigator for my friend Gordon�s beautiful raspberry 2008 Boxster on a Porsche Rally organized by Porsche of Halifax.

It was a well-prepared and well-attended event, featuring Boxsters, Caymans, Cayennes, 911 Turbos, Carrera 4Ss and Carreras, 21 Porsches in all. Even with the cool wind, and the spotty rain, it was still a fun event.

Each driver/navigator was given a list of directions, quiz questions, and route maps to help them along. The route started at the base of historic Point Pleasant Park in Halifax, snaked it�s way through the historic downtown, then across the Harbour through to Eastern Passage, up along the coast, past Lawrencetown Beach to finish at Porter�s Lake Provincial Park & Campground.

At key points along the whole route, we had questions to answer on the sheets, relating to your knowledge of Nova Scotia, past and present. The most right answers were rewarded with a beautiful Porsche 911 watch. Gord is a good, enthusiastic driver, so it was fun to ride shotgun with him.

Once arrived at Porters Lake, we were treated to a beautiful buffet lunch provided by the well-known and respected caterer Scanway. It was delicious!








I met someone really wonderful people, and had lots of fun. My hat goes off to Steve Archibald of Porsche of Halifax and his great team for pulling off a successful event.

I hope there will be more like it!

Ex-Toyota team princnipal Ove Andersson killed in a rally crash

Former team principal for Toyota F1 Ove Andersson was killed in a crash during a vintage rally meet in South Africa, he was 70 years old. Andersson was killed when the car he was driving suffered a front end collision in a blind corner.

With Andersson, Toyota won four driver and three manufactuer championships in the World Rally Championship. Andersson became team principal for Toyota's new Formula 1 team in 2002, but retired the next year.

"Everyone at Toyota is extremely shocked and truly saddened at this terrible news," said head of Toyota Motorsport, Tadashi Yamashina. "Ove was an inspiration to our team and to many in motorsport. His passion for motorsport was legendary and he is a great loss to our sport. The thoughts of everyone at Toyota Motorsport are with Ove's family at this difficult time."

Toyota pays tribute to Andersson (Autosport.com)