It is many things: machine and canvas. Pop art pastiche and antiwar statement. A heap of scrap metal and a fine art gem worth $1.1 million, according to art appraiser David Streets.

It spends most of its time in a downtown warehouse, but people have spotted it cruising downtown. Steven Vaughan, a former Hollywood filmmaker and Manhattan sunglasses mogul, spent more than a year creating it, and he even trademarked the name: ArtRod 001.

Where it now sits says a lot. At one end of Vaughan's The End studio, on Third Street adjacent to the former Foam City, hangs a hyperrealist depiction of Kate Middleton and Prince William. The angel of Princess Diana floats behind the royal couple, anchoring a background consisting of the Union Jack, milky puffs of clouds and outward-shooting heavenly light, with a yellow beam hanging over and across William's shoulder like a scarf.

At the other end is a garage/auto shop that will excite any car collector. Here is a 1975 classic Honda motorcycle with a newly painted front fairing. Take a look at the 1931 Ford Model A, its rust-red engine out, wheels mounted on wooden carts, its interior gutted and its finish still a solid, Fordist black. "It could be an ArtRod 002. We'll see," Vaughan said.

Artist Steven Vaughan with ArtRod 001 Monday, July 28, 2014, in his downtown Lafayette studio. Vaughan created the anti-war themed car using a 1970 Saab. The car will make its Los Angeles debut next week.Buy PhotoArtist Steven Vaughan with ArtRod 001 Monday, July 28, 2014, in his downtown Lafayette studio. Vaughan created the anti-war themed car using a 1970 Saab. The car will make its Los Angeles debut next week. (Photo: John Terhune/Journal & Courier John Terhune/Journal & Courier)Buy Photo Fullscreen
Artist Steven Vaughan with ArtRod 001 Monday, July 28, 2014, in his downtown Lafayette studio. Vaughan created the anti-war themed car using a 1970 Saab. The car will make its Los Angeles debut next week. Artist Steven Vaughan talks about the inspiration for ArtRod 001 Monday, July 28, 2014, in his downtown Lafayette studio. Vaughan created the anti-war themed car using a 1970 Saab. The car will make its Los Angeles debut next week. The distinctive grill of ArtRod 001 by artist Steven Vaughan Monday, July 28, 2014, in Vaughan's downtown Lafayette studio. Vaughan created the anti-war themed car using a 1970 Saab. The car will make its Los Angeles debut next week. The hood and grill of ArtRod 001 by artist Steven Vaughan Monday, July 28, 2014, in Vaughan's downtown Lafayette studio. Vaughan created the anti-war themed car using a 1970 Saab. The car will make its Los Angeles debut next week. An image of a superhero graces the driver's side door of ArtRod 001 by artist Steven Vaughan Monday, July 28, 2014, in Vaughan downtown Lafayette studio. Vaughan created the anti-war themed car using a 1970 Saab. The car will make its Los Angeles debut next week. An image of an angel fired from a cannon on the passenger side door of ArtRod 001 by artist Steven Vaughan Monday, July 28, 2014, in Vaughan downtown Lafayette studio. Vaughan created the anti-war themed car using a 1970 Saab. The car will make its Los Angeles debut next week. An image of Marilyn Monroe flashing the peace sign on the trunk of ArtRod 001 by artist Steven Vaughan Monday, July 28, 2014, in Vaughan downtown Lafayette studio. The trunks opens electrically. Vaughan created the anti-war themed car using a 1970 Saab. The car will make its Los Angeles debut next week.
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And there it sits at the center, covered now in paper as Vaughan puts on the finishing touches but still overflowing with bold personality: the ArtRod. It's slated to be part of a hot rod show near Los Angeles in August, then shown in Greenwich, Connecticut and finally in Lafayette at the Gallery Walk on Sept. 19.

It's a classic 1970 Saab, a Model 96 factory original and looking nothing like it — or any car for that matter. The front is warlike, with the metal hull and gritty green of a tank. The hood resembles a fighter jet. Painted on the sides are clowns, gas masks, angels, superheroes and nuclear bombs going off. A palm tree's silhouette bows back from the explosion. On the back is Marilyn Monroe with a peace sign and stenciled prints modeled after the rococo floral wallpapers of the Victorian age.

"I liked Roy Lichtenstein's and Andy Warhol's art cars," Vaughan said. "But I wanted to do an art car where the artist designed the car itself, rather than just paint something given to them, with hot-glued shells that are literally falling off as they drive on the road. I wanted people who can weld to work on this."

Vaughan used fine art brushes to paint the more detailed images on the car, which includes a miniature scene inspired by "Dr. No" complementing each headlight. The images, Vaughan said, are meant to make viewers question Russia, the U.S. or any country sporting a gung-ho military mentality.

"It's an aggressive statement about power and the lust for power," he said. "By the time you get to the back, it's all about peace and love. That's where we need to go."

ArtRod is also a marvel in car customization. It's half Bonneville Salt Flats speedster, half armored military vehicle, a split-window coup with suicide doors, metal seats, a mechanized trunk and aircraft starters and toggles inside.

"Everything on this car was next to impossible to find," Vaughan said. "Even the Swedes had trouble finding parts. I had to essentially make everything myself."

Vaughan has led a tripartite career. He graduated from DePauw University, then studied commercial filmmaking at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. He's not afraid to drop a few names when talking about his stint in L.A. during the '90s as a television commercial director: "Michael Bay was right behind me in school. He decided to do the same thing I had done," he said. "My parking spot was next to Dick Clark's … I started Tyra Banks career … I worked with Cindy Crawford and for George Lucas."

Wanting full ownership of his products, Vaughan moved to Manhattan and started a line of tinted, rimless sunglasses. After that, he reignited his passion for fine art and soon became a prominent hyperrealist Pop art painter.

While commercials are a flash in the pan, he said, paintings and inventions like the ArtRod 001 carry the weight of permanence. Vaughan said he has no regrets.

"What I'm doing now will last forever," he said. "That's the thing about fine art. It lives on."

I'M PLEASED TO OFFER THIS VERY UNIQUE RPPC REAL PHOTO POSTCARD OF A COMPETITIVE RACE CAR DRIVER NAMED EDDIE O'DONNELL. IT IS FROM AUGUST 21 1915 RACE IN ELGIN ILLINOIS WHERE HE PLACED 3RD IN THE RACE IN HIS DUESENBERG #3 CAR. HE HAD COMPETED IN INDIANAPOLIS 500 3 TIMES BEFORE HE WAS KILLED IN A CAR CRASH IN CALIFORNIA.

1960s ad for Chase Manhattan Bank featuring Duesenberg, Hispano, Mercedes, Cord and Packard.

1923 Altoona Speedway banner.

$11,995 scores this 8-ft pool table out of a Shelby Mustang.

AUTOCYCLE, VINTAGE MOTORCYCLE FLASK, 8 OZ. STAINLESS STEEL, $23.

1939 Atco Junio Safety Trainer during filming at Northern Polytechnic, August 4, 1939.

1939 Atco Safety Trainer owned by an Australian collector.

1967 Ferrari 330 P4 exploded model by Fabian Oefner.

For sale on eBay...

This was taken out of a racing scrap album from a late family member of Bills.
I have other racer pictures, with newspaper articles from his start in the late teens to his tragic death in 1930.
No reserve measures approx 7" x 9 1/2"

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"Wild Bill" Albertson and His Miller Special

Yates Past - May 2010

The first real sports boom in American history occurred during the Roaring Twenties and it turned a number of athletes into national icons. There were Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb in baseball, Red Grange and Knute Rockne in football, Bobby Jones and Walter Hagen in golf, Bill Tilden and Helen Wills in tennis, Jack Dempsey and Gene Tunney in boxing, etc. A sports figure who dominated the local scene during the 1920s was Bill Albertson. He was an amateur race car driver who started out on local dirt tracks and by the mid to late 1920s was racing against some of the best known names in the sport .... and winning. The high point of his career was when he and a car he owned raced in the Indianapolis 500 in May of 1929. The local newspapers of the time, the Chronicle Express and Penn Yan Democrat, followed Bill Albertson’s every move in racing and so did the readers they served.

Bill was the son of Danish immigrants who farmed near Geneva. When his father died his mother moved into Penn Yan with her children. As a young man he worked as an auto mechanic in different garages in Penn Yan, starting with the one owned by Allen Wagner on East Elm Street. In 1915 he bought his own business on Central Avenue (The building is still there located directly behind Trombley Tire). He got into racing at that same time, driving a Maxwell touring car which he had converted into a race car. He started at the Yates County Fairgrounds and then on local dirt tracks throughout central and western New York. In 1920 he modified a Chalmers race car and started to earn a reputation throughout upstate New York. When he bought a Duesenberg racer in 1921 the Syracuse Post Standard reported “If Bill Albertson, a local automobile mechanic, ever can get an automobile that will travel fast enough to suit him, he will be among the peers in the racing game. ..... fans in this section believe Bill will carry away three-fourths of the events on the dirt tracks of New York state this summer.” It was at that time that he picked up the nickname “Wild Bill” because it seemed that he would take any chance to win a race. When he finished second at the New York State Fair in Syracuse in 1922 against some of the top racers in the country, his reputation grew throughout the Northeast. Through the mid 1920s he raced at county fairs and tracks throughout New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. Although he was banned from a few tracks because of his reckless driving, he set track records at several others and became a headline attraction wherever he raced. His standing in racing circles got to the point where he could demand a cash guarantee just to compete in a race. By 1927 his reputation had grown to the point that he was scheduled to be a relief driver at the Indianapolis 500 on Memorial Day but he had to cancel due to the untimely death of his mother-in-law. In 1928 he bought a 1923 Miller 122 for around $12,000 (the car shown in the photo on the next page). Harry Miller of California was a well known race car builder and his cars dominated competition throughout the 1920s and early 1930s. Only 37 of that particular model were made. The car Albertson bought had already run in three Indy 500s and once finished as high as fourth. In “Wild Bill”s first seven starts with the new car, he set five new track records. The next spring he felt good enough about the car to enter it in the 1929 Indianapolis 500. Still recovering from injuries when his car went through the fence at Langhorne racetrack the previous October, Albertson asked Frank Farmer of Pennsylvania to be the primary driver. Bill would do mechanic duties and be the relief driver. Bill raced the car in laps 119 to 134 when Farmer took over driving duties again. Car #36 developed problems with its supercharger and was forced to drop out of the race on lap 140. It started the race in the 26th position and finished in 14th. Their prize money was $459.

Albertson continued to race his Miller Special the remainder of 1929, winning 100 mile races at Lehighton and Bloomsburg in Pennsylvania. 1930 started out promising enough for “Wild Bill” as he scored a win in a 100 mile race in Toledo, Ohio. Through the summer he raced at Langhorne in Pennsylvania, Woodbridge in New Jersey and on Long Island. The year turned tragic in August, however, when he took his car #36 to the half-mile clay track at the Orange County Fair in Middletown, New York. In a time trial he was attempting to set a new track record before a crowd of 16,000 people. The Middletown newspaper had a dramatic description of what happened.

“Finally the wine colored machine was wheeled to the starting line and Albertson tightened his familiar white whipcord helmet. Elmer Gerner, the starter, wished Albertson luck. His wife strolled back behind the judge’s stand where she could better watch the trial. In a moment Wild Bill was off for the first preliminary circling of the track. Down the course came the car high on the track for the breathless swerve into the first short turn. Gerner gave him the green starting flag and a dozen watches clicked. It was obvious Albertson’s attempt was to be terrifically fast. He pulled the car past the first turn and gave it the gun to the far stretch. At the three-quarters pole stopwatches afterward indicated he was traveling at a 27 second gait or approximately 73 miles per hour in the short straight-away. But as Albertson whisked into the far turn his car suddenly lunged sideways, rolled over once at right angles, and then with tremendous momentum up-ended from the rear and bounced high in the air. Albertson was hurled from the seat, a flying figure with arms and legs spread like a white robed diver plunging from some high springboard. As he neared the ground 40 feet away he seemed to double forward in position practiced by drivers to break falls of less momentum. He hit the track’s center on his shoulders and rolled over thrice as though ending swift handsprings. Suddenly he slithered into the guardrail. Under the guide rail lay Albertson, his head crushed. Younger, his mechanic, arrived. He hurried past the blanketed figure and savagely kicked a wheel of the death car, which had stopped upright in center track 75 yards from the first skid marks. The car was little damaged. Preliminary examination disclosed that a right front wheel had apparently frozen and thus had slung the light car into uncontrolled skids.”

At the time of his death, Bill Albertson was 42 years old. He and his wife lived on Benham Street in Penn Yan. The community was shocked and saddened by his death. Over fifty friends, neighbors, loyal fans, and customers traveled up to Rochester for his funeral and burial. Elizabeth Albertson sold her husband’s car #36 to another driver and it continued to race into the late 1930s. Then, since Harry Miller only made a few of that particular model, it became a collector’s item and passed through a series of collectors in the US and England. It has been fully restored and sold at a California estate sale in 2008 for $2,035,000. It is currently owned by the retired Chairman of the Winn-Dixie chain of grocery stores who lives in Florida and he has taken what was once “Wild Bill” Albertson’s car #36 to shows and competitions. It won Best in Show at the prestigious Concours d’Elegance at Amelia Island, Florida in March of 2009.

by Rich MacAlpine

Auto Blog recently featured this model diorama of the clan from Top Gear. Creepy or what?

If having the trio of Top Gear presenters on your TV isn't enough for you, you can always buy these new action figures. While the detail of the 1:18-scale models of Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May is high, something may have been lost in the translation; for one, their heads arguably look a bit too large for their bodies. On second thought, maybe that's a result of artistic license...

Whatever is the case, you can order the set of three action figures for around $500(!) when Moscow-based Scale Figures releases a run of 60 on October 31. If you were lucky enough to buy the limited-edition White Stig and Black Stig figurines (each was limited to 50), this is a great chance to give the BBC show's motorsports men of mystery some company.

I shot this VETTE magazine (June-July, 1981) cover of Peter & Ronnie Nuefeld's custom 'Can-Am' Corvette at the SCCI Euro-Meet at Monza, IT. At the time they owned six Corvettes and this one was built by Bob Eckler & Willie Wilson at Eckler's Corvette and exported to Switzerland. It has Greenwood suspension, blueprinted small-block. Courtesy Martyn Schorr https://www.facebook.com/MartynSchorr

Cleaning a Giant Studebaker. At the 1934 Chicago World's Fair the largest vehicle in the world. Inside the bodywork was a cinema that could hold eighty people.

Advert for the BMW 700 which was a small economy model first manufactured in 1959. After WWII BMW was struggling and almost bankrupt when the idea of a proper economy model was proposed. Between 1959 and 1965 nearly 200,000 700's were sold saving the company from ruin. However, despite the success of the 700, it would be the last economy model made under the BMW name. Courtesy of https://www.facebook.com/MCMrevival

Early stell scale model of Duesenberg SSJ scooped up by a Texas collector.

Video of our handmade toy cars. For more information, please go to:
www.pocketclassics.co.uk