Tatra T-87

I have been working at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts since October and one of the best things in the collection is the is the Tatra T-87 sedan.

Image Link

I get more questions about the car than an other "work" in the museum, so I did some digging for information about the car. So here is what I know it was designd 1936 and put in to production through to 1950 and around 3,000 where made. It has a reare mounted air cooled V8 engine with the gas cap under the hood in the front. The Czechoslovakian made car was popular with the German Officers in WWII but Hitler banned it after two many officers where killed driving it.

Rumor has it that the battery and stater motor have been removed from the car at the MIA but it came with a crank start along with many other goodies like extra spark pugs and an oil can.

Take a look a what Jay Leno has to say about his.




http://www.conceptcarz.com/vehicle/z9132/Tatra-T87.aspx
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tatra_T87

Fireplace

I have been meaning to post this for sometime but....
such is life.

I did not design the fireplace surrounding but did the metal work around it. I had the Chemetal cut to size and cut and painted the accent bars. The hard part was getting it on the wall but contact cement and a second set of hands, done and done.

The Wrong Garden

So I have not posted in a while.

I came across this.
James Dyson and Jim Honey designed a garden for for the Chelsea Garden show 2003.
James Dyson designed the water feature for the garden inspired by M.C. Escher.

"One of these is an optical illusion that shows water going uphill and round and round the four sides of a square perpetually. I wanted to create a series of cascades that are all on the same level - an everlasting waterfall."

I don't know how this has not made it to my radar until now. It is one of the best water pieces I have seen. The way it works is even better, make it look like the water is flowing up hill.

I always thought that working for Dyson would be sweet, because it strikes me as a place that there is no bad idea. This work by Dyson proves to me that, he thinks that there is no bad idea.

Here is the Telegraph article and the BBC story.

The official site.

Sea of Tranquility

The Moon Landing forty years ago.

and
Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage on CNN this morning talking about the "Moon Myths"

The launch of Apollo 11

The video of the launch of Apollo 11 forty years out.

Minnesota Wins

UMNSVP - Centaurus

The University of Minnesota won the 2009 Formula Sun Grand Prix, in both amount of laps and fastest lap. The U's Solar Vehicle Centaurus did 487 laps over the three days as well as the fastest lap time 0:02:20 on a 1.7 mile track. Check the full results here.
The Star Tribune has an article here.
The University of Minnesota Solar Vehicle Project web page, twitter, and flicker.
The team has started work on Centaurus II.
Solar cars always seem to look like something out of the future a weird UFO or something.

flying cars

Gotta love Top Gear (even if it was on CollegeHumor).

Watch Car Darts and more funny videos on CollegeHumor