Stumbled across a very nice little video from the nice folks at Hurst Racing Tires.

It seems the hand-made aesthetic has trickled down all the way to the consumption and production of traction. We've no idea how they might work, and we wince at the possible costs of a set of these hand-made, low volume lumps of crafted rubber might cost.

But, if you like your products straight outta Oregon and shot through with a humour and heritage that mainstream companies can only dream of, then what better way to connect the love of your life to the tarmac?

Click here to view the embedded video.

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The controversy of the DeLorean story is well known - shot through with allegations of corruption, tax-fiddling and other nefarious twists and turns worthy of an episode of Dallas - which was the big TV hit in the late seventies and early eighties - the time at which the drama was in progress.

There was something of the JR Ewing about Mr DeLorean himself. He had the chops to put himself front and centre of a huge enterprise and take the slings an arrows when it went south. But taking the boss out of the equation entirely -if you care about creative car culture you can't help but be impressed with the product itself.

Sealed into pop consciousness as the Flux Capacitor-aspirated time travelling machine in Back To The Future franchise - it was the Giugiaro-penned brushed steel panelled body and the gullwing doors that assured its place in the memory. Although there were allegations too, of business mismanagement throughout the time of its existence - it was probably the desperate global recession of the late seventies that had a truly crushing effect on the car's viability.

No matter.

The DeLorean DMC-12 the kind of car that will be remembered in little boys dreams for decades to come.

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Introducing the Megagamma as a concept at the 1978 Turin Motorshow - the continuing journey to long, low, sleek design that had dominated the 1970s was reversed. Giugiaro realised that by pushing the height of a vehicle made not only for a more pleasant city driving experience: that it also allowed for adaptability and versatility in the cabin. It also, moreover, relegated speed and aesthetic appeal to a secondary factor in what made cars saleable - a sad harbinger of the future of automotive mass production perhaps – but this vision underlines further the man's claim to being 'designer of the 20th century'.

And the funny thing is, of course, with 35 years' worth of hindsight, the design is rather attractive in its own right. The designer manages to retain that 'folded paper' signature even in this unlikely platform - and though Lancia never went on to produce the Megagamma it is easy to see its resonance - not only in the Fiat Uno, Panda and so many other mini-MPVs on the roads today - but in The Espace, Nissan's Prairie and classics of quirky design like the Avantime.

Bravo Maestro.

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Apparently, the logo's three abstracted cardinal points represents the company's intent on dominating land, sea and air. It might seem a little, shall we say, fascistic an impulse to encode into your logo - but you've got to remember that the brand was created at a time when German imperialism was spilling out all over the planet and coming head to head with that good ole' British imperial impulse. Yes, Mercedes-Benz's earliest creations where fully crystallised aspects of the Age of Empire - when progress was all about going further, faster, higher, - and subjugating anyone or any thing that might dare to get in the way of the establishment.

And there's something of this road-ruling aesthetic that survives to this day in the vehicles Merc produces, right from the mini-titan of the A-class right through to the forest roaming Unimogs and SLS supercars that eat up the autobahns of the planet.

Could it be that as Lewis Hamilton fans, we're starting to buy into the brand through celebrity association with motorsport? It could be. But it could also be a bit of simple maturity on our part. No more for us is automotive passion the sole preserve of the Roman - or the straightline focussed brutality of Americana.

We suppose everyone in the end, aspires to own a Mercedes.

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For our money, the bike produced reminds us of Suzuki's Katana with it's long, low profile and rakish lines - and doesn't seem to evoke particularly closely the far more chunky profile of the original bike. the visual reference may or may not be a nod to Hans Muth - who, we believe, oversaw both the original R90S and the blade-like Suzuki. Still - no matter: no point in recreating the same bike - rather, we suppose, infuse a contemporary machine with the spirit of adventure that BMW breathed into the classic back in the day.

Below is a very, very nice video. It's easy to over egg the pudding when you talk about motorbikes and design - but we reckon there's a loving mix of tech and passion that has gone into the making of this special bike. We'd love to see something like it go into production.

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Like many disciplines of motorsport now marginalised and bleached out of the spotlight by the all conquering roadshow that is F1, sidecar racing enjoyed its heyday in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Dickie Davis's World of Sport (see below) often featured the slip-sliding sideways sport in between the racing from Haydock and the Wrestling - but it still goes on - albeit usually amid a pod of enthusiastic stalwarts and mentalist amateur thrill-jockeys.

The web is replete with the Sidecar scenesters: and you can find an event this summer by heading to the site run by Steve English.

Click here to view the embedded video.

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Thing is, these flat 4, Karmann built versions of the much pricier and fickle automotive totem are a truly accessible way in to classic car ownership. And if you scour the planet with a digital eye you can usually pick out a project get: like the ones owned by Gentleman car dealer Dodi over in Monterey.

Dodi has a particularly nice, particularly scarce 1966 version that all discerning 912 buffs should check out. And with the sort of fuel efficiency that engine produces, you could easily use one of these as your daily drive.

Found a nice piece of graphic here too, on Le Container - Looks like the 912 club of France is having a little gathering this weekend.

The post Porsche 912 appeared first on Influx Magazine.

Click here to view the embedded video.

There's so many Lynch moments of brilliance, but there's something about this clip from Wild at heart that we love. We've all been there, sick of the nonesense that is talk radio. A perfect opportunity to pull over and mosh in the desert. Not sure what the convertible is.

Any ideas?

The post David Lynch & Cars appeared first on Influx Magazine.

Click here to view the embedded video.

But anyway, now we've convinced you how brainy we are, we wanted to introduce you to a slice of real-life contemporary bike culture, that, though a definite part of this wall of reflections that old Johnny Boy mentioned, retains its daft authenticity.

Yes, you guessed it: Dirt Quake 2 is upon us, the mentalist imaginings of these fellahs from Sideburn – our mate and oppo Gary Inman and crew. There'll be a lot of fun messing about on motorbikes so, in short, we humbly suggest you get yourself to Norfolk Arena, in a roots-and-culture speedway kind of way at King's Lynn.

You know it makes sense.

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Despite this appeal, these baby's are surprisingly affordable. Just look at THIS ONE for sale at a reasonable price, tricked out and apparently clean as a whistle.

We think what's at work here is simple, plain old fashioned brand snobbery. In this country, the Datsun moniker is, well, less than glamourous, and for some even the upgraded Nissan ident doesn't do a lot to get the classicist juices flowing. But look: this is an extremely able, relatively rare GT with renowned reliability and the sort of panache that you only get from a Japanese GT of the seventies. We reckon this stock is bound to rise...

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