Yes, yes, I’m late again with the Cold Start. I know! But I had to do some birthday car drawings for members last night and I was tired, dammit, tired, and then I had to take the kid to farm camp this morning and well, here we are, with Cold Start at 9:30. Fine. I’m a monster. But, I’m a monster that looked at this cutaway image of a 1978 Fiat 900T van and felt something. Not something in my heart (I mean, a little, but that’s not my main point here) but something physical. The artist managed to render this so well that there’s a material here that when I look at it, I can actually feel it on my fingertips. Let me show you and you can tell me if you agree.
It’s this bit:
Those panels over the engine box there, they look like they’re made of this medium density fiberboard stuff they sometimes use on car door cards or other behind-the-scenes paneling, but here there’s something about the painted color and texture that’s just so dead-on and perfect that I can feel the smooth-yet-particulate-ness under my fingertips. I don’t think a photograph would have conveyed this as well, somehow.
The unnamed artist that rendered this van is an absolute master, and I want them to know, wherever they are, that I appreciate the effort and work here. I can feel those panels, their hardness, slight coldness but less so than the surrounding metal, the way the slightly chamfered edges are a bit rougher, all of it.
Am I the only one here? Am I nuts? Have you ever encountered an image like this, that makes you feel a texture? Answer me, dammit! I need this!
A bit fun how this is just a VW bus rip off, especially with the bodywork around the engine. But it’s fun and sweet 🙂
VW later ripped off the engine top hatch on the T3/Vanagons 😉
And as far as I remember, the 900T was the one with the spare wheel in front of the passenger’s legs? (oh yes, it’s there on the drawing if you look closely!)
I have sat in the driver’s seat of one of those at a local wrecking yard years ago – I can still feel the pain of knees pressed up hard against the dashboard and the crick of a neck bent by a head pressed hard against the roof. I’m 6’1″, but this thing convinced me I was either a giant or it was actually a scaled-down replica of a van, not a real vehicle! By comparison, the Fiat 850 Series II Sport Coupe I owned later seemed very spacious!
Not just feel it, smell it.
Torch you are out of it next time take a nap first. Or get Otto to write it he is funny.
I never saw one of those in the metal, but nevertheless I can smell this material deteriorating on that door over there 😡
Also warping. Those things used to warp and bulge with the humidity from a sneeze…
100% with you, Torch.
For having played in several abandoned ones as a kid – I can vouch that the only artist that did their job here is the one who played with the sliders after scanning the image decades after it was created, because the real one had nothing to do with these colors 😛
What I can still hear, though, is the dry click of the blinker and headlights switches around the steering column.
I can feel that floor. It reminds me of the bed of the truck I spent all kinds of time riding around in as a kid.
I can feel the rumble and rattle of that perfectly rendered all-metal interior.
And I can taste the fiberboard hatch covers.
Oddly I can taste it too
sort of nutty with a formaldehyde aftertaste
Feel it? I can taste it. Damn synesthesia.
What I’d like to know more about is the spare tire placement —looks to me like it’s at the passenger’s knees?
I seem to recall my ’57 Multipla had a similar spare tire placement
Looks comfortable: https://www.ebaymotorsblog.com/motors/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/1967_fiat_familiare_03-600×448.jpg
Of course you’re nuts Torch, but you’re not alone. We’re all a bit off here.
Also, those panels make me think of a cork type of substance, I can definitely feel it.
I had an old pop-up camper that had panels like that to cover the sink; I definitely know that texture. I am impressed by the level of detail on the open door, particularly the reflection on the door and in the mirror. Plus, I really want one of these vans. Love the metal bulkhead with windows and the forward cab.
Vargas girls pin-ups used to give me feelings.
I like the jaunty turn of the front wheels. I know its a trope of automotive ad art, but it really works well here. This lil’ van is ready to go as soon as it’s loaded.
I am feeling like if they load the cement bags all on this side of the van, it might tip over with the wheel turned like that
I can feel the swelling that would occur to that stuff if you left a cold six-pack on there for like 5 minutes on a hot humid day
That is in his 2nd draft.
Are you nuts? Yes, but that’s why we’re all here.
Agreed… this is an excellent rendering…For me though, it wasn’t the particle board that conjures up sensation for me….it’s the black, seamless vinyl on the driver’s seat of that un-airconditioned van. I can feel my back soaked with sweat and my legs in shorts sticking to that seat by just looking at it.
Absolutely… Usually, I can smell a picture, but this one does recall that very specific tactile response.
Those panels feel like Mouse Fur to me.
For years the dashboard of every Italian car was bedecked in nonreflective Mouse Fur. Headliners and, sometimes, seats, too.
A nationwide mouse shortage probably ended that craze.
After the local mice ran out, they could have taken them from other countries. “Genuine Imported Mouse Fur”. Elegant.
Interestingly enough, the main source for those upholstery mice hides is a region of the former Soviet Union. It’s their main export, actually although the trade is completely controlled by one former Soviet Colonel. Anyhow, the mice there are called Naygats….
So if you’ve owned a cheap car with mouse-fur upholstery in the last 20 years or so, it was probably just full of the Colonel’s Chechen Naygats…
Ok, you’ve got your star, now,
g’wan ‘n git th’ hell outa heah!
Ahem. Rich, Corinthian mouse fur.
The artist has an eye for manufactured wood products that, as an art teacher, I never saw in any of my students during “Paint Various Wood Grains” class. I am impressed.