Honda Motocompo Upgrade

From the Office of Wheels

In a effort to redesign the Honda Motocompo (​LINK​) into something contemporary, industrial designer Mitch Silva created a cassette-futurism masterpiece.

His idea is to take a Honda Monkey (​LINK​) and give it a sleek angular look that evokes the Honda Elite scooter (​LINK​).

I think this is such a solid design and would love to incorporate more of this aesthetic into the spaceships and robots I'm working on.

More designs here: ​LINK​

-Jake

When the Twingo Goes Wild

From the Office of Wheels

There's a a 2,500-Mile Dakar-Style Rally That’s Only for the Renault Twingo and it looks unbelievably fun. It's called the Twing Raid and it's giving me Toriyama vibes: cute cars, fantastic locations, and fun characters. I think there's a comic story here.

More about this on the official Twing Raid website: LINK​

Instagram: LINK​

-Jake

The Blue Bird Russian Cosmonaut Retrieval Vehicle

From the Office of Wheels

The Russians had a problem. Launching a man in space, having them orbit earth and reentering the atmosphere was all figured out. However, since Russia really doesn't have an ocean it controls to easily ditch a spacecraft in, the landing site had to be somewhere on their vast sub arctic continent.

That means the returning capsule could land in almost any kind of terrain: mountain, tundra, snow, or lake. What kind of vehicle could race out to them in any of those situations, and in any kind of weather?

Enter the Blue Bird, a beautifully ugly artifact of Soviet design and engineering. I love this truck's utilitarian look with hints of retro futurism.

More photos and info here: LINK and LINK​

-Jake

1985 Nissan Com Com

From the Office of Wheels

How can something 39 years old look so fresh and be so perfect for this moment in time?

Debuted at the 1985 Tokyo Motor Show, the Nissan COM COM concept van was Nissan's answer to another quirky delivery van designed by Mazda. This thing has it all: straigtline styling. GPS. Car Phone. CD changer. But the think I love the most is the sliding front door.

It's a shame it never went to production.

-Jake

Electric Porsche Dakar Racer Concept

From the Office of Wheels

Industrial designer Kamil Kozik's electric off-road Porsche looks rad. It's got all the right angles and curves to just barely convince your brain it's a Porsche, but then it infuses all the engineering aesthetics expected from an off-road rally racer. All of this packaged up in a nice render. Very cool.

More of Kozik's work in Instagram here: LINK​

-Jake

1980's Futuristic Motocycles (Akira)

​From the Department of Wheels

Found this rad write up of iconic two-wheeled rides from the 80's. I'm in this phase now where the stuff that looks futuristic now is so ubiquitous and Artstationy (like a tacticool facade glazed over everything), that when I see actual engineered machines from the pre-digital age there this tangible coolness to them that I want to replicate in my designs.

I love the odd bulges and angles with slick thickline paint jobs. Perfection!

Check out the full article here: LINK

-Jake

Benoit Tallec's L’Intrépide Cafe Racer: Ooh là là!

​From the Office of Wheels

​Cafe Racer's always catch my eye, whether I see them on the road or online. But this one, a bike aptly named "L’Intrépide" is something really special. Designed by Benoit Tallec as a personal project. Apparently, Tallec wanted to prove that you could take the uninspired design of a late 70's BMW R100RS and make something that would turn heads on the street. Safe to say that he nailed it.

I love its retro futuristic styling, and would love to see this approach applied to something like a star wars speeder bike.

Tons more photos and a nice write up here: LINK​

Benoit Tallec's website: LINK

-Jake​

Pre-Ware Motorcycles

From the Office of Wheels

Nice collection of pre-war motorcycles by photographer Paul Clifton. These are more utilitarian looking than the overly designed motorbikes of the current era, but there's beauty in their spartan styling.

Lots of ideas here for vehicle design. I may be incorporating some of these into a future comic.

More bikes here: LINK, LINK, and LINK​

Clifton's Website: LINK

-Jake

The Honda White Fox Snowmobile

From the Office of Wheels

Saw this online recently: A cool Honda snowmobile that came out in the 70's. Looks like a G.I.Joe toy. Only 2-5 of these actually exist. Honda manufactured 200 of them, and had set up dealerships in the US to sell them, but safety concerns that someone would break their legs riding this thing caused them to recall the vehicles and they destroyed them.

It's a cool looking design though. Definitely some good inspiration for a space skimmer or something. Might us it in a Skull Chaser comic.

-Jake

The Boulder Mobile

From the Office of Wheels

I'm in love with this little ride inspired by the Boulder Mobile from Wacky Races.

Japanese auto enthusiast Takamasa Segi bought a Ferves Ranger and converted it into this. Ferves was an Italian car manufacturer that made these tiny automoblies as an off-road alternative to the Fiats.

Farmers would buy them because they were easy to make tight turns on moutain roads and trails.

More pictures and info here: LINK​

And here: LINK​

-Jake

The MAUTO, Italy's Greatest Museum

From the Office of Wheels

Leave it to the Italians to have the most impressive automobile museum in the world. Turin Automobile Museum boasts one of the rarest and most interesting collections of its kind, with over 200 original cars from 80 brands from all over the world.

Putting this on my list of places to visit if I ever end up in Italy. In the meantime, their website has a nice gallery of cars you can view from the comfort of your own bed: LINK​

I picked some cool ones for the newsletter here:

(Thanks to friend of the newsletter, Laura, for this tip!)

-Jake

Jimny Rod

From the Office of Wheels

Munich based les83machines specializes in in unique modifications of cars. I really love this rodded out Suzuki Jimny they designed. This is just a render, and as far as I can tell hasn't been realized beyond the computer screen. Fun design, color choice is solid, great car.

See more photos here: LINK​

-Jake

Want a Free Antarctic Exploration Vehicle?

From the Office of Wheels

Check out this beast. Kind of like a mobile lab, it was designed to travel 5000 miles and a crew of two could live in it for an entire year without any outside support. Unfortunately it was lost to the inhospitable world of Antarctica. Last seen in 1958!

Might have to get some freinds together and go down there and find it! Haha.

More info here: LINK​

(Thanks to friend of the newsletter Kevin for this tip!)

-Jake

Dashboard Gallery

From the Office of Wheels

Found this great gallery of old dashboards on Flickr. I'm always paying attention to this kind of stuff because A) I love industrial design and B) I never know when I might need to design a dashboard for a comic or concept art job. I love industrial design because I think it's pretty cool to see how 100 different designers decided to solve the same problem. Some of these are really spartan with just the essentials (LINK). While others have every gauge, knob, dial, and lever available at arms length (LINK).

Also find it fascinating where some car companies will spend money on interior design, and others look like the interior was an afterthought...something for the engineers to handle.

You can see many many more dashboards here: LINK​

-Jake

Hot Dog Hot Rod

From the Department of Wheels

Alexis Poncelet is a French designer for Volkswagen living in Berlin. When he's not designing cars, he designs more cars for fun. Most of them are pretty restrained forward looking designs, and I love them, but this one...this one caught my eye for how well he balances absurdity with edginess. At first glance this is such a silly idea, but looking at the details, engineering, and overall style, this car slaps. This thing drives right up my alley.

You can see more photos here: LINK​

and check out his Instagram here: LINK

-Jake

The Brubaker Box

From the Office of Wheels

Considered the first minivan, and I do mean mini, it is built on the chassis of a Volkswagon Bug, the Brubaker Box was a futuristic car concept that drips with style.

Unfortunately it wasn't a viable business venture and its creator Curtis Brubaker ended up filing for bankruptcy after only building three of them.

I'm glad he followed his dream though because we at least get to see what an alternate present might look like had these things influenced automotive design.

Wikipedia entry: LINK​

More photos: LINK​

I wish I had an afternoon to learn more about Brubaker. He was a lear jet designer turned concept car creator. And designed a vehicle in 78 that looks like the inspiration for the cyber truck:

Deiselpunk Electric Motorcycle

From the Office of Wheels

I think this motorcycle is pretty rad. It's electric, but instead of following the trend to make an electric vehicle look more cyber-futuristic the designer fo this bike went retro.

Pulling inspiration from the diesel age, Katalis Company designed this bike with analog instruments, exposed bolts, and bare seams.

You can see more of their motorcycles here: LINK​

I like this variant:

(via yanko design)

-Jake

Nissan's Experimental EVs from the 70's

From the Office of Wheels

I'm always on the look out for quirky cars and these two caught my eye.

Back in the 70s Nissan made a couple experimental electric vehicles that are too cool to have just faded into the static noise of history.

I love the colors, the odd proportions, and the chunky-clunkyness of these designs. I'd drive one.

You can see the 6 page pamphlet this image came from here: LINK

-Jake