Category Archives: Design

Behold the 1930 Bentley Blower, or rather, the first of twelve such ‘continuation’ vehicles to be built by Bentley’s Mulliner Classic division from the original plans of Sir Henry ’Tim’ Birkin’s Le Mans 24 Hour Race winner.

Using Birkin’s original 90 year old tools and jigs along with detailed laser scans of the original car (which sold for £4.5 million back in 2012), each Continuation Blower will contain 1,846 handcrafted parts from small British firms, pluckily clinging to the past God bless ’em, as their country drifts off into an uncertain future.

Mmf.

All twelve vehicles are already spoken for.

uncrate


Behold: the Manhart Toyota Supra GR 550 – radically enhanced by German tuning specialists Manhart Performance.

This is the already rorty 550 lowered, reskirted, upgraded throughout, fitted with black silk wheels and wrapped in a golden skin – its fearsome lines unapologetically enhanced. Under the bonnet, the original 3.0l, six-cylinder engine has been boosted from 335bhp to an alarming 542bhp.

You can’t have it. It’s only for gawking at.

hiconsumption

Behold: the “Zip Fastener Ship’ a sleek silver vessel created in 2004 by Japanese artist Yasuhiro Suzuki parting the surface of Tokyo’s Sumida River. The launch, inspired by a view of the river from a plane flying overhead, has been an annual event since 2018. Suzuki sez of it:

The undertow of the boat, which travels back and forth between Azuma-bashi Bridge and Sakura-bashi Bridge, opened up the water like a zipper to connect the other side of the river. (I hoped) that it would change the way we look at the city landscape.

colossal