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LG has launched many successful mobile models in India and this time LG has also proved this by launching its new model that is LG A160. The LG A160 has many features and is getting positive response form the Indian market. The LG A160 has already been launched in 31 January 2011. LG has many mobile models which has got good response from the Indian market. The affordable price of the mobiles launch by LG is very superb. The LG A160 reviews are already present. The LG A160 features are really fantastic. The first important feature is the look of the mobile which is very descent.
Night shoot with Just Jane, Avro Lancaster and re enactors at the Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre organised by Time Line Events.
this was actually a little experiment i conducted. i decided i wouldnt change my white balance to contradict the blue tone outside because then the picture would come out exactly as i saw it.....well maybe not exactly. i dont see in HDR most of the time haha.
oh yeah also this building is a jewish synagogue built in the 50's i think. some pretty sweet architecture if you ask me. im still working on getting inside to see what its like.
p.s. i shot this at about 5:30 A.M. just before a disappointing sunrise.
Jean François de Troy - French, 1679 - 1752
The Abduction of Europa, 1716
West Building, Main Floor — Gallery 54
A bare-chested, blond woman sits sideways on a muscular, large, white bull, who charges into an ocean while three women look on in this horizontal painting. All the people have pale or peachy skin and rosy cheeks. The bull is being pulled to our left by a winged, nude, baby-like putto wading into the water. The putto has pudgy arms, a round tummy, and short, blond, curly hair. He looks back over his shoulder and smiles as he reaches along a garland of leaves and flowers, used to pull the bull. The bull turns his head to look over our left shoulder with bright, golden eyes. His front legs plunge into the azure-blue water. Rings of flowers encircle his short, steel-gray horns. The woman riding atop, Europa, leans across the bull’s neck and one hand clutches one of the bull’s horns. She looks and gestures with her other hand to the group behind the bull, to our right. Europa’s blond hair is woven with a deep pink ribbon. Her eyes are slitted as she looks down her nose, her pink lips open. Pale, shimmering yellow fabric covers her legs over sandaled feet. She sits on a rose-pink cloth that also billows up behind her. She wears two pearl bracelets on her gesturing hand. The three women looking on sit and stand near a tree trunk in a dense wooded area in the lower right quadrant of the painting. Their mouths are open, their hair bound, and they wear flowing robes of bronze orange, royal blue, lavender gray, or pale mint green. One woman has dark brown hair and sits with one elbow propped on a tree root. Her hands are clasped and she wears gold bracelets. Another woman leans across her lap, her arms outstretched toward Europa, her back to us. The third woman stands and leans in behind this pair, also reaching out toward Europa. A deeply shaded rocky ground stretches across the bottom of the canvas, and a leafy tree extends off the top right corner. Dense vegetation becomes lighter and hazier in the distance, to our right. A bright dot of cream white surrounded by coral peach on the ocean’s horizon suggests the sun. In the top half of the picture, towering puffy clouds rise against a topaz-blue sky.
This delightful painting by Jean-François de Troy, one of the leading painters in Paris in the first half of the 18th century, portrays the climactic moment from Ovid's story in Metamorphoses—the Abduction of Europa. Jupiter has transformed himself into a handsome bull to lure the lovely princess Europa onto his back and carry her away to Crete where she would bear him three sons. From Rembrandt to Claude Lorrain to Paul Gauguin, this seminal story captured the imagination of European artists for centuries.
Painted in rich colors with the light, refined brush characteristic of the works of de Troy's fellow members of the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture, Antoine Watteau and FranÃ\u0083§ois Boucher, this painting offers a classical mythological subject in a rococo style that gracefully compliments the National Gallery's collection. De Troy studied with his father, François de Troy, professor and then director of the Académie. In 1699, he traveled to Italy, spending most of his time in Rome copying the masterpieces of antiquity and Italian art. He returned to Paris in 1706, and two years later became a full-fledged member of the Académie. A prodigiously talented painter, he completed ambitious decorations in churches, palaces, and public buildings in Paris, Versailles, Fontainebleau, and Marseilles. In 1738, he was granted the prestigious post of director of the Académie de France in Rome, a position he retained until his death. Although he was officially a history painter, he worked successfully across genres, inventing what are known as tableaux de modes to rival and succeed Watteau's more mysterious and ambiguous fêtes galantes.
The present painting may have been inspired by what is perhaps the most famous iteration of the theme, Titian's Europa, 1560–1562 (Isabella Stewart Gardener Museum, Boston). The latter work was given by Philip V, king of Spain, to the French ambassador, the duc de Gramont, in 1704. Titian's painting subsequently passed into the possession of the duc d'Orléans, with whose collection, on permanent display at the Palais Royal in Paris, de Troy was thoroughly conversant. Smaller in scale and less tragic in tone, de Troy's painting illustrates the same moment in the story and displays a similarly lush palette and dramatic drapery. The probable pendant to The Abduction of Europa, a representation of Cupid and Psyche, is signed and dated 1716, thus placing our picture within a period early in the artist's career during which he specialized in cabinet-sized pictures of erotically charged mythological subjects.
________________________________
The National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC is a world-class art museum that displays one of the largest collections of masterpieces in the world including paintings, drawings, prints, photographs, sculpture, and decorative arts from the 13th century to the present. The National Gallery of Art collection includes an extensive survey of works of American, British, Italian, Flemish, Spanish, Dutch, French and German art. With its prime location on the National Mall, surrounded by the Smithsonian Institution, visitors often think that the museum is a part of the Smithsonian. It is a separate entity and is supported by a combination of private and public funds. Admission is free. The museum offers a wide range of educational programs, lectures, guided tours, films, and concerts.
The original neoclassical building, the West Building includes European (13th-early 20th century) and American (18th-early 20th century) paintings, sculptures, decorative arts, and temporary exhibitions. The National Gallery of Art was opened to the public in 1941 with funds provided by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The original collection of masterpieces was provided by Mellon, who was the U. S. Secretary of the Treasury and ambassador to Britain in the 1930s. Mellon collected European masterpieces and many of the Gallery’s original works were once owned by Catherine II of Russia and purchased in the early 1930s by Mellon from the Hermitage Museum in Leningrad.
The core collection includes major works of art donated by Paul Mellon, Ailsa Mellon Bruce, Lessing J. Rosenwald, Samuel Henry Kress, Rush Harrison Kress, Peter Arrell Browne Widener, Joseph E. Widener, and Chester Dale. The Gallery's collection of paintings, drawings, prints, photographs, sculpture, medals, and decorative arts traces the development of Western art from the Middle Ages to the present, including the only painting by Leonardo da Vinci in the Americas and the largest mobile created by Alexander Calder.
The NGA's collection galleries and Sculpture Garden display European and American paintings, sculpture, works on paper, photographs, and decorative arts. Paintings in the permanent collection date from the Middle Ages to the present. The Italian Renaissance collection includes two panels from Duccio's Maesta, the tondo of the Adoration of the Magi by Fra Angelico and Filippo Lippi, a Botticelli work on the same subject, Giorgione's Allendale Nativity, Giovanni Bellini's The Feast of the Gods, Ginevra de' Benci (the only painting by Leonardo da Vinci in the Americas) and groups of works by Titian and Raphael.
The collections include paintings by many European masters, including a version of Saint Martin and the Beggar, by El Greco, and works by Matthias Grünewald, Cranach the Elder, Rogier van der Weyden, Albrecht Dürer, Frans Hals, Rembrandt, Johannes Vermeer, Francisco Goya, Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, and Eugène Delacroix, among others. The collection of sculpture and decorative arts includes such works as the Chalice of Abbot Suger of St-Denis and a collection of work by Auguste Rodin and Edgar Degas. Other highlights of the permanent collection include the second of the two original sets of Thomas Cole's series of paintings titled The Voyage of Life, (the first set is at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute in Utica, New York) and the original version of Watson and the Shark by John Singleton Copley (two other versions are in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and the Detroit Institute of Arts).
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Gallery_of_Art
Andrew W. Mellon, who pledged both the resources to construct the National Gallery of Art as well as his high-quality art collection, is rightly known as the founder of the gallery. But his bequest numbered less than two hundred paintings and sculptures—not nearly enough to fill the gallery’s massive rooms. This, however, was a feature, not a failure of Mellon’s vision; he anticipated that the gallery eventually would be filled not only by his own collection, but also by additional donations from other private collectors. By design, then, it was both Andrew Mellon and those who followed his lead—among them, eight men and women known as the Founding Benefactors—to whom the gallery owes its premier reputation as a national art museum. At the gallery’s opening in 1941, President Roosevelt stated, “the dedication of this Gallery to a living past, and to a greater and more richly living future, is the measure of the earnestness of our intention that the freedom of the human spirit shall go on.”
www.doaks.org/resources/cultural-philanthropy/national-ga...
..
________________________________
The National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC is a world-class art museum that displays one of the largest collections of masterpieces in the world including paintings, drawings, prints, photographs, sculpture, and decorative arts from the 13th century to the present. The National Gallery of Art collection includes an extensive survey of works of American, British, Italian, Flemish, Spanish, Dutch, French and German art. With its prime location on the National Mall, surrounded by the Smithsonian Institution, visitors often think that the museum is a part of the Smithsonian. It is a separate entity and is supported by a combination of private and public funds. Admission is free. The museum offers a wide range of educational programs, lectures, guided tours, films, and concerts.
The original neoclassical building, the West Building includes European (13th-early 20th century) and American (18th-early 20th century) paintings, sculptures, decorative arts, and temporary exhibitions. The National Gallery of Art was opened to the public in 1941 with funds provided by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The original collection of masterpieces was provided by Mellon, who was the U. S. Secretary of the Treasury and ambassador to Britain in the 1930s. Mellon collected European masterpieces and many of the Gallery’s original works were once owned by Catherine II of Russia and purchased in the early 1930s by Mellon from the Hermitage Museum in Leningrad.
The core collection includes major works of art donated by Paul Mellon, Ailsa Mellon Bruce, Lessing J. Rosenwald, Samuel Henry Kress, Rush Harrison Kress, Peter Arrell Browne Widener, Joseph E. Widener, and Chester Dale. The Gallery's collection of paintings, drawings, prints, photographs, sculpture, medals, and decorative arts traces the development of Western art from the Middle Ages to the present, including the only painting by Leonardo da Vinci in the Americas and the largest mobile created by Alexander Calder.
The NGA's collection galleries and Sculpture Garden display European and American paintings, sculpture, works on paper, photographs, and decorative arts. Paintings in the permanent collection date from the Middle Ages to the present. The Italian Renaissance collection includes two panels from Duccio's Maesta, the tondo of the Adoration of the Magi by Fra Angelico and Filippo Lippi, a Botticelli work on the same subject, Giorgione's Allendale Nativity, Giovanni Bellini's The Feast of the Gods, Ginevra de' Benci (the only painting by Leonardo da Vinci in the Americas) and groups of works by Titian and Raphael.
The collections include paintings by many European masters, including a version of Saint Martin and the Beggar, by El Greco, and works by Matthias Grünewald, Cranach the Elder, Rogier van der Weyden, Albrecht Dürer, Frans Hals, Rembrandt, Johannes Vermeer, Francisco Goya, Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, and Eugène Delacroix, among others. The collection of sculpture and decorative arts includes such works as the Chalice of Abbot Suger of St-Denis and a collection of work by Auguste Rodin and Edgar Degas. Other highlights of the permanent collection include the second of the two original sets of Thomas Cole's series of paintings titled The Voyage of Life, (the first set is at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute in Utica, New York) and the original version of Watson and the Shark by John Singleton Copley (two other versions are in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and the Detroit Institute of Arts).
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Gallery_of_Art
Andrew W. Mellon, who pledged both the resources to construct the National Gallery of Art as well as his high-quality art collection, is rightly known as the founder of the gallery. But his bequest numbered less than two hundred paintings and sculptures—not nearly enough to fill the gallery’s massive rooms. This, however, was a feature, not a failure of Mellon’s vision; he anticipated that the gallery eventually would be filled not only by his own collection, but also by additional donations from other private collectors. By design, then, it was both Andrew Mellon and those who followed his lead—among them, eight men and women known as the Founding Benefactors—to whom the gallery owes its premier reputation as a national art museum. At the gallery’s opening in 1941, President Roosevelt stated, “the dedication of this Gallery to a living past, and to a greater and more richly living future, is the measure of the earnestness of our intention that the freedom of the human spirit shall go on.”
www.doaks.org/resources/cultural-philanthropy/national-ga...
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We bumped into to Evan Ide who was tending to this car. Had a nice chat but I did not ask for a photo. Evan Ide works with Bonhams, has been featured on Wayne Carini's "Chasing Classic Cars" several times, owns a classic car workshop in Massachusetts, and is an advisor to several major museum collections around the world.
Previewed at Scottsdale
Reconstructed 1904 Gordon Bennett Napier L48 "Samson" Racing Car
Sold at Amelia Island
Sold for US$742,000 inc. premium
Estimate: US$900,000 - US$1,100,000
Engine no. 1320A
15-Liter Inline 6-Cylinder F-Head Engine
Single 2 7/16" Carburetor
240bhp at 2,300rpm
2-Speed Manual Transmission
Beam Front Axle, Live Rear Axle
Rear-Wheel Mechanical Brakes
*Historic "tool room" recreation utilizing the original L48 engine which debuted in 1904
*The Napier L48 was the world's first successful six-cylinder racing car
*Napier's L48 famously broke the 100mph barrier with a Flying One Mile Record of 104.65mph, Ormond-Daytona Beach Meeting, 1905
*Driven by Dorothy Levitt to the Women's World Speed Record, October 1906
*Automobile Quarterly's 'Most Historically Significant Car' Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance, 1999
*Goodwood Festival of Speed invitation, 1994 and 2000
THE NAPIER L48 "SAMSON" 15-LITER
"There is nothing in all of motoring quite like the massive displacement early racing cars. Driving this Napier you experience everything that makes this era so exciting. When setting off you are struck by just how tall the gearing is - first is like high in anything else. When you get the machine rolling and apply any throttle the machine hurls forward snapping your back in your seat. You are launched to over 50 mph before you can grasp what has happened and you are still in first gear! You need a bit more speed still to drop it in the only other gear and then it starts all over with the engine dropping to just a few hundred revs. When you open the throttle, it feels like it could go forever well past 100 mph. While thundering around in this beast one cannot help but be captivated by the fact that you are controlling the engine that set such a milestone world record." -Evan Ide, for Bonhams|Cars
This 'Edwardian Giant,' offered from the collection of its fifth owner in one hundred and twenty years, Australian businessman Peter Briggs. This "adventure capitalist" would surely have recognized himself in a car that shattered records and assumptions, and whose ownership and racing pedigree bring together for a most impressive roll call several of the most pioneering figures in the history of the automobile. The discovery of this engine in the 1950s to a complete body in the 1980s heralded the definitive rebirth into the motoring world of the L48 and its singular legacy any new owner must keep bright and burning the flame of transformation and perseverance this motor has ignited in all its custodians.
The Napier marque was begun by Montague Napier's father more than 100 years before the birth of the L48. Some years after Montague took over the large business it suffered a decline, and by 1900 was quite a small engineering shop producing products of a nonetheless superior precision, such as coin-weighing machines for the Royal Mint. Montague and his Australian-born collaborator Selwyn Francis Edge, a marketing wizard who cut his teeth in the hyper-competitive bicycle business, were eager to reposition Napier as an innovator in both business strategy and engineering. It was through endurance speed-cycling that the pair met the young engineer Arthur J Rowledge, a future assistant to Henry Royce, who would complete the team. Amongst the Bath Road Cycling Club members was S.F. Edge's wife, Eleanor Edge, who was also a pioneer motorist in her own right and a founding member of the world's first motoring club for women or "chauffeuses."
Around this time the British motor industry had struggled for recognition amongst the elite nations of motor manufacturing, namely France and Germany. Racing competitions were introducing weight limits so that extra weight could not be added to give greater grip to the very thin tires of racing cars of the time, which would slip against the road and wear out each time a cylinder fired. Every tire change cost time, and in one city-to-city race, Edge had to change 30 times. The French engineer and journalist who later founded the Le Mans 24 Hour Race, Charles Faroux, suggested to Edge that building a six-cylinder engine would address the problem, providing a smoother power delivery to the rear wheels and improving tire life. As part of his ambitious strategy of building powerful engines for the fastest cars and sending them to win high-profile international races¬, a kind of 'publicity stunt' that would become a favourite ploy of manufacturers, Edge announced in October 1903 that Napier would compete in the 1904 racing season, which would become the world's first successful six-cylinder car.
The purpose of the 'L48', the works racing car, conceived as an improvement of the market-leading Panhard Levassor and of Napier's own K5, was to break the Land Speed Record. The victory of the K5 at the 1902 Gordon Bennett Cup and its failure to secure the title the following year, had both proven instructive. For 1902 Edge had persuaded Napier to build a car weighing significantly below the 1000 kg limit even if this meant a lower powered car; although the K5 with its pressed-steel chassis could not approach the speeds attained by its competitors, these faster cars broke down and did not finish. Napier's loss the following year was in part an effect of rushed production, but the engine was still somewhat outdated. Napier retained from the K5 the chassis, suspension, steering, clutch, and rear axle. On the other hand, the automatic intake valves were connected to mechanical operation, bringing the maximum power from 80bhp to 100bhp at 1524rpm. The three-speed gearbox could not be retained as space and weight problems with the longer six-cylinder engine necessitated the use of as short two-speed and reverse gear. Galvanized by the publicity of the 1902 Gordon Bennett win in France, which had translated directly into a surge in orders and the massive growth of the business, the new goal for the Napier team was not simply to return to old glories but to exceed itself as well as the competition.
It is unlikely that Rowledge was alone responsible for the design. The basic concept of the six-cylinder engine was brilliant with its overlapping firing periods providing a smother power deliver, but it is unthinkable that a designer of his caliber could have been responsible for such defective details as the cylinders with crewed-on cast iron valve chest or the multi-seated faced intake values with minimal lift. History does not record the other hands that were part of this leap in mechanical engineering. Napier did not build the first six-cylinder car – Spyker built one in 1902 but it was not a success and is today part of the collection of the Louwman Museum in The Netherlands. When the Napier was finalized on 10th April 1903, no six-cylinder car of any make had been sold anywhere in the world, so Napier and Edge showed amazing confidence in building such a racing engine. Later, the first recorded sale of a six-cylinder car was a Napier touring model, having been first demonstrated in June that same year.
With the works car ready to be deployed onto the battlefield of industrial rivalries, S.F. Edge set himself with assembling a team for the Gordon Bennett Cup in Germany; he could not cross the Atlantic, so turned to the team of amateur and professional drivers at his disposal. Previously, the manager of the Dunlop Cycle Racing Team, he applied his experience to create what was the first great British motor racing team. Following the 1904 failure, the front of the new race car was extensively revised to include a streamlined nose and an exterior radiator. A spectacle with its 242ft ¼" copper pipe used for the unique 80-tube radiator, holding 20 gallons, operating at atmospheric pressure, the lines of copper tubing were as much about making the Napier L48 distinctive as about cooling. The combination of good looks and ambitious engineering was not sufficient to guarantee success: talented pilots with a grip to match the shoulder-width steering wheel, and with the feet of a dancer for peddling the throttle and brake of this 151-inch machine – the ultimate mount for the elite drivers.
The L48 was first raced in September 1904 at the Portmarnock Sands Speed Trials in Ireland, where it put up fastest time. That same month saw the Napier return to the Continent at the Gaillon Hill Climb in France, where the twenty-two-year-old British driver, Arthur MacDonald, completed the Flying Kilometer in 29.4 seconds, setting a record that would be beaten in a subsequent run by the Gobron-Brillié and then later by Darracq. The L48 finished third.
The car's greatest victory was won on the 25th of January 1905 on a stretch of sand between Florida's Ormond and Daytona Beaches where cars could realize their full potential on flat land unencumbered by speed limits. With Englishman Arthur MacDonald at the wheel, the Napier broke the Flying One Mile World Record of 104.65mph (or, 106.64mph). It was the first car to record 100 mph on American Soil and the first British car to crack the 100-mph barrier. Other achievements at the Velocity Weekend included the Flying Kilometer (American Record) 97.26 mph; the World's Competitive Kilometer Record (Standing Start) 81.6 mph; the World's Competitive Mile 96.25 mph; the World's Five Mile Record 91.37 mph; the World's Ten Miles Record 96.00 mph (winning the Miller Trophy); and the World's Twenty Miles Record 89.21 mph (winning the Thomas Trophy).
Six months later, on a glorious day, near Auvergne, France, at the Gordon Bennett Cup, British entrant Napier was the fastest over the kilometer with the L48 but finished the race in ninth place due to poor preparation. The car returned to the Daytona Beach Speed Trials in 1906, piloted by Walter Thomas Clifford Earp, dubbed 'England's Leading Gentleman Driver' by the Washington Post. The Los Angeles Times concurred that, 'England has certainly sent her best, both in a man and machine, to battle for the world's supremacy in automobile speed.' The other five racers were: Vincenzo Lancia driving a Fiat (he would later manufacture Lancia cars in Italy), Louis Chevrolet driving a Christie, Emanuel Cedrino from in Italy in a Fiat, William H Hilliard from Boston in an ex-Gordon Bennett racing car Napier, and J.R. Harding from Boston in a Daimler. At the 32-mile mark, disaster struck. The Napier's right rear tyre exploded, throwing fragments of rubber all over the beach to the horror of spectators. In the previous year, the car had wooden spoked wheels, but this time it had the first Rudge Whitworth wire wheels, he was confident could withstand the side strain on cornering. At fifty-eight miles, Cedrino was a handy seven minutes ahead of Clifford-Earp, but he too encountered trouble with his tires and began to slow down. In a moment of sheer brilliance, he stopped his car next to Vincenzo Lancia's car and proceeded to remove two tubes from the stranded car to put on his own wheels. He would not be denied. It was now a race of two, with Earp on three wheels about three minutes ahead, with Cedrino chasing behind with fresh tires and tubes. Clifford-Earp's winning margin was only 50 seconds after 100 miles. Despite racing 63 miles on only three tires, he had set a world record time of 1:15:40-2/5sec or 79.288 mph, beating the previous time by three minutes. Amongst the spectators, "pandemonium broke loose" was reported. The win was instantly legendary, later inspiring racing historian Dick Punett to title his book on the Ormond and Daytona Beach tournaments "Racing on the Rim" in tribute to this remarkable feat.
Clifford Earp and Arthur MacDonald were not the only drivers to find success behind the wheel of the L48 in this period of 'Edwardian Giants'. October 1906 saw Dorothy Levitt establish the Women's World Speed Record over the Flying Kilometer with a speed of 90.88 mph at the Blackpool Motor Race Meeting. Between 1906 and 1908, the Napier continued to be raced, gaining an even larger 20-litre engine along the way. The car was nicknamed 'Samson', a nod to the resemblance of the engine's copper cooling tubes to the flowing locks of the biblical strongman.
Fifteen miles away from their new factory in Acton, London, Brooklands, the world's first purpose-built 'banked' motor racing circuit was the place for high-speed testing. At a time where blanket speed limits were 20 mph. In November 1908, on the "Byfleet" banking, 'Samson' achieved a top speed of 130 mph. A record lap which stood for six years. In the months leading up to this achievement, L48 had set many more records including: first in the Thirty Mile Race (Montague Cup); 90 hp Ten Lap record raised to 102.21 mph and Half-Mile record raised to 114.98 mph; 90 hp Class short record pushed up to 119.34 mph.
The car was eventually sold for scrap by Napier. Fatigued by such an eventful career, it had become too dangerous for fast driving. In 1909 the second engine was taken out of the chassis and installed in a speedboat. This had been the fate of the first engine with the larger bore of 6¼", which was bought from S.F. Edge by speedboat racers Percy and Fred Cornwell of Cornwell Pottery, Melbourne, for the speedboat 'Nautilus II'. Napier had become the only manufacturer in the world to hold both the world land and the world water speed records. In 1905, Mr. Tucker and his Jarrow-Napier motorboat had achieved 30 knots; Albert I, Prince of Monaco, bestowed upon S.F. Edge the Order of St Charles in recognition of his achievement.
The story of the engine's survival after its racing career begins with Alan 'Bob' Hawker Chamberlain, manufacturer of the celebrated Australian-made Chamberlain Tractors. The Hawker name resonates: Bob's uncle was Harry Hawker, best known as the aviator and engineer associated with the Sopwith Camel and the Hawker aviation firm. Faced with the choice to either to polish this relic of the racing's golden age and put it on a stand in a museum, or to recreate the original car around the engine, the engineer's decision was of course in favor of the more ambitious line of action. Had the car been of a more conventional design, Chamberlain may not have bothered to re-construct the car.
At the Cornwell pottery factory where the engine was rediscovered, only the intake valve rocker arms and domes were visible, poking through the dust. England's Motor Sport magazine printed a photograph of Chamberlain's engine block with a notice asking for information, to which Anthony Heal responded by sharing the research he had conducted into Napier over several years. Fortunately, unlike other manufacturers, Napier did not destroy their records. The archiving efforts of enthusiasts such as Heal and Derek Grosmark enabled Bob Chamberlain to rebuild the Napier with characteristic thoroughness. When enlarged, excellent photographs of the engine taken in June 1904 even showed details of the casting imperfections. During the original construction of the car in the early 20th century, hundreds of wooden casting patterns had to be made as every component of the engine was a new design, so much was the engine at the cutting edge of engineering. Chamberlain did the same, reproducing from photographs and plans hundreds of wooden casting patterns to form the car presently offered at this sale. Chamberlain's friend found an article in an English motor journal which included original assembly drawings of the L48 engine, and it was learned that these were printed from the original and well-preserved ink on linen drawings held by a London Museum. These left no doubt that the engine found in Australia was the first and original one used in the Napier racing car L48.
The rebuilt engine was started for the first time in sixty-seven years on the 8th of July 1982, and it is said to have started on its first turn. It was tested on a dynamometer and showed almost 180 bhp at 161km/h. Journalist, author and stalwart Editor of the famed Motor Sport magazine, Bill Boddy, who had been a critic of poorly executed replicas, said in Motor Sport magazine in 1988, 'Whether or not you approve of the modern reconstruction of old cars, you must concede that this is the recreation of the decade'.
In May 1982 the car was shipped to the United Kingdom and campaigned twice, appearing in the June 1983 Brooklands Reunion and the July 1983 Shelsley Walsh Hill Climb. Australian F1 driver Tony Gaze drove it at the Colerne Sprints in 1983 and recorded a standing start kilometer in 30.67 seconds with a terminal speed of 111.73 mph. A record which stands in perpetuity, despite the best efforts of many potent Edwardian racing cars whilst this course was in use. In May 1983 the L48 was again shipped to the United Kingdom, getting its first high speed run at Donnington (Tom Wheatcroft had visited Australia to see the reconstruction underway).
To an independent Melbourne evening auction of the 23rd of April 1993, the Chamberlain family consigned the Napier and two other important cars: 1910 Craig "Prince Henry" Benz works racing car, and the Erle/Syme "Prince Henry" Benz works racing car. That night saw ownership transfer to Peter Briggs and his wife Robin. Mr. Briggs housed the car in his York Motor Museum, Western Australia, but the couple took it out on many an excursion.
John Keenan undertook primary research on the car when it went into the York Motor Museum, building on that already collated by Chamberlain. This attention to detail and careful mining of archival material further enhanced L48 earning Briggs invitations to show and compete the car at world's foremost events, including the annual Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance in 1999. Previously, at the 49th edition of this prestigious event, Automobile Quarterly awarded the car the most historically significant car. In 2000, the Napier was once again invited, by the then Lord March, to the Goodwood Festival of Speed hill climb where Peter Briggs took it to a class win. Graeme Cocks had the opportunity to exploit the power with a 160km/h run at the historic claypan of Lake Perkolilli in the Goldfields of Western Australia in 2007.
Something of the same spirit behind the engineering and commercial excellence of Napier, Edge and Rowledge, fired Bob Chamberlain's desire to feel what it was like to drive and race one of Britain's and the world's greatest race cars. Peter Briggs as a custodian enjoyed showing and rallying the car with his beloved Robin, recognizing in it the same perseverance and capacity for transformation that earned him pre-eminence in Australian business. To be the next custodian of the greatest British car from the "heroic age" of motor sport is to provide yourself with a passport to the world's best competitive events on the lawn and tarmac, including the S.F. Edge Trophy at the Goodwood Member's Meeting. Be part of the story of two cars separated by three-quarters of a century which share one heart and soul: its extraordinary engine.
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It's a cool rainy pre-auction day at Bonhams. We've come for the cars, as we do, and another pre-auction tour by Andy Reid who is considered an expert in European sports and luxury cars and is a respected concours judge.
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It's Scottsdale Car Week! I flew here and Fred drove with Harriet for some warmer weather, friend visits, and cars!
(www.softballperformance.com/softball-success-tips-hardest/) - So many players and coaches say they want to be successful, win big games, accumulate amazing stats, and win the biggest prize…and yet they are unwilling to do the work it takes to get to that level. They often put off the hard stuff or dog the tough training.
A Potter Wasp (Eumeninae) hunts and captures a caterpillar in a native snowberry plant (Symphoricarposalbus).
Portland, Oregon.
One of the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Air Wing 2 F/A-18C Hornets makes a successful landing after the air power demo.
A Pelagic Cormorant holding his prey (probably a sculpin). Photographed on the San Francisco waterfront.
February 2015.
After two successful Animester purchases, I decided to get their crossover with the Grey Raven series to see how it turned out.
So, by this point I have had three Gray Raven figures, and at first I just thought may ArcTech was terrible at getting the thiccness of the ladies. By this point, across three different companies, with three different characters and designs criteria, I've come to realize it isn't the figure makers - the actual source material must have lanky legs.
This particular figure is probably one of the more fancy ones, combining both silicone body parts as well as a soft good outfit. In addition to the figure, there's a few neat accessories, including alternate bangs, three total faceplates, a scabbard, two swords (I think) and a Base/Stand. I think if I actually tried, you can take off the outer shirt, but alas I was too lazy.
Sculpting overall is pretty good, though sadly there are no articulated eyes like with their Thunderbolt Squad series. Mechanical detailing is very nice, and having a larger scale figure gives one that much more physical figure to enjoy it on. The bangs are, unfortunately a bit annoying to deal with, though at least the dynamic ones are nice to look at - the bigger problem with the hair pieces is that the hair pretty much covers the eyes, and from what I've seen of source art the hair is generally parted enough that you always see her right eye.
This also doesn't strike me as one of those characters with very expressive faces, so something like Barbera Red is unfortunately not in the cards either.
So, as the figure isn't fully seamless, the articulation is going to be limited in comparison. Having said that, the articulation is even more restricted than on would, and surprisingly it had nothing to do with the soft good.
I mentioned the hair, and while the back of the hair does move out of the way, overall the hair is bulk and is difficulty to maneuver, which affects head articulation. This is further complicated due to the bulk of the scarf and as mentioned, the lack of eye articulation just seals the deal. Due to the rigid nature of the abdomen section, there's no articulation there, though it should be noted that like Whisky Sour, the Chest and shoulder areas are all seamless. The surprise limiter, however, are the pouches on front of the skirt, which severely limit the the legs ability for forward rotation. Bulk of the leotard at the back restricts backwards leg motion.
Paint Application wise, this is a beautifully painted figure, with the metallic paints being the ones that are the most impressive (like on Barbera Red), though the other applications are quite strong as well. The metallics on the body are harder to make out due to the shirt covering her left arm up, but there's no denying that the scabbard and Red sword look very nice. Decal work is solid as well.
Build Quality wise, as with Barbera Red there are some QC issues with the seamless body, in my case the right hip doesn't like to spread out as far as the left one, though to be fair I feel it's a combination of skeletal and thickness of the silcone skin around the thighs and glutes as this is the only seamless figure i've handled thus far, including the trainwreck that was the Flash Point figure, that actually cannot maintains splits - speaking of the material, I feel that the stuff around the right knee is a bit thin as this is the first time I've actually had the joint pushing out and being very obvious. Shoulders seem alright though the right one appears to be significantly tighter than the left one.
I've found the left knee joint is a tad loose, and causes the figure to collapse when standing though, I think due to weight in general you'll probably want to use a stand for stability. The Red sword doesn't seem to like being held too much and the dynamic bangs like to pop off the face more often than not.
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