I've not been to Malta but my brother-in-law has been several times, and has been to a great car collection in Qawra.
Once somebody said 3D render I looked back at the original picture And then you can see.. White line where car image has been cut out of white background.. No reflections or shadows of passers by visible.. So the whole thing is a recent project...
To add to your hypothesis, Mike, while I feel it is still inclusive, please think on this too. On a car, the highest reflective surfaces are those that are glass. In those glass surfaces, you would expect to see reflections of the surroundings, other cars, buildings and so on. Now, following your line of thinking, Mike, it is interesting that those glass surfaces are the ones that are most obscured on the car.
Yes, I think that is also true. Also I think there should maybe be some gutter detail visible "through" the far drivers door window. I also just checked that the wheels are exactly straight ahead, you might expect the front wheels to be turned to prepare to merge with traffic eventually, and that if you draw a line across them, the axle centres are almost precisely parallel with the bottom edge of the picture. Also there is something a bit off with the perspective of the features of the car - some mismatch of centre of the render of the car , the "focal length" of the rendering and the camera taking the picture. Almost like it was rendered correctly then moved a bit to the right to make it fit the people walking around it, and overlaying the vehicle that was there before..
Built for French farmers apparently ... Just the one lamp for getting home across the fields, hence the boat like suspension?
I knew it would be too easy for you really. He sent me the pic last week having seen Mr Leno at the wheel, so I had to post it
Very retro futurismo indeedily . Don’t think I’ve seen a kit like this ever produced, maybe a nice idea that went no further??? The wheels tucked in like that give a sort of E Type ish look to it. Ozziedog,,,,,,,,,,I’ll give it 10, yup I’d roll that around
It's not a kit and was actually produced in small numbers. Admittedly very small - 5 before the designer died, but then his partner built a further half dozen.
It's definitely a RR Merlin design but as its in the US it could likely be an early Allison-built version from another aircraft (Mustangs used them also). I'll have to look, it's probably on youtube.
Years ago something similar went past me when I was cycling home from work near Ascot. It sounded so much like an aircraft about to crash onto me that I looked up rather than behind.
I think he says it's around 700 bhp. It's an interesting watch: But I'm confused now as the video looks like a different car??
Yes, it is a different car. Strictly they are all Meteor engines as used in tanks and armoured vehicles. First built from 1941 from crashed Merlins with the supercharger removed and the rotation reversed, they were detuned to 600ish bhp from the blown Merlins; later they were built by Rover until 1964. Genuine Merlins started around 1100 bhp and ended up over 2000..... might be a bit lively in a vintage chassis. The Napier Bentley is a different kettle of fish; inspired by the 1933 Napier Railton it is a serious racer. Built in 1972 from a W12 Napier Lion engine and some bits of post-Vintage Bentley chassis it can often be seen at VSCC race meetings. The current owner built an even more extreme Special with a 42 litre Packard V12 in a modified vintage 8 litre Bentley chassis. In my eyes a much less attractive car. The original Napier-Railton is something else entirely; holding the Brooklands lap record at 143.44 mph in 1935 it was bought by the Brookland Museum with HLF money and is regularly exercised.
Ah Brooklands, 10 mins from where I live....nice green slope encompassing Tesco and M&S .. actually there is still a short piece left at the museum you can walk on...bloody steep bank
