When Your Dream Car Doesn’t Exist, Build It – A BMW M3 Touring
It was purely by accident that I stumbled upon Nick Pritchard at Players Shows, last year. I had been confined to the Speedhunters Hangar all day, shooting in a make-shift studio. As we wrapped things up, I popped out to take a quick look around as the cars were leaving when I spotted the familiar front wings of a BMW M3 attached to the body of a 3 Series Touring. I had seen a couple of Tourings before with the M3 front, but something really caught my attention. I don’t know if it was the massive Brembo brakes or the more subtle widened rear arches. A quick chat with the owner, Nick, who was sitting in the car waiting to leave confirmed my suspicions. This was a complete M3 Touring. Now, you’re probably wondering why I’m getting so excited about an estate car. Well, it’s rather quite simple. BMW never built an M3 Touring. Nick took a 318iS, and E90 M3 donor car and basically mashed the two together until he ended up with what is honestly, my dream car. I won’t bore you with the details, the link to the full feature is below, but needless to say that this conversion is quite simply breathtaking. It is flawless. The fact that it blends into everyday traffic, is a testament to the quality of the workmanship on the car. It looks absolutely factory. I’ve been shooting a lot more LoFi lately, trying to keep things simple whilst working on backgrounds and compositions. This was no different. I’ve also been stopping down a lot more lately, in a quest to find more sharpness. It’s working, too. Again, processing was kept simple in a less is more sort of way. I liked the cool tones which work with the car’s colour and […]
Simon McKinley’s Warrior Powered Escort MKII
It must have been back in 2007, when I first saw Simon McKinley drive. It was the Saturday of a two day hill climb event, near my grandparents’ house in Co. Wexford. There were a lot of cars that day, certainly more than what would normally be expected navigating those roads on a Saturday afternoon, that’s for sure. We were close to the start line, but our view was obscured by the trees. Even though we were temporarily blinded, the sound that erupted beneath us, was a sure indication of what was coming. A scream of revs, upshift, more revs, upshift, more revs again, upshift, and just as the noise couldn’t possibly get any louder, a white MKII Escort appeared before us, sideways. Before you could blink, it was already past and into the next section, out of sight. The smiles, applause and laughs of disbelief tell you everything you ever need to know about Simon McKinley’s driving style. It’s almost shameful that it took me nearly seven years to catch up with him again, this time for a dedicated shoot for Speedhunters. Mondello Park had been kind enough to let us loose on their school course, and we were definitely going to take advantage of it. The shoot style was low key. The overcast skies provided gentle light, which I wanted to take advantage of. I think the majority of the static shots came down to two lenses: 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS & 35mm f/1.4 L with my trusty 24-105 f/4 L IS used for the tracking shots. It was a joy to shoot. Processing, again, was kept simple. Some minor colour grading and exposure correction and it was online before I knew it. The chase shots, whilst slightly risky, were probably the most difficult part of the shoot. […]
That Time I Stumbled Upon A McLaren P1 At The Ring
It was back in August last year when I took a couple of days off from a hectic Speedhunting schedule to unwind and reset my brain. Since I was in the area, it would have been rude not to use the familiar surroundings of Nürburg village as my base for a few days… The Nürburgring and the area surrounding it is beyond superlatives. It is the most important motoring region in the world. Staying at the Lindner Hotel with a room that opened out onto the Green Hell itself, I spent the morning relaxing on the balcony, taking in the sights, sounds and smells of the day. It was the sounds that day in particular that caught my attention. Throughout the course of the morning, the sound of a high revving combustion engine echoed around the hills. The sound was unlike anything I had ever heard before or since for that matter. I’m the sort who struggles to wind down, so after twenty minutes sitting in my room, I took to the roads in an attempt to pass the time before the Nordschleife opened its gates for us tourists. Even on a Monday afternoon, in the middle of August, the Nordschleife is no less intimidating. No photograph or video that I’ve ever seen has accurately portrayed the inclines, descents and off camber nature of the course. I sat trackside at Pflanzgarten for quite a while, just taking things in. The track was quiet save for a camouflaged Civic Type R doing some filming. With time ticking closer to opening hours, I made my way to the car park at the Nordschleife’s entrance where I found more cars present than I had expected. With around half an hour before the track opened to the public, I parked my car in the shade […]
