Playdat – A Players Datsun 520
Having worked with the Players team before, I’m always aware that when they build something, you’ll probably want to be top of the queue to shoot it. Their latest creation, a ’60s Datsun pickup truck is no exception. Whilst it may look rough around the edges, this is intentional. By combining its original patina with modern air suspension technology – and soon to rehome a 1.8 litre turbocharged Nissan engine – they’ve created a rather nice restomod build. We scheduled the shoot as quickly as we could after Ultimate Dubs. For once the weather played ball, but to some extent, it was probably a little too good. The low, harsh sun done nothing to help the car so I chose to throw a couple of Speedlites into the mix to provide some fill. It was a pretty quick shoot, with everything wrapped up in under two hours. As the car was non-running at the time, it meant we couldn’t get rolling or action shots so we moved the car about as much as we could to vary the location. I hope to revisit the images some day and have a little bit more fun with them. There’s something quite wild west about the car and think there’s the potential to extract more from them.
Dangerous Games – An Airlifted E30 M3
I could count on one hand the amount of cars that I believe should never be touched or modified in anyway. The E30 M3 used to be one of them. Previously, I always thought it was perfect from the factory and any attempt to interfere with its natural state would be detrimental. Nick Singh Sahota, the owner, on the other hand, thought different and I’m quite glad that he did. With ECU controlled Airlift Performance suspension and an E46 M3 sourced S54 power plant, Nick has built one of my favourite E30 M3’s ever. I came across the car during the recent Ultimate Dubs show in the United Kingdom. The title would suggest that it was a Volkswagen only show, but they seem to be quite relaxed about the rules when it comes to original manufacturer. The car proved an instant hit once I ran it on the Speedhunters Instagram account. With this in mind, I wasted no time in getting the car shot in detail. In fact, the other exhibitors were still rolling out whilst we were mid-shoot. With a rapidly setting sun, we worked the venue as best as we could to maximise the impact of the car. The entire set was shot with minimal lens selection and an even smaller amount of processing. The only time consuming part of the jobs was removing the many pieces of litter in some of the exterior shots. It was one of those rare times where everything came together at the right time. Shot for Speedhunters
