Another Drag Racing Project

[pctalent]

Hello, all: I have a friend who races an '84 Camaro in the NHRA up in Washington State. It was suggested that I do a concept picture on his car. I took the original photo and using Photoshop in layers, I first chopped the roof down 4 1/2", then I narrowed the whole car by around 7". I lengthened the front section by 20" and I moved the front wheels forward by 24", thereby lengthening the chassis underneath to accommodate the increased power provided by the new supercharged Pro Mod engine. I narrowed the rear section by curling the lower quarter panel inward, and I extended the rear spoiler by around 9". I also removed all contingency decals and just put a Draglist sticker on it. I tried 3 versions of lettering to put the name on it ("Bottle Rocket III"), but I wasn't pleased with how it looked so I left it off and I left the car white. In real life, this would be around a $100,000 upgrade, but Vic loved it. "How can you think about money at a time like this?" Anyway, these projects come in at a pretty fast clip over here. Hope you enjoy. Any QC comments and suggestions are welcome...Happy upcoming holidays! John
Vic's original picture:
http://img4.glowfoto.com/images/2006...103378940T.jpg
My concept:
http://img3.glowfoto.com/images/2006...201105951T.jpg

[superkoax]

very nice work...I would soften the shadow abit...not much but some....



Gerry

[pctalent]

Thanks, Gerry...good point...I will do that...

[pctalent]

Hello, all, I have a friend, Steve Lippoldt in Kansas who completed the first phase of his and his partners' dragster in the Spring of 2006. He did the bodywork, chassis upgrade and paint job on it. I went up to Eddyville, Iowa in July of 2006 and I got to meet these guys in person and hang out with them at the Draglist Nationals. The photo does not do this car justice; it is absolutely gorgeous. Anyway, they upgraded the engine this year to a Hemi, and they will run it on 50-75% nitro. I constructed a "nightfire action shot" for them using the car from the original picture that Lippy took the day he rolled the car out of his shop. I thought this would be of interest, as the track (Las Vegas) and background (Cordova, Il.) are from various sources. Motion Blur and Gaussian Blur, Brightness/Contrast and the Clone Stamp were applied liberally. The track is flipped horizontally. I threw in a lens flare and applied lighting effects to the track (he'd be out at about 330 feet on the quarter-mile strip), and I inserted Lippy in the cockpit from a picture he sent to me from an event they ran in Tulsa later in 2006. I also replaced the original big-block Ford engine with a Donovan Hemi such as the one they just acquired, running wide-open on a high percentage of nitro. Enjoy! Cheers, John
Lippy's original:
http://img3.glowfoto.com/images/2007...712171342T.jpg
The "nightfire shot":
http://img3.glowfoto.com/images/2007...549576068T.jpg