Here’s my painting (A3 watercolour) of my first project car, a Westfield SE which I built when I was a teenager.
Other cars came and went during the build time but this was the main project. From the bare metal chassis to a fully working car.
Pre-Internet so no ready answers to questions. Vague photocopied instructions and two Haynes manuals…. car building and also character building for sure.
The formidable 1983 1.5 Horizon, this was the car I learnt to drive in and was my dad’s.
Let me tell you, he wasn’t messing about with the spec… mirrors that adjusted from the inside, a sunroof, and…. five gears!! Yep count ’em folks - it even had a badge proudly showing 5 Speed.
Immortalised here as a watercolour sketch.
There’s a disagreement over how many original minis I owned. The miscounting is due to the re-painting of them really. I certainly remember my first and last, but it’s the several in between where we lost count.
This was originally silver and then we resprayed it red and put a Ferrari badge on the side.
The painting I’ve done is more of an artist’s impression. Let’s just say it looked ok from a distance ;)
This is watercolour on A3 cold pressed paper.
Included some “progress” shots to prove I’m not an AI. Actually Insane may be accurate though.
Some here might think this isn’t a classic, and I hear you. Though it’s definitely a future classic I’m sure. I sold it last year and regretted doing so since. They don’t make sense in many ways, and that’s almost the appeal.
Having owned several A-series minis in my time I can say for sure that I was pleasantly surprised with the job that BMW pulled off here. Though of course it was started at Rover so perhaps the foundation was there.
The painting was done in acrylic on A3 hot pressed paper.