World Grand Prix Race Cars

In my longtime running effort to take photos of each and every car in my collection I´ve come to the race cars in the second movie.

And... what a loveley bunch of characters it is!

I got them all...most. I still miss Rip Clutchgoneski but it´s just a matter of time! It was a smart move of Pixar to make 10 new different looking race cars. The first Cars-movie was not at all a big hit if you´re looking at the movie revenues. But it is the Super Smash Pixar Hit of all times when it comes to selling toys.
So when the sequel was planned Pixar made a lot of cars that... seems to be almost too perfect when it comes to make toys of them.

The race cars is maybe the best example of just that. First of all we have Fransesco Bernoulli:

An Italian Formula One Car that gave the movie team some problems to animate because of his lack of rims. Suddenly all the moves were a bit too exposed, the car  revealed too much in the beginning. In order to make the grand gestures with his wheels that John Lassetire wanted him to do, the car needed to be stretched and turned in some awkward ways. But eventually everything worked nicely and the diecast is one of the best ever made. No wonder they gave him the number 1.

The number 2 is also a tremendously cool looking car - Lewis Hamilton:

The car is based on the brittish Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton, who´s also doing the voice acting. The model is a McLaren MP4-12C GT3.
At first this character was named Lewis Revington and had a grey color scheme. But when Lewis Hamilton got more involved the colors were changed.

There´s no car with the number 3. But the number 4 is one of my favourites - Max Schnell:

This car is not based on a real person although in the german version of the film it´s renamed to Sebastian Schnell and voiced by Formula One Champion Sebastian Vettel. The name means Maximum Speed in english and the car is clearly inspired by the german touring cars that races in DTM. That´s why I love it so much - and this body is used for the Swedish car Flash (and the other Ultimate Chase Cars as well).

Number five is the first car that I don´t have an instant crush on. Or... that was maybe to much... Well you can decide for yourselves - # 5 Miguel Camino:

In the spanish version of the film this car is named Fernando Alonso. Camino is a spanish word for road. Migu(-)el Camino could be a reference for the CHevy El Camino but only to the name, the chevy cars don´t look like this at all.


The next car is a hit - and a real nice looking diecast as well - #6 Raoul CaRoule:

Raoul is a Citroen Hymotion4 WRC - the same car as the 8 time world rally champion Sebastian Loeb drives. They´re both french and have the same type of career so the car is absolutely based on Loeb. CaRoule is french for "to go fast".

The rest of the cars will have to wait to my next blogpost, it´s bedtime in Sweden!
You can see all my photos of the race cars here - and all my other cars that I´ve managed to get on pictures here.

The true wonder of new techology

I spent last weekend in the very north of Sweden - Kiruna. It´s a really cool place, the whole city was founded after the discovery of a large ore resource. Yes, it´s the city you may have heard of that will have to move it´s center because of the mines new reach.

We´re a couple of friends that meet once a year to hang out, most of us are college friends.

And - It was great. Some beers, some hiking, some sauna and some wine. And good food too. And the company, as always, excellent.

On the way home I sent a video message to the kids. I remember back in 2003 or something when I first heard about this technology. Sending and recieving moving pictures with your phone! Wow!

But it has been a disappointment for several years. Too bad screens, too slow, too low resoulution, too few pixels...

But now it´s finally working!

My wife told me that V was very proud when he saw me on that little screen doing sign language and talking to him and A.

Yes, it is truly a great thing for me to be able to communicate with sign language over the phone.

Thank you all you communication engineers out there - your helping people more than you think!

Long Ge - now in a garage nearby!

I went shopping in my favourite flower/disney Pixar Diecast Cars-shop the other day. And in a pile of ordinary cars as Jeff Gorvette, Mater, Finn McMissile and Shu Todoroki - suddenly Long Ge appears!

I felt like Charlie when he finds the golden ticket to the chocolate factory!

Only, this time the ticket was expensive.

Superovanlig - Swedish for the Chinese signs in the green bubble to the top right. Or Super Chase Car - plain and simple. Long Ge is the second car to be released in this rare series. Only 4000 Flash and 4000 Long Ge has been made. The third car out is Vitaly Petrov (named by a Russian Formula One-driver)

56 USD - and now Long Ge has a new garage!




UPDATE ON MY GOALS:

Goals reached:

35 out of 35 Rubber Tires Piston Cup Race Cars

100 % 

11 out of 11   Team Chiefs from Cars 1

100 %

Goals left:

80 %

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

23 out of 28 Pittys from Cars 1 to collect - 5 left







10 out of 11 Rubber Tires World Grand Prix Race Cars
from Cars 2 to collect - 1 left

95 %

1 out of 10 Team Chiefs from Cars 2 to collect - 9 left

10 %

2 out of 6 Ultimate Chase Cars from Cars 2 to collect - 4 left

35 %

7 little lemons sittin in a tree...

Or... not. They´re sitting in my garage!

I love these characters. They´re not shiny or streamlined at all - quite the opposite. And they´re known for being hated through the history of cars. But they are beautiful!

From the Trunkov family - Petrov and the boss Vladimir

And from the Gremlin family - Grem and Don Crumlin

Only one from the Pacer family - Acer

The leader of the Hugo-family - Victor H.

And the true leader of the Lemons - SPOILER ALERT - Miles Axelrod

Wanted - die... or cast...

On my wish list this year Santa:

 

Number 84 Apple iCar - superexpensive, 1 in 1000 in total, please give me one!

Leak Less wide Pitty. Not so expensive. But hard to find.

Same for this one - No Stall Pitty. The issue is not about money, it´s finding the damn thing!

 

Pit Crew Member Guido. Yes I still count this one, even though I got "My Name is not Chuck" as the team 95 Pitty. I simply just have to have them both.

Shiny Wax Pitty. Also known as Nebekenezer Schmidt. Hard to find.

Tank Coat Pitty. Should be a bit more easy. I think I know a page that actually got him. Maybe my next taget!

More pics

The work continues - I´ve decieded to take photos of all my cars so I can watch them without sneeking out to the garage (the winters in Sweden are cooooold!)

And speaking of coooool - Santa is one of the coolest die casts ever. He´s not in the official movies but he appears in a X-mas special with Mater and McQueen. So collecting him isn´t what I supposed to do... but who can resist a car/sleigh like this?

Check out the rest of the pics here.