Finally an Audi for all the kiddos out there.  This $13,000 toy is an awesome replica of a 1936 race car.  The roadster contains over 900 pieces with an aluminum body all put together by the Audi toolmaking division.  Why do I have a feeling that no kid will ever “drive” one of these.  Instead it will be some sort of decoration for someone with way too much money.

[Source: Playgrounder]

The Limited Edition 2010 Rendered Hope Charity Calendar is about to finish printing.  There is only 2 weeks left to order!  This year’s calendar has already been a great success and surpassed last year’s sales.  The children at the Detroit Children’s Hospital are grateful.

Just a reminder that the calendar is full of transportation artwork from designers across the country and 100% of the profits go to the Children’s Hospital. This will truly be a collectors edition showing Sangyup Lee”s last sketches from GM.   He is now Chief Exterior Designer for VW at the Santa Monica Studio.

Click here to order yours today!!

Press Release after the jump….

Car Design Fetish Announces 2010 “Rendered Hope” Charity Car Design Calendar

Automotive design and enthusiast website coordinates with Children’s Hospital of Michigan and to provide toys for children at Detroit Medical Center from sales of the unique calendar.

Automotive design enthusiast website Car Design Fetish (www.cardesignfetish.com) has announced the availability of the limited edition “Rendered Hope” 2010 Charity Car Design Calendar, with all profits going towards the purchase  of toys for the Children’s Hospital of Michigan at the Detroit Medical Center.

With support from established designers at companies such as General Motors and supplier Johnson Controls, as well as design firm Future Elements and publisher Design Studio Press among others, the calendar contains beautiful artwork of vehicles in the artists’ individual art styles.  High-quality images of hot rods, race cars, and futuristic vehicles adorn each page along with a short biography of the designer.

The professional designers and artists who have supplied artwork for the calendar include Micah Jones, Scott Robertson, Dwayne Vance, Dustin Shedlarski, Arvind Ramkrishna, Raza Bashir, Sangyup Lee, Brian Stupski, Mark Weaver, Wayne Manista, and Charlie Smith.

Car Design Fetish will utilize the profits from the sales to purchase gifts for the patients at DMC’s Children’s Hospital of Michigan including Hot Wheels and other toys.  Sized at 11″ x 17″ the limited-edition calendar is on sale through December 31st, after which it will be removed from sale.
The calendar retails for $22.99 and can be ordered online at www.cafepress.com/cardesignfetish.416898679

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Car Design Fetish is a website blog aimed at sharing information, trends, news and tutorials amongst creative designers in the automotive and product design industries.  The website can be found at http://www.cardesignfetish.com

Have you ever seen a better deal.  Except for our Charity Calendar I have not seen a better value for the car enthusiast.  Papa John is sharing his favorite Camaro in a size we can all afford.  For the $5 purchase price $1 goes to the Marine Toys for Tots Foundation while the othe $4 pays for the car which includes a coupon for a free medium pizza.  Papa J is also donating 5,000 mini Camaro’s to Toys for Tots.  Instead of a Hot Wheel for the kiddo this year go splurge on one of these and get yourself a pizza!

Press Release after the jump….

PAPA JOHN’S TO DONATE $80,000 IN PROCEEDS OF MINI CAMARO SALES TO TOYS FOR TOTS

Pizza chain’s contribution to annual holiday campaign also will include free pizza offer on back of mini-car packaging, all available at www.papajohns.com

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (November 16, 2009) – Earlier this year, “Papa” John Schnatter set out on a cross-country Road Trip to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of Papa John’s Pizza…and to search for the car that started it all: a 1971 Z28 Camaro that Schnatter sold to keep his dad’s tavern in business and ultimately open his first Papa John’s restaurant. He even offered a $250,000 reward for the car’s safe return. To everyone’s surprise (especially Schnatter’s), the beloved Camaro was found in Flatwoods, Ky. in August.

Beginning today, pizza and car lovers alike may purchase a mini replica of Schnatter’s Camaro for just $4.99 at www.papajohns.com. For every mini Camaro sold, $1 will be donated to the Marine Toys for Tots Foundation, just in time for the holidays. In addition, every toy’s packaging includes a coupon for a free medium cheese pizza – making it the gift that keeps on giving, long after the holiday leftovers are gone!

Papa John’s is also donating 5,000 mini Camaros directly to Toys for Tots – a retail value of $25,000, and $50,000 in redeemable free pizzas. In total, Papa John’s will contribute more than $155,000 to the 2009 Toys for Tots campaign.

“You could say that Christmas came early this year for John, which is why we’re especially pleased to share his joy with kids around the country who love Papa John’s pizza,” said Jude Thompson, Papa John’s president and chief operating officer. “Papa John’s is proud to partner and be associated with Toys for Tots, renowned for touching millions of young lives year after year.”

“Papa John has a great story that’s not only fun, but also provides hope and inspiration to less fortunate children,” said Maj. Bill Grein, USMC (Ret), vice president of the Marine Toys for Tots Foundation. “Toys for Tots is honored to have the support of Papa John’s and their 2,600 restaurants across the country this season as we make the holidays brighter for families everywhere.”

For more information and to purchase a mini Camaro, benefiting Toys for Tots, visit www.papajohns.com.

About Marine Toys for Tots

The Marine Toys for Tots Foundation is a not for profit organization authorized by the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve to provide fundraising and other necessary support for their annual Toys for Tots Program. Now in its 62nd year, Toys for Tots provides hope and happiness to economically disadvantaged children through the gift of a shiny new toy during the Christmas holiday season. Our gifts offer these children recognition, confidence and a positive memory they will cherish for a lifetime. Many of the gifts we provide, such as books, games and sports equipment, make a significant contribution to the educational, social and recreational interests of these children. In 2008, Marines distributed gifts to 7.6 million children in over 650 communities nationwide. The Marine Toys for Tots Foundation relies on individual donations from the American public and is supported by corporate sponsorships. For more information, visit www.toysfortots.org.

About Papa John’s

Headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky, Papa John’s International, Inc. (NASDAQ: PZZA) is the world’s third largest pizza company. For nine of the last 10 years, consumers have rated Papa John’s No. 1 in customer satisfaction among all national pizza chains in the highly regarded American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI). Papa John’s also ranks first among pizza companies in the 2008 Brand Keys Customer Loyalty Engagement Index, was honored by Restaurants & Institutions Magazine (R&I) with the 2008 Silver Award for Consumers’ Choice in Chains in the pizza segment, and was named 2007 Pizza Today Chain of the Year. For more information about the company or to order pizza online, visit Papa John’s at www.papajohns.com.

It’s here!!!  The 2010 Rendered Hope Charity Calendar featuring transportation artwork from professional designers.  This years calendar has a great mix of work from OEM, Hot Rod and Entertainment Designers.  There is feature artwork from the hot Camaro, Corvette Stingray Concept, Scott Robertson’s crazy ships, west coast Hot Rods and more!

Just like last year 100% of the profits will go toward buying Hot Wheels and toys for the Detroit Children’s Hospital annual Snow Pile Event.  This is a great cause that you surely want to support.

Head on over to our store at Cafe Press and buy the gift that gives 12 times a year!  This is a large calendar too at 11″ x 17″ with thick card stock and full bleed printing.  Very high quality.

The calendar is a limited edition print and will be on sale now through the end of the year.  So spread the word and get it while you can!

Buy It Here!

This Interactive Recreational Entertainment Vessel (iREV) is a pontoon with a specific purpose.  10 people can sit around the central low smoke charcoal grill or a number of other modules that can replace it.  This is quite the floating bar but at 24g’s you can buy one hell of a pontoon boat.  Still it is a pretty cool product for floating around with friends.  It is also environmentally friendly with 45% reclaimed material,  80% recyclable and it is made in America.

Automoblox is kicking off the holiday season shopping rush with two new series.  The first is a heavy duty pick up with what looks like chrome rocker panels straight from the nineties.  This is also a new material finish for the Automoblox line.  Next up is a series of Hot Rods.  Hell yeah!!  These cars keep getting more and more detailed with every new model.  These hot rods will make a killer addition to the everyday drivers you already purchased.

If that wasn’t enough they are even going to make a Halo package consisting of the Heavy duty truck towing a new Hot Rod.  Sign me up!

I know my count is up to 6 with a mixture of full size and minis combined into one long ass limo thingy.  These vehicles are a lot of fun for kids and adults.  Be sure to be ready when these get released for the holiday season.

Thanks to Autoblog for the announcement and a slew of pics.  Check them out !!

CDF is happy to announce our second annual “Rendered Hope” charity calendar!  If you recall, last year’s calendar was a terrific success (see the images in the PDF below) and featured professional designers from a variety of companies.  CDF worked with HotWheels, Ford, and GM to deliver HotWheels cars as holiday gifts to the kids at Children’s Hospital of Michigan.

This year’s edition will be more of the same, except due to the amount of interest from last’s calendar we are starting early!  From now until October 15th, CDF will be taking submissions of vehicle design sketches for the calendar.  The calendar will be available Nov 1st, just in time for the holidays, with all proceeds going towards once again buying HotWheels for the kids.

Once all the submissions are sent in, we will select 12 of our favorites and include them.  We will also contact those selected to include a short biography and contact info.  This is great for professionals and students alike, as you can see from last year’s calendar.  We’re still working on a thank you beyond inclusion in the calendar, but that will be worked out later.

Rules and information after the break.

Click here to download the 2009 calendar.

Rules:

• All images need to be in 11″x17″ format.  We will do our best to size up (or down) to scale within the template we’ll be using.
• File formats accepted include: JPG, TIFF, and PSD
• All work must be your own.  We will not be held responsible for verifying copyrights or ownership should you submit work that is not yours.
• If you are submitting actual studio work, please confirm with the proper leadership (in writing) and forward to us along with the images.
• Sketches are preferred, whether done digitally or not.  Just get it to us in digital format.
• Contact us for any info.  We’re willing to work with designers of any level to showcase their work for a great cause.
• Submit as many images as you’d like.
• Images due October 15th.
• Email the images to CarDesignFetish AT Gmail.com

A few months ago my buddy Logar showed me his new Hot Rod Sketch book he received as a gift.  After  a few minutes of flipping through the pages I new I had to get a copy.  Here at the Fetish we are huge fans of automotive art and sketching, hence last years Rendered Hope Charity Calendar we put together.

Since I first viewed the book Twitter has really taken off for CDf and Dwayne Vance began following us.  Little did I realize this was the author of The Hot Rod Art Book I grew a fetish for.  Now CDf  has a copy of this awesome sketch book of Hot Rod Art.

The book consist of artwork from Dwayne Vance as well as tutorials included on a cd.  Dwayne has had a great career in design working for Troy Lee Designs, Hot Wheels and his own company Future Elements.  There are also 12 other top notch Hot Rod Artist and Designers including Larry Wood, Thom Taylor and Max Grundy to name a few.  There is a great variety of work and styles combined into one hell of a coffee table book.

Hit the jump to view a teaser video and more information….and come back next week for an exclusive interview with Dwayne Vance!

The tutorials are also in depth.  They range from how to draw wheels in perspective, to 3/4 views and photoshop renderings.   There is even a section showing how Vance does sketches on his Nintendo DS.  They are pretty sweet especially when you think of how small the screen is.

We highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys car art and especially hot rod enthusiasts.  Check out this video showing some samples from the tutorials.

Hot Rod Art Book Sample Video from Dwayne Vance on Vimeo.

Here are some links to purchase your copy and to check out Dwayne Vance’s Future Elements website.  Thank you Dwayne for letting us review your book of great Hot Rod inspiration.

The Hot Rod Art book: Masters of chicken scratch

Here we go again.  Another BMW that objects to being put into any class of vehicles.  Is it a sedan, crossover, station wagon, maybe a really long hatchback?  Maybe just a squashed X6.  Pretty soon BMW will be able to offer vehicles in 2 inch increments rather than the amount of doors or ground clearance.

Anyway, here it is, Chris Bangles last touch on BMW.  This lifestyle vehicle know as a PAS (Progressive Activity Sedan) is Bimmers newest attempt at creating a niche vehicle proportion.  The X6 was their first attempt at this and is a pretty impressive vehicle if you actually get a chance to see one on the road (not too many here is the D).  It is great to see energy put into tweaking the norm as we know it and try to create a proportion that although may look awkward at first could become the new standard.  Think of Mercedes CLS “4 door coupe, horrible headroom, ingress, egress for rear passengers, but it is the newest and greatest thing.  Every OEM is coming out with one.

Is this a success?  Hard to say with only a few photos.  Put it on the road with everyone else and lets see how is compares.  It is gerat to see BMW styling evolve in every new product.  In some views this vehicle works very well, other views not so much.  Check out the awkward crease above the front wheel opening.   Side view is a little rough but the front tip up looks great.

I do enjoy the surfacing on this 5GT.  Not over the top but still exciting.  Funny how similar this looks to the Audi Sportback Concept.  Color, proportion, how do these companies know what eachother are coming out with tp have a direct competitor from the get go?

The front air dam looks familiar to the new Hyundai Genesis Coupe.  Yes, I compared it to a Hyundai.  The kidneys are looking a little bloated to me and could use more tension in the form.

Is it a hatchback or an SUV?  Really creative door opening in the rear.  I love having options.

It will be great to see more photos of this as they become available.  Kudos to BMW for pushing proportions and creating new niche market.  So what do you think?  Is this just unwanted excess or will consumers welcome a new PAS?

[pics via Autoblog]