Most collectble car in 2010?

After heated discussion at the office (OK, I admit it was a bar), we decided to use a Camaro in Tunerz. So we feel vindicated that the 2010 version has just been voted as this year’s ‘Collectible Car of the Future’ by the Friends of the National Automotive History Collection (NAHC) in the US.

Members of the organization, which supports the world-famous automotive collection at the Detroit Public Library, vote annually to predict the “Collectible Vehicle of the Future” from the year’s new American-built cars and trucks. The Camaro was selected from 13 all-new vehicles launched in 2010.

The award will be presented to Chevrolet executives by the Friends of the NAHC at their annual holiday reception on Thursday, December 9 at the NAHC’s quarters in the Skillman Branch Library in downtown Detroit.

Charles K. Hyde, chairman of the NAHC Board of Trustees, said “this selection is unique among all the ‘Vehicle of the Year’ awards, because it is selected by ‘car buffs’ who know what future collectors will value. We asked our members to predict which of this year’s new vehicles will turn heads in the Woodward Cruise of 2035.”

“Our mission with the 21st century Chevy Camaro was to draw on the passion and heritage, expressing it in a new and modern car with design, technology and quality to carry the legacy forward,” said Tom Peters, Camaro chief designer. “It’s simple; the new Camaro puts smiles on the faces of car enthusiasts of all ages.”

Click through to discover the winners of previous years:

Previous winners are:

Speed en Gein est surtout axé sur la vitesse, mais il y a toujours des friandises motorisées, que l’on peut voir sur les pages suivantes .

Spped en Gein se passe à Goes, une ville qui est juste au delà de le frontière belge, près d’Anvers. Un plan se trouve sur leur site. Bleuk feront de nouveau des démonstrations d’Extreme Stuntriding avec des motos de toutes tailles.

Pour plus d’info: voir Bleuk et Speed en Gein.

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Palestine has its own motor sports federation and – surprising though it ma seem – its women drivers. These include Suna Aweidah, better known as “Malika Sibaaq Al-Sayyarat (the Queen of Car Racers). Firstly, I race cars because I enjoy driving, and I simply love racing; I love the speed,” she says, “But I also think it’s important to show the strength of Palestinian women; to let men know that we are just as capable to do anything we’d like.”

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UPDATE: the Speed Sisters were featured in a short BBC report in June 2010.

La presse tuning est importante, mais souffre actuellement comme le presse généraliste d’ailleurs. Il est peut-être utile de rappeler qu’il y a en a d’autres des mag francophones sur le tuning, comme Boost Tuning, GTI Mag, Maxi Tuning et Street Tuner. Est-ce que quelqu’un a des nouvelles de Mod/Modify en France? Leur site n’a plus bougé depuis 2008!

A ce stade-ci, on est en train de peaufiner le scénar plutot que de changer l’histoire. On doit encore la présenter à l’un ou l’autre partenaire potentiel. Pour l’instant, les contacts sont avec l’Allemagne et l’Espagne. On s’est promis-juré de la finir la semaine prochaine.

"Look Mam, no driver" Terry Grant leaves his car at Ciney 2009

Gaétan’s previous post pretty much says it all. Ciney was good fun, although I also had trouble finding it. Plus, one of the most brilliant things wasn’t actually mentioned on the posters: Terry Grant. This British stunt driver blew everyone away with a very impressive demonstration of precision driving, drifts and fun stunts. It was a case of “Look Ma, no hands”, followed by “no feet”, “no driver” and ultimately “no front left wheel”. Terry jacked up a car locked in a donut, removed the front left wheel while hanging from the side of the car and then replaced it with another one before setting off again. All this while grinning madly.

My other favourite shot from Ciney is the car labelled Pink (photo left), for obvious reasons. There are not enough girls in tuning, and they are not respected enough. Pink is a beautifully tuned car both inside and outside. It wouldn’t be my choice of colour for my wheels. But respect is due for the quality of the work.

Respect is also due to this mad Frenchman in a white van (photo right) that won all the 100m challenges that I watched. More than one driver was bluffed by the nondescript exterior. This car rips. If anyone knows who he is, please leave a comment so we can credit him correctly.

If you see your car in any of the shots in the Ciney 2009 photo gallery, get in touch and we’ll do the same.

Audi R8 with Tunerz logo in Cannes

Cannes 2009 was a very different beast from last year. On the one hand, we were attending with a finished script. On the other, the industry is going through a very difficult stage. Prior to going down, there were many horror stories in the press about bankruptcies, the impossibility of raising capital and bad weather. So how did it go?

Cette année à Cannes a été fort différente de la précédente. D’un côté, nous avons un scénario fini. De l’autre, l’industrie subit une crise profonde. Qu’est-ce que ça a donné?

It’s clear that fewer people attended the film market this year. But that is not entirely a bad thing unless you run a restaurant. The meetings we had were productive. Even the discussions that didn’t go the way we would have liked turned out to be productive in that we left with a clear picture of the sort of projects we could come back with. As these discussions were with large French production and distribution houses, the long-term prospects are good.

Transformers on the Croisette

At Cannes, you tend to take more meetings than you strictly need. This led to very constructive discussions with possible co-producers. On a more technical note, we were told that Tunerz might have trouble finding financing as it falls into the “black hole” between €1-4 million. Doing a low budget or going further are the two options, both of which fundamentally change the project and story. What does this mean? Well, we walked past the promo for “Transformers” on the Croisette every morning. That’s a good an example of a B-movie gone large. It’s something worth looking at.

We now have a few major follow-up meetings in Germany and France, plus meetings with directors back home – more of which later.

Maintentant, nous avons une série de rendezvous de suivi en Allemagne et en France. Sans oublier les réalisateurs. A suivre.