artandcolour

I think they'd put some excitement in the Mercury showrooms! I really like the headlights. Love that Cougar too, and I could see a Capri further down the lineup for sure.

thank you very much! I'm enjoying the blog, though it's hard to find the time some times. i'm not quite as strict as that Julia/Julia movie, but i've only missed 2-3 days in 2 months. that's pretty darn a record for me, lol, at anything. i really try to post at least once a day. hopefully new chops to come soon!

I'd say that Timmm has the Cougar just about covered! I love his modern interpretations of classic Cougars. I'm sure I've posted this coupe before, but this is my San Marino, a luxury awd midsize Mercury:

haha, Yes you're right about the intro date, NEXT April Fool's! chops based on these photos: 1. Milan = new Kia Optima Cadenza 2. Mountaineer = new Infiniti QX56/Nissan Patrol 3. Comet = new Citroen concept-can't remember the name, but it was introduced at Geneva this year 4. Villager = new Kia Sportage 5. Cyclone = front clip from new MB SLS gullwing, and body from Porsche Panamera ALL with a large dose of artandcolouring : ) EDIT CORRECTION: I just realized that the Milan chop was created from the new Kia Cadenza, not the Optima. I did these about 6 weeks ago, and the Optima wasn't out then. Sorry about that!

Mercury's Way Forward plan was revealed today at the 2010 New York Auto Show at the Jacob Javits Center in Manhattan. Aiming to become the USA's first all-hybrid full lineup of family cars and crossovers, Mercury introduced 5 new cars, ranging from their first B segment sports hatch, to a range-topping Cyclone sports sedan, including a totally new Milan, and two new crossovers, the small Villager and the large Mountaineer.

probably the nicest Cougar chop I've seen. Love the lines, love the color. Grrrrrrrrrrreat!

thanks, everyone! I haven't had an extra minute to chop anything new in quite a while, but i'll see about putting up some more of my older chops soon. I really appreciate the comments! i have a blog now where I post my art and chops if anyone's interested: http://artandcolour.blogspot.com/

very mean looking! I'd move over quickly if I saw that in my rear view mirror. I like the F-O-R-D letters in the grille on the second version, from the new SVO truck whatever it's called, right?

your Tbird is gorgeous! i'm still mesmerized when i see the top in action! just the trunk opening 'backwards' at the touch of a button is still thrilling for me, lol! my Bird was a '64 hardtop in Diamond Blue with medium blue interior. it was pretty lightly optioned, with power windows and driver's seat, but only AM radio and no AC. i had that car for almost 30 years. growing up in the '60s we had a new '66 Country Squire in your Vintage Burgundy with a beige vinyl interior. it's a beautiful color that isn't seen enough these days.

1,3 and 4 do it for me! besides updating to IRS, i'd love to see a hybrid version too. i think a hybrid full sized sedan, in a middle-class price range (not the S class or the 7 series price range) would sell very well in some markets. the use of high-tech materials could bring the weight down too, although they're not terribly heavy compared with the German sedans these days.

i think the Panther could be updated and be competitive as well. i owned an '85 Town Car for 9 years back in the day, and loved it. i bought it as an 18 month old demonstrator the year my Dad died, and then took my Mom on a 4 week road trip of New England. that car cruised in complete silence and was a joy to drive and ride in, giving us close to 20mpg also, a complete shock to me. my mother spoke about that trip for the rest of her life. i once "played around" late at night on the turnpike in my TC with a 3 series Bimmer, not only keeping up with it, but passing it several times even when we got off and did some roads with 'twisties.' when we finally stopped and admired each other's cars, he couldn't believe the way my TC kept up. that 302 was well-suited to the car's platform, and the suspension worked really well too. i think that early Panther was lighter than the later ones, not as bloated.

i'll add those to my 'list' but it will be a while, lol. i haven't really had time to chop for a couple of months now. all of these have been in photobucket for a while. i think the Cougar would be closer to the original Cougar than the current 'waterfall' grilles on Mercurys. i liked the latitude that designers had back then, instead of having to keep the family ties so close as they do today. and the Cyclone would most likely be very aero, with a horizontal underbumper grille, but with vertical vanes in it, perhaps climbing up onto the hood in some artful manner. thanks for the suggestion though!

thanks Mark! i love what Exner did in his prime, but i'm equally as fascinated with the Exner/Engel period, where Elwood was trying to rationalize Ex's last work. I've always worked in publishing, designing everything from newspapers to magazines and now books. back when i was a staffer, many times in my career i had to come into a publication and pick up the reigns from other talented designers for one reason or another and try to do the same thing. i can only imagine what Engel felt like roaming the halls of Chrysler styling amid all the falling sales and changing presidents and trying to decide just what the hell he was going to do! i've done some chops recently of this Exner/Engel period. they're not FoMoCo, but i hope no one minds. this first one is a reinterpretation of the full sized Chrysler of '63 and '64. my version would be a mythical 'first gen' Cordoba, meant to counter the '63-'64 Grand Prix with it's clean sides and tasteful styling. i lengthened the hood and shortened the deck a bit, more in line with pics I've seen of Exner's still-born S models. this is my version of the '64-'66 Imperial, a tour-de-force of facelifting if i ever saw one, (his not mine, lol) since the platform was the same as the '57 Imperial. i made this a true Crown Coupe, a 2 door limousine... another version of the Imperial Coupe, this one a bit less extreme. This is more of a "Continental' coupe, entirely fitting with the Engel inspired '64-'66 Imperial. this is my cleaned up version of the '62 Dodge Dart, the mistakenly downsized full-sized Mopar, the reason the Custom 880 had to be so quickly introduced. i gave it curved side glass, which Ex wanted but couldn't get, and i cleaned up the geegaws and odd trim pieces, although I added a couple near the headlights. this is more of a resto-mod with the dark window frames and wider tread. again, a '62 Mopar, this time a Plymouth. this was originally a 2 door post, but i made it a true Sport Fury with a semi-fastback roof, again, in line with some prototype photos i've seen of the large stillborn Chrysler line. a resto-mod version of the first Barracuda. i changed the C pillar to make the rear glass less overwhelming, but emphasied the remaining Exner touch near the rear bumper by chroming the bodyside 'bomb' coming out of it. i added somewhat Foose-ified large wheels/tires. even though the first Barracuda came out in early '64, a couple of years after Ex left, it was based on the Valiant of '63, which he did have a hand in. and since i see you have a restored '66 Bird, a couple more Tbird chops. this first one is another chop from the same photo of the wagon above. it's a 4 door, 3 years before the first '67 suicide door Landau. and this last one is a squarebird version of the Italien fastback concept car from '62 or '63. i really didn't care for the original Italien when i saw it in magazines as a kid, but i now think it's gorgeous. this one is perhaps less successful, but i like it as a variant of the regular notchback coupe. the Tbirds of this time carried almost zero sidetrim, but i added some polished aluminum along the lower swage line, in keeping with the Italien theme. i think it works here.

i should have known that! i love it though. FoMoCo had some great studio stylists in the '60s.

hey 2b2! thanks! i really like that Cougar logo in your sig. what is that from?

i'm not sure. i think i read about a Focus sport coupe in the works, perhaps that would be the Capri? or Puma? or... i recognize your name Reigner—AWCC, right? it's been quite a while!

how about a 4 door Squire version of the '64-66 Thunderbird! i owned a Diamond Blue '64 coupe for almost 30 years. a Cougar hybrid sportscar. based on the Guiguiaro concept Mustang of a few years ago. i mixed the tunnelback roof of the '71-'73 Cougar with the taillight graphics of the original '67-68. a Crown Vic replacement, here in police cruiser livery... another retro chop. this is a '72 Mark IV, but with the feeling of the much sportier '84 Mark VII. no opera windows here! a new Breezeway, here in B segment size, based on the new Fiesta concept. how about a chop that needs restoration? this Engel-designed '62 Continental not only shows a coupe bodystyle, but a version of the new 'twin grilles' that Lincoln is now using.... the whole idea of 'what if' cars right here. what if the original 1940 Lincoln Continental also came as a woody luxury estate? a hybrid GT for Mercury, the Cyclone, based on the Ford GT. Arrive Unruffled—a true Executive Express, a Mustang-based Lincoln GT. chop done before the now de-rigeur split grille. i still like this one a lot. i've got at least another 100-150 FoMoCo chops. this is enough for now! -casey/artandcolour

this is a retro chop, what the fugly 1980-82 Thunderbird could have been. i've taken the styling themes of the '77-79 Bird and downsized them in a more appropriate way than Ford did back then. another retro chop. when BMW introduced it's new 5 series hatchback and called it the Gran Turismo, i thought about what Ford could have done with an estate/hatch of the fabulous '67-'69 Tbird, hence the Tbird GT, with reversible Pucci upholstery! an idea for a new luxury coupe, based on the MKT crossover. this could have awd and the EcoBoost engine. a reborn rwd family sized sport coupe, the Torino GT. a Thunderbird luxury coupe, based on the Taurus sedan. cues from the mid-60s classic Tbirds i love so much. an alternative to the fastback GT, the notchback Mustang returns, here in GT500 guise. i always preferred the notchback to the fastbacks for some reason. an über luxury Lincoln Continental Town Car, based on the Interceptor of course. miles and miles of luxury. how about one more update of the Panther Marquis....the Club Coupe! i've always thought the early '70s Fiat 130 coupe was stunning, and used a similar C pillar treatment here. another retro chop, the never-released coupe version of the '61 Lincoln Continental. a lot of re-proportioning in this chop actually. another version, this time with the '64 model, which traded the curved side glass for straight, which never really worked as well with the design of the sedan. same with the Tbird of '64-66. the curved glass of the '61-63 looked so much better.

hi everyone. artandcolour here. i've recently found your forum, and noticed a few very complimentary posts about some of my chops, so i thought i'd post some of my FoMoCo chops here. as some of you have noted, i've been posting chops since the original Autoweek Combustion Chamber. i moved on, after the implosion, to Motor Trend, but didn't stay long. i've posted at several other smaller blogs and continue to chop whenever i can for my own enjoyment, and hopefully yours. i chop all types of cars, but i'll put up some of my Fords, Lincolns and Mercurys here. the first car i ever fell in love with, at the age of 5, was my dad's then-4 year old '58 Thunderbird. my dad was a real Ford man, with several Fords, Mercurys and Lincolns in our garage as i was growing up. we had the occasional Oldsmobile, Cadillac, Mercedes, AMC (!) and even a Lancia at one point. lol. my web moniker, artandcolour, is a tribute to Harley Earl, the great grand daddy of car design. his first styling studio at GM in the late 1920s was called the Art and Colour Section. and for anyone interested in my 'real' art, the focus of my life at this point, you can check it out here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/artbycasey/ enjoy! crossover coupe based on the aston martin lagonda concept. Mercury Capri hybrid hatch. facelift of the MKZ/Zephyr. this would be a hatch version with flying buttresses... this would be an entry-level Lincoln, the MKE this is my idea for the new 305hp V6 Mustang. it would be set apart from the V8 GT with different bodywork, and a luxury level interior, along with a polycarbonate clear roof. the idea would be to appeal to a more european/luxury buyer than the awesome musclecar V8 GT, with basically the same platform. this would be a Chinese-Domestic-Market hybrid saloon. there is so much growth potential in China, Mercury, a grand old brand like Buick, could make huge inroads there with the right product, making tons of money for FoMoCo. this would be a slightly extended Fiesta sedan, the Lynx. hybrid drivetrain optional. this would be a luxury Mercury sedan, the reborn Park Lane. this is a simple coupe version of the new Taurus. a pillarless coupe named Capri. a new luxury coupe, the Thunderbird, keeping the faith with the '58-71 Thunderbirds of yore. the rear glass would be indented along with the trunk, in an extension of the 4 passenger Tbird's original styling feature. i'll post another 10 after this.