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The Extraordinary Automotive Art Of Avakov Ilya

This is the art of Avakov Ilya, a Red Dot award winning industrial designer who graduated from the Saint Petersburg State Art Industrial Academy in 2007. After establishing himself as an industrial designer of some merit Avakov began experimenting with automotive art, a personal passion that quickly became a full time job.

Avakov’s captivating artwork was seen by Rupert White of Historic Car Art, and before long his work had been displayed at a slew of high end exhibitions including The Art of Motoring at Pall Mall in London, the Martini in Motorsport 50 Year Celebration at the Royal Automobile Club in London, Race Retro, Concourse de Elegance at AFAS in Miami, and the official Formula 1 “Greatest Race“ Exhibition at the Sochi Grand Prix.

The Miami exhibition was organized by the AFAS, the Association of Automotive Artists of America, fellow artists Ken Eberts and Klaus Wagger were essential in bringing Avakov onboard and showcasing his work in the United States.

Avakov largely works with both the more traditional oils and acrylics on canvas as well as more modern digital art creation methods. He focuses on classic cars and vintage racing mostly however he does occasionally create works showing more futuristic vehicles.

If you’d like to see more of Avakov’s art you can click here to visit the gallery listing. Alternatively you can click here to follow him on Instagram and see all of his new work as it’s completed.

He does take commissions, so if there’s a specific car you want immortalized as art, he would love to hear from you.

Images courtesy of Avakov Ilya – 2021

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A Tastefully Executed Chevrolet Corvette C1 “Fuelie” Restomod

The world of restomods (restorations that include modern performance upgrades) is often blighted by controversial decision making that isn’t to everyone’s taste. Things like big wheels and low profile tires on ’60s era muscle cars and colored fluorescent lights glowing up from beneath cars from the ’50s.

We could argue back and forth about choices like this for hours but at the end of the day, it’s the choice of each owner what they want to do with their classic. Even if some of it is truly harrowing.

What we are starting to see more of is cars like this “Fuelie” Corvette from 1957 – tasteful restomods that keep the core design and style of the original in place and just add some subtle upgrades that make it far better at handling modern driving conditions.

Upgrades like disc brakes on all four corners, more modern engines and transmissions, and upgraded problem areas like radiators, carburetors, gauges, and ignition systems.

This Corvette started life as an original “Fuelie”, a nickname given to Corvettes with fuel injection that was first offered as an (expensive) option in 1957 – the year this car was made. Just 1,040 were made in 1957 and now they’re among the most collectible Corvettes in history.

Sadly the fuel injected engine in this particular 1957 C1 isn’t the original, it’s a later fuel-injected 350 cu. in. (5.7 litre) V8 crate engine. Although this engine will likely be far easier to drive regularly than the original the fact that it’s not a numbers matching car means it’ll be selling for notably less than an original.

Above Image: The interior of the car benefits from some additional careful upgrades, like more modern gauges and a retro stereo that still looks period correct.

This is likely why the owner opted to go through the car from front to back and make some upgrades. The car is now fitted with front and rear disc brakes tucked behind aftermarket American Racing 16″ alloy wheels. Inside you’ll note more modern gauges an upgraded stereo that’s designed to look period correct.

Perhaps the only controversial choice is the fitment of an automatic transmission. Many motoring purists will decry this choice however it’s probably worth mentioning that when the Corvette was first introduced in 1953 it only came with an automatic gearbox – the manual didn’t become an option until 1955.

That said, due to the ubiquitous nature of the 350 cu. in. Chevy crate engine it would take very little effort for a future owner to get a manual gearbox installed if they wanted to – in fact there are kits available to buy online for this explicit purpose.

The first generation Corvette has long been lauded as the most stylistically pure, an American take on the European sports car phenomenon that took the world by storm in the years after World War II.

The Corvette was one of the first production cars to feature a body made from lightweight fiberglass, a state-of-the-art composite material in the 1950s. Initially its sales figures weren’t particularly impressive however Americans soon warmed to the new Chevrolet sports car and today it’s in its 8th generation with the C8 Corvette featuring supercar capabilities and a mid-engined layout for the first time.

If you’d like to read more about the unusual restomod C1 Corvette shown here you can click here to visit the listing. It’s currently being auctioned live on Collecting Cars.

Images Collecting Cars

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For Sale: The Rolls-Royce That Belonged To Both Princess Margaret And Burt Reynolds

There can’t be many vehicles in the world that can boast of former owner provenance as varied as this 1975 Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow. It was first owned by Princess Margaret, then 10 years later in 1984 it was exported to the USA and into the ownership of Smokey and the Bandit star Burt Reynolds.

The British Royal Family are well known for their love of opulent vehicles, Rolls-Royces have been family favorites for many years of course but a number of other marques have been parked on royal driveways over the years including cars from Bentley, Aston Martin, Range Rover, and MG.

Few of the cars that are ordered by royals remain in stock trim, typically a slew of upgrades are requested and they can include anything from those little flagpoles for holding royal insignia to bulletproof glass.

Princess Margaret’s Silver Shadow

Princess Margaret, the Countess of Snowdon, ordered this Silver Shadow in November of 1974 to replace her previous model. She specified that it be finished in the same color scheme, Cardinal Red with a black vinyl top and black leather interior with cherry red carpeting throughout.

The Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow is one of the most important models in the British marque’s long history, it was the first Rolls-Royce to use unibody construction and to this day it has the largest combined model run production volume of any Roller – helping to keep the company in business throughout the turbulent years of the 1970s.

From a styling perspective the Silver Shadow was a perfect balance between the sweeping curves of the earlier Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud III and the more angular design of the Rolls-Royce Silver Spirit.

Rolls-Royce engineers incorporated a significant number of upgrades into the Silver Shadow including the aforementioned unibody constriction replacing the outdated body-on-chassis construction of earlier cars – it also boasted disc brakes and independent rear suspension.

Above Image: The car’s interior is as opulent as you would expect for a Rolls-Royce, with all the bells and whistles that many production cars of the era went without.

As you would imagine the interior of the car wasn’t left out of the upgrade cycle, it was now wider and more roomy thanks in part to the space savings from switching to unibody architecture. The passenger compartment of the Silver Shadow was almost certainly the most opulent of any production car in the world when it was released in 1965, and it remained a favorite with wedding car companies for decades in part for this reason.

Rolls-Royces have a well-earned reputation for their prodigiously sized engines and the Silver Shadow is no exception, the model was initially powered by a 6,230cc V8 from 1965 until 1970 when the swept capacity was increased to 6,750cc.

The specification list for Princess Margaret’s Silver Shadow included many non-standard items like an illuminated blue police lamp, a flag mast, and an illuminated shield above the windscreen. The Princess kept the car for a number of years, replacing it in 1979 when she upgraded to the then-new Silver Wraith II.

Burt Reynolds Takes Ownership

The car’s next claim to fame occurred in 1984 when it was bought by Burt Reynolds Productions on behalf of Burt Reynolds and shipped to the United States. This was the same year Cannonball Run II was released though this particular car didn’t appear in the film.

In the years after this the car was returned to Europe and spent time in a number of private collections before landing in the ownership of the current keeper, who is now offering the car for sale with RM Sotheby’s on the 19th of June.

The current price estimate is CHF 65,000 to CHF 110,000, which works out to approximately $71,815 to $121,533 USD. If you’d like to read more about the car or register to bid you can click here to visit the listing.