Dymag new product work – British based Performance Racing Wheel Manufacturer

This week commercial photographer Tim Wallace was shooting some further commercial based work for our UK client Dymag as they prepare 2 new products for Worldwide launch as well as creating a asset library of images covering their motorcycle products including their forged Aluminium race wheels that have accomplished stunning times in racing at events across the world such as the Isle of Man TT.
Tim has been working with Dymag since early 2015 to create digital image assets that the company use to promote their brand marketing throughout the World.

Dymag are an elite British performance wheel brand with an unparalleled history of innovation and technology in motorsport which has led the way in wheel design and production for more than four decades.
They are also the first company in the world to manufacture carbon fibre wheels for both high performance cars and motorcycles certified for road as well as racing use. This was followed by the world’s first roadworthy carbon composite wheels. We are now moving ahead with a brand new carbon composite car wheel that will revolutionise the luxury and performance car wheel aftermarket, racing and OEM market.

Started in the early 1970s, Dymag quickly moved to the technology pinnacle inventing the world’s first 3-spoke Magnesium motorcycle racing wheels. It was on these very motorcycle wheels that the legendary Eddie Lawson won the AMA Superbike Championship on a Kawasaki KZ1000-S1 in 1981 and 1982, and went on to win the 1984 World Motorcycle GP Championship on a Yamaha YZR500. Building on our successes, Dymag expanded into manufacturing Forged Magnesium wheels, Forged Aluminium wheels and finally Lightweight Carbon Fibre wheels with an equally enthusiastic response from bike owners around the world.
Many Formula 1, IndyCar, Rally/RAID, Moto GP, Superbikes, Isle of Man TT champions and race winners have used Dymags, as well as several production Supercar manufacturers.
In January 2010, British businessman Chris Shelley rescued the company from oblivion and with the help of the original Dymag engineers and experts is proudly continuing the Dymag story with a focus on the custom motorcycle wheels Dymag is famous for. Their carbon fibre wheels are used by legendary World Superbike champion and British Superbike champion Troy Bayliss and we also sponsor Queen of bikers rider Maria Costello MBE. For the 2014 season and today Dymag is supplying several British and World Superbike teams.

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All images, text and ideas are the ‘intellectual property’ of Tim Wallace™

Le Mans ‘1 VEV’ Aston Martin DB4 GT Zagato Shoot

Aston Martin DB4GT/0182/R ‘1VEV’ is amongst one of the most famous Aston Martin Racing cars to date and sits beside ‘2VEV’ in the corridors of racing history within Aston Martin. This week commercial car photographer Tim Wallace spent some time with this legend shooting work that is to be combined with his earlier work on its sister car ‘2VEV’ for the 100 Year Centenary Aston Book project that is almost now completed and soon will go to print. In 1990 1VEV sold at auction for £1.54 million GBP with its original engine but today that cars true value runs into many millions if it was ever to enter the auction arena again.

Both 1VEV and 2VEV was purchased by John Ogier’s Essex Racing Stable and both cars became a huge part of Aston’s racing history. In 1961, 1VEV raced at LeMans but retired with head gasket problems. This was followed by a minor victory at the British GP race for sports cars that was absent of any Ferraris. The car’s finest moment came at the 1961 Tourist Trophy when Roy Salvadori finished three seconds ahead of Mike Parke’s 250 GT. During the race, the car was hard on tires and 14 new ones had to be fitted. The mechanic at the Essex Stable has been quoted saying that ‘1VEV never had more than 270 bhp’, and that 314 was only possible with the later 3.9-liter engine. In 2007, the car was comprehensively restored and its rear fenders were reshaped back to the original specs.

Although not overly successful, the DB4 GT Zagato was easily one of the most exciting and beautiful British sports cars thanks to its specially built body by Zagato of Milan. It was designed to take a stab at the Ferrari 250 GT roller coaster which was dominating the World Sportscar Championship. It was primarily sold to private race teams, but at least 4 of the 19 cars were built as road cars.

In 1958, the first DB4 was released and received universal acclaim as a successful grand tourer (GT). Much of the DB4 utilized technology from Aston Martin’s earlier race efforts including disc brakes, an independent front suspension and a Superleggra body from Touring of Milan. A year later, Aston Martin was anxious to take it to the track so they introduced the GT model in September of 1959. The GT model had distinct modifications which prepared the DB4 for racing endurance. These included a shortened the wheelbase, less interior and lighter bodies. The huge hood scoop which distinguished the model was hiding a the new improved and potent engine.

The Aston Martin DB4 GT Zagato was introduced in October 1960 at the London Motor Show as effectively a DB4 GT, it was then lightened and improved by the Zagato factory in Italy by the famous Ercole Spada. Initially the factory had plans to produce 25 cars, but demand wasn’t as strong as expected and production ceased after the 20th car rolled off production.
Nowadays, due to the rarity and popularity of the DB4 GT Zagato, the cars are worth a considerable amount of money, and at auction they can easily reach very high figures in excess of £5 million.

Welcome to new client Spellbound

This week we would like to welcome Spellbound as a new client to Ambient Life. The company based just outside London that are passionate about cars and provide a specialised business for the restoration and race preparation of models such as Ferrari and Jaguar. Spellbound Cars is a union of individuals all passionate about iconic cars and the pursuit of excellence. Experience, passion and a great drive to deliver the highest level of service is at the heart of a very unique workshop. The workshop is equipped with high-tech machinery and facilities, enabling restoration or repairs of all levels to be completed in-house. The Spellbound Cars team has wealth of experience in both the building of cars, and from behind the wheel, both on road and track.
They understand what is required to prepare a car to withstand the specific demands of every discipline whether fast touring on Alpine passes, or competing in hillclimbs, sprints, track days, historic championship racing, or even challenges such as the Nordshleife Marathon and the Spa Six Hours and of course Goodwood.

Shelby Limited Edition Image Released

The man who retired from racing and built the Cobra, then went on to work with Mustang
A sad loss, a great man who will always be remembered.

Carroll Shelby, the colourful American racing driver and engineer who shared the winning Aston Martin with Britain’s Roy Salvadori in the 1959 Le Mans 24-hour sports car classic, and who later gave his name to the iconic Shelby American Cobra high-performance sports car, has died at the age of 89.

The genial Texan’s trademark was his distinctive striped, bib-style racing overalls, which gave him a swashbuckling, Casey Jones-like appearance throughout a distinguished racing career that included eight world championship grand prix outings driving a private Maserati 250F, and latterly for the ill-starred Aston Martin Formula One team.

Born in Leesburg, Texas, the son of the town’s postmaster, Shelby was a child when his family moved to Dallas. Despite being diagnosed with a slight heart murmur at the age of 10, he served as a flight instructor with the US air force during the second world war. He went on to work in the truck business, before turning his hand to chicken farming, unsuccessfully, in the late 1940s.

Meanwhile, Shelby had started to dabble in sports car racing, and by 1952 had gained a degree of recognition after some promising outings at the wheel of a Jaguar XK120, before switching to a fearsome, Cadillac-powered Allard the following year. In 1954, spurred on by the offer of a cup from Kleenex heir Jim Kimberly – one of the great US racing philanthropists of the time – for the best performance by an amateur driver, Shelby entered the Allard in the Buenos Aires 1,000km sports car race, co-driving with airline pilot Dale Duncan, who was a useful contact when it came to air freighting the car to Argentina.

This first competitive appearance outside the US for Shelby was memorable: he and Duncan finished 10th, despite a carburettor fire during a pit stop, which had to be extinguished by the simple expedient of Duncan urinating on the engine. More significantly, Aston Martin driver Peter Collins introduced Shelby to his team manager, John Wyer, who had been impressed with the Texan’s handling of the wild and woolly Allard. Shelby now had his foot in the door at Aston Martin, which would lead to a place in their works team – and that memorable victory at Le Mans five years later.

Like most of those who drove for Aston Martin in the 1950s, Shelby loved the team’s ambience, and he never seriously considered any of the fleeting, and possibly empty, offers to join Maserati or Ferrari. His Texan penchant for straight talking occasionally made David Brown, the Aston Martin company’s owner, wince: telling the boss one of his cars handled like “10 pounds of shit in a five-pound bag” was pretty strong stuff from a hired hand in the mid-1950s. Shelby recalled Brown’s reaction: “He got pissed off at that, turned round and walked away.”

Along with Salvadori, Shelby also took up the F1 Aston Martin DBR4s during the 1959 season. But these front-engined museum pieces were obsolete even before they raced for the first time, a new generation of mid-engined cars from Cooper dashing their hopes of success. At the start of 1960, Shelby suffered bad chest pains that alerted him to a now-serious heart condition. Despite attempting to control the situation by driving with nitroglycerin pills under his tongue, Shelby decided to retire from racing at the end of that year.

One of Shelby’s dreams had been the manufacture of a high-performance American sports car, so when he heard in 1961 that supplies of Bristol engines had dried up for the British AC company, he brokered a deal that saw AC switch to using a 4.7-litre Ford V8, and the famous Cobra was born. Ford backed Shelby’s efforts on the race track, and the Shelby Cobras were duly homologated as GT cars by the start of the 1963 international sports car racing calendar, when they were pitched against the Ferrari GTOs. In 1965, the Shelby Cobras won the FIA GT championship, wresting this prestigious title from their Ferrari opposition.

By 1970, Shelby was diversifying into other businesses outside motor racing, but in 1982 Chrysler boss Lee Iaccoca, an old friend, offered him the opportunity to serve as a performance consultant to the automotive giant, bringing him back into the motor racing orbit.

He is survived by his wife, Cleo, his two sons, Patrick and Michael, his daughter, Sharon, and his sister, Anne.

• Carroll Shelby, racing driver and engineer, born 11 January 1923; died 10 May 2012.

Aston Martin Restorations

This week we have been working with one of our longest running clients Aston Martin and their Restorations Centre. Tim has been heavily connected to Aston for a number of years now and its a relationship that has seen both companies work together on many different aspects of the business from the brochure and lifestyle work that Tim shoots on a regular basis for the Aston to the restorations and engineering projects. Over the last few weeks Tim has been working closely with Aston to create some powerful images for the restorations and classic side of the business that not only demonstrate some of the work that goes on behind the scenes and Aston but also for use in global events such as the recent Essen Car Show in Germany that Aston attended using Tim’s work as a launch platform visually.