What do you get when you combine time-lapse video with a tilt-shift lens? Real monster trucks and demolition derby cars that look like toys…

Metal Heart from Keith Loutit on Vimeo

Tilt-shift lenses, which are commonly used in architectural photography to correct perspective and make parallel lines look straight, can, as the name implies, tilt and shift relative to the plane of the film or image sensor. They also have the interesting property of being able to simulate a very shallow depth of field, which is what makes everything look like a model in the video.

For more videos, visit Keith Loutit’s website.

Has it really been three months since the last update? I suck…

Well, actually, I started a new job on September 10th (good timing there, eh?), so I’ve been pretty busy settling in to my new position while wrapping things up at my old job. Now, the problem isn’t money, it’s time.

Nevertheless, I managed to get some parts ordered from Summit, and I finally got around to coating all my exhaust bits. For the sake of those contemplating following in my footsteps, I’ve listed all the part numbers and costs (as of November 2001) below.

Old, stock distributor on the left, shiny new MSD Pro-Billet unit on the right…

MSD Part #8367 - $289.95 (ouch!)

It’s so gorgeous, though… I carried it around the house like a scepter all night after it arrived. "I am the King of Spark! Bow before me!" That went over real well with the wife and pets.

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Somehow I doubt these two morons ended up getting a second chance at their failed flip…

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Last New Year’s Eve, Rhys Millen was supposed to backflip a truck on live TV. One problem - he broke his spine in practice. He’s going to try again this year, and to promote the stunt, Red Bull has released a one-minute video that shows, in sickening clarity, what went wrong last year. Enjoy!

The glacial pace of this project continues… I haven’t done too much in the past month for lack of finances, but here’s what little is new since the last time.

Here’s what the exhaust crossover looked like before and after a trip through the blasting cabinet. You figure out which is which…

The exhaust manifolds get the same treatment, both to clean them up and to give some ‘tooth’ and open up the pores for the coating they’ll soon receive. I made sure to mask the machined surfaces of the manifold in order to keep them as flat as possible and hopefully prevent leaks. I still haven’t decided if I’m going to use gaskets or not when I put it all back together, though.

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