Concept Car of the Week: Isuzu Zen

Space. Freedom. Feng shui.

De Tomaso SLC: De Tomaso back with SUV Concept

De Tomaso SLC SUV Concept We’ve covered some of the trials and tribulations of De Tomaso in the last couple of years, with the assets of the once-successful maker of Italian-style cars with a New World heart languished rusting and unwanted in Italy. But there were no takers; no one willing to breath life back in to a once successful marque. But finally – in November 2009 – a white knight in the form of octegenarian and former Fiat Exec Gian Mario Rossignolo rode in to the fray, and plucked De Tomaso from the oblivion of the history books.

One Lap of the Web: Let's visit Amelia Island in a short bus camper

-- Ken Kesey and friends spent most of the countercultural 1960s driving across the country in a 1939 International Harvester school bus painted in psychedelic colors. Portland, Maine architect Will Winkelman might do less drugs (we don't know), but the 1959 Chevrolet Viking short bus he designed might fit Kesey and his Merry Pranksters, especially if you stacked them head-to-toe. For his client, Winkelman designed a Moroccan theme of colorful patterns and textures across the curtains and twin beds, beaded light fixtures and wood paneling everywhere, approaching the project as one might approach boat-building or a particularly run-down Detroit "fixer-upper." The result has plumbing, power, an olive-drab paint scheme that blends into the New England woods, and the overall sense of a guest bedroom that you can escape in whenever you tire of your host's company.