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At the tender age of 23, the UK’s Lewis Hamilton became the youngest driver ever to win the infamous Monaco Grand Prix. The victory came after an accident-filled race on the Principality’s scenic, curvy lanes…in the rain no less. Congratulations Lewis on a great drive, with hopes of many more. Time to watch Grand Prix….

[Photo: Getty Images]

A longtime admirer of leather straps (who isn’t?), I recently noticed a subtle brown strap on a nondescript old rangefinder in a Beams Japan advertisement. Perfect. Some quick searching on the vast internets and I came upon Gordy’s Camera Straps. Seeing lots of happy customers around the world, *tap-tap*, and my strap arrived just in time for Memorial Day.

Handcrafted by Gordon Coale of range-toughened California Latigo belt leather, the strap will easily outlast the Canon digital cameras it’ll be attached to. The straps are 1/4″ wide and come in four colors. The thread is 1mm heavy duty waxed cotton, and comes in ten colors. A variety of strap styles are available; pictured is the horizontal lug-mount neck strap, while mine is a shorter lug-mount wrist strap. They are well executed and fit a wide variety of cameras, from tiny point-and-shoots to heavy 5×7’s, and everything in between. The excellent quality, fast shipping and personalized service received from Mr. Coale have made me a believer.

Gordy’s Camera Straps

[Photo: Leica M6 - Jon P., Brooklyn, NY]

Fresh off vacation (*whew*) and with the weather in Washington finally thinking about breaking, it’s time to clear the way for new stuff. The goal is to clear out the office, the garage and an overcrowded storage unit to the greatest extent possible. Some of these things haven’t seen the light of day in years so it’ll be good to let them breathe. It’ll be a slow process but well worth the wait. Items will be listed in a few different places, mainly here and on ebay. Craigslist is an option, and maybe the etsy page as well. Check back here for updates.

Featured pieces won’t necessarily relate to transportation but include an early 20th-century oak patent cabinet (great for magazines), a mid-century steel lawyer’s barrister cabinet, a great 1962 general purpose/shop desk with drawer, and lots of smaller items including quite a few vintage bottle openers. Who knows what else is hiding in forgotten boxes?

[Photo: Brooms by Chris, handcrafted in Kentucky Appalachia. He makes mops as well. No affiliation, but it’s about time I drop him a line and order a couple.]

Keeping track has never been so beautiful with these handmade ’sandglasses’ from Japan.

The glass itself is mouthblown by a craftsman in downtown Tokyo. The wooden casings come in your choice of castor aralia, walnut, or black walnut (1, 2 and 3), and are constructed in Hokkaido prefecture. Tariho Nishimura (who, along with his wife Nish run the design firm Living World) was so kind to provide this background, which may be on their website but I can’t read Japanese. I hope to update with photos from the various workshops.

They have just added international shipping, so take a look.

Living World
#4-8-22 Eifuku-cho
Suginami-ku,Tokyo, 168-0064
JAPAN
Tel: +81-3-5930-9812
Fax: +81-3-5930-9823

Owing to the winter doldrums, I’ve been stoking a lifelong obsession with small sailing vessels, albeit through books, the internet, and visits to the Smithsonian. The focus of this particular love affair is the beautiful Melonseed Skiff. These lttle wonders are a modern adaptation of the duck hunting boats that plied the Chesapeake and Delaware Bays in the late 1800’s. Today, they are typically constructed of fiberglass, or wood sealed with fiberglass cloth and marine epoxy. The nicer builds are traditional lapstrake, with brass hardware and lots of other goodies. The Melonseed is a versatile design that sails in winds light or heavy, and is even rowable when a breeze is non-existent. The simple sprit sail and a pair of oars stow inside the boat, making a tidy trailering package. There might be one in the garage soon.

[Photo: Pete Roth’s Lapstrake Melonseed via A.A. Cozzi]

Hamburg, get ready to welcome a new collection of (mostly) Porsche memorabilia in April of 2008. PROTOTYP - Personen, Kraft, Wagen will be housed on two floors of an unidentified historic building, and will showcase classic coupes, one-off racers and a variety of photos and curiosities (including Ferdinand Porsche’s personal watercraft).

[Pictured, middle] A race-prepped Porsche 356A isn’t the most ecological means to get around a racecourse, but it’s hard to argue against it being the classiest, and probably the most fun. It’s interesting to discover that a 1948-1951 production Gmund 356/2 could manage 27-35 miles per gallon of petrol. Nonetheless, it’s fair to say that most automobiles of this type and vintage are rarely driven more than a few hundred miles a year. If that still isn’t green enough, there are options for those seeking the ultimate in emissions-free performance wrapped in a classic package. A few companies offer custom conversions, including World Class Exotics in Florida and Electro Automotive in Seattle. These folks can electrify most anything, even a classic Speedster or 356 coupe (for upwards of $30,000.) Quite a few electric Porsches (and replicas) already exist, such as this torquey 550 Spyder repro built by Peter Ohler and Thunder Ranch.

Speaking of Porsche, the 1900 System Lohner-Porsche is credited with being the world’s first hybrid gas-electric vehicle. In this early iteration of the ultimate greenie status symbol, a Daimler and Panhard engine powered wheel-mounted electric motors (that’s right, wheel mounted!) The carriage itself could reach 35 miles per hour. Impressive, and represents a perfect example of regressive technological applications to solve new (old?) problems.

2.14.08 Update: A very nice 1958 356 outlaw similar to the racer above is available for purchase from Emory Motorsports in Oregon. The cabriolet’s asking price is $70,000 firm. *Disclaimer - we have no affiliation with Emory, but note that they tend to have some very nice track Porsches.

7.29.08 Update: Now that the museum is open, lots of great photos are emerging. Noteworthy images live at CarDomainBlog, Schiffbruch’s Flickr, and Manli’s Lange Nacht der Museum HH 08.

It’s sometimes easy to forget humanity’s first mode of transportation - the lowly foot. When it comes to shodding these humble appendages, it’s hard to do much better than with hand-crafted shoes. Unfortunately, the skilled cobbler is a rare and dying breed. This is true even in Florence, of Italy’s most renowned centers for shoemaking. However, all is not lost when one ventures down the narrow Via de’ Federighi to find brilliant yet understated creations inside Il Micio.

The proprietor is one Hidetaka Fukaya, a Japanese-born craftsman who relocated to Florence in 1998. Though Fukaya-san’s store is small and might easily be missed, his passion and creativity have drawn a loyal following. One of his more notable creations is a men’s brogue hewn from rare Russian reindeer hide that was salvaged from the wreck of the Danish Brigantine Metta Catherina, a ship that sank off the coast of Plymouth, England on December 10, 1786. The hides were rescued from the frigid depths in 1973, and promptly found their way into the hands of a few leatherworkers. Aside from their age, the hides are interesting in that they were tanned with willow and curried with birch oil. This is uncommon today, where toxic compounds have almost completely supplanted natural vegetable tanning. Fukaya is one of the few masters forming footwear from this leather, and devotes himself to honoring his materials.

Il Micio di Hidetaka Fukaya
Via de’ Federighi, 6r
Negozio T 055 212295

[images via The Sartorialist & Mestiera della Moda]

Back on the 10th. See you then.

Add these to the wishlist. Beautiful wood and stainless steel bicycle fenders, handcrafted by Ezra Caldwell in NYC. We don’t carry these, but it would be nice. Alas, maybe a set of Yohei pinstripes will miraculously show up under the tree in a few weeks. Maybe even affixed to a custom Moyer, which I would enjoy forever and a day.

Fast Boy Fenders

Artist & builder Uula Jero handcrafted these beautiful bikes from salvaged components in his Finnish workshop. VeloTribute - A collection of amazing machinery paying homage to classic cycling.

Gallery Grappo

[via empire collective]