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Design & Development
Technical Advisors
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Raffi Minasian is a freelance designer, widely
published illustrator and educator. He holds degrees
in both Product and Transportation Design. His
impressive 25 year career includes aircraft interior
design for Boeing, toys for Mattel and McDonald’s,
consumer products for Microsoft, Polaris, and
Rainbird, and car designs for Toyota, Subaru, Moal
Coachbuilders and The Franklin Mint.
Raffi has taught design and product development at
several notable universities and design colleges and has
been featured on television programs “World of Wheels”,
“Speed Vision Network”, TLC “Rides”, and the “Fine Living
Network”. Raffi has designed more than 300 different model
cars, several full-sized cars, consumer products, toys, and
home accessories. Raffi has been awarded the “Award of
Excellence” from Car Styling magazine and recently was part
of the design/build team for the 2005 AMBR – 32 Ford Hot Rod
“Sedeuced”.
Raffi has devoted much of his professional energy to
educational programs for young people interested in design
professions. He is an advisory board member for public
school programs, Professor at California College of the Arts
and San Jose State University, and Board of Director member
for the Collectors Foundation, a non-profit organization
dedicated to serving youth involved in the automotive
community through scholarships, grants, and museum support.
Recently Raffi was awarded the "Educators Who Make A
Difference" award by the Yuba County Office of Education for
his efforts supporting the Automotive Academy. Raffi lives in Bainbridge Island, Washington with his wife and two daughters where he maintains his design consultancy.
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Matt is the cofounder and former editor of
DieCast X Magazine. He now works as a freelance journalist
and has written extensively on collectible scale modeling,
design and industry trends, and reviewed literally hundreds
of models for every major brand in the diecast industry. In
addition, he has published a number of articles on
full-scale motorsports, automotive history and a handful of
other non-automotive genres. Not surprisingly, Matt is a
lifelong automotive enthusiast and diecast collector. An
eclectic fleet of family transportation ranging from a
Volkswagen Microbus to a ‘70 Dodge Challenger to a Porsche
914 2.0L—among numerous others—gave him an early
appreciation for automotive diversity. Matt exercised that
appreciation by cultivating his own fleet in scale—first
with 1:64 Hot Wheels and Matchbox diecast, then graduating
to plastic kits of every shape and description, and then
finally to diecast in a variety of larger scales—the only
prerequisites being four wheels and charisma. That
collection has been growing for more than 30 years and Matt
merged his love for scale models with an education in
journalism when he helped launch DieCast X. Matt currently
lives in Danbury Connecticut, and when not adding to his
collection he can often be found hurtling his Volkswagen GTI
through the cones at his local autocross club or camped out
on the hillsides overlooking the historic road race course
at Lime Rock Park with camera at the ready.
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Christopher Keller has spent most of his life fascinated with creating
digital imagery and virtual objects. His nearly 30 years of experience
with computers, programming, CAD, digital image creation and
manipulation has culminated in a design career developing high end,
high quality, digital surfacing for product and automotive
applications.
Christopher has worked with world class design teams around the world
bringing award winning products to market including items like the Celestron Skyscout (featured in Wired Mar 2006) and flowtoys, inc. He
was recently published in Forza magazine, iVT magazine (industrial
Vehicle Technology) for the John Deere Skid Steer Loader and his
products have also been featured in Esquire, Maximum PC, and other
publications.
Christopher maintains his professional practice in the metro Chicago
area but is virtually linked to development partners around the globe.
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Herb Grasse has been in the Automotive Design field since 1966. A graduate of the prestigious Art Center College Of Design. He has created designs for a diverse section of the automotive industry. His talents have been used by George Barris, The United States Military, movie studios, Ford Motor Company, Chrysler Corporation, American Motors, Mazda, Nissan, and he is best known for the design of the Bricklin SV1. Herb led a highly regarded professional career in the US and abroad. Herb was a wonderfully entertaining person with a unique style and flair for life that showed in his design work, artwork, and keen sense of humor. Herb Grasse, died August 24th 2010 of complications stemming from pancreatic cancer. All of us at Automodello who had the pleasure to work with Herb and spend time with him will miss his vitality and passion for automobiles.
Full Biography
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The term “Renaissance man” was coined to encapsulate the talents of those who had mastered multiple artistic disciplines during that like-named historical period. To be sure, painting, sculpting and architecture are demanding, and those who show an affinity for all are justly lauded. But what do we make of a man who mastered the art of driving during the talent-laden renaissance of sports car racing in the 1950’s, then retired to design and build his own street cars, then changed gears again to pioneer one of the most effective and widely utilized highway safety devices ever conceived? And for good measure, was also an accomplished fighter plane pilot—one of an extraordinary few allied pilots to successfully shoot down Germany’s legendary Me-262 jet fighter? And one of the designers of one of America’s legendary road-racing circuits? And the very first Corvette Racing Team principal? Somehow, ‘Renaissance man’ seems too trifling a descriptor.
Full Biography
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Rick’s automotive passion was ignited by his father Richard “Dick” D’Louhy. Together they witnessed racing at its finest at Lime Rock, CT in the late 1950’s, Watkins Glen, NY in the 1960’s, and Daytona Beach, FL in the 1970’s. Receiving a subscription to “Road & Track” when he was only 9 years old in 1958 helped propel Rick to his extreme appreciation of interesting motor vehicles.
Full Biography
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Aptly called “Captain Curiosity” in 2008 by Classic and Sports Car Magazine (UK, Worldwide), and “The Snipe Hunter” in Tom Cotter’s 2010 bestselling book, “Corvette in the Barn”, Geoff Hacker has been the king of automotive snipe hunters for the past many years, bringing back to life dozens of rare and historically interesting cars that most enthusiasts either never knew existed or had written off as extinct.
Full Biography
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There’s not much in the automotive world Jack Griffith hasn’t done in his 60-plus years in the industry. He has owned dealerships for everything from Packard to Jaguar to Shelby. He has operated a wildly successful race team and helped launch the brilliant driving career of none other than Mark Donohue. He conceived of and then built his own series of high-performance sports cars. Then, in his “retirement,” was instrumental in founding what has become one of the most prestigious and well-respected classic auto shows in the world—The Amelia Island Concours d’ Elegance.
Full Biography
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As a proud owner of many TVR
Griffiths my interest tracks back many years. In my
teens a friend of mine had a 200 series Griffith; I
fell in love with it but at the time was unable to
own one of my own. As we fast-forward from the ‘70s
to the year 2000, my dream was able to come true. I
went to a boat show on the Eastern Shore of Maryland
and lo and behold, what do I see in the parking lot,
but a green 200 series Griffith. I must have stood
by that car for at least an hour and no one came
back to the car.
Full Biography
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