Home » How Have I Missed These Incredible X-Ray Images Of Cars?

How Have I Missed These Incredible X-Ray Images Of Cars?

Cs Xray Isetta Top

I think my automotive packaging fetish is well-established at this point, and, I would hope, is currently the subject of at least a few psychology students’ doctoral theses. My perverse craving for imagery that shows the interior packaging of cars – cutaway drawings, blueprints, and even photos of cars physically cut in half – is so potent and powerful that I can’t believe I’ve somehow missed out on what may be the ultimate expression of the genre: full-scale X-ray images of cars.

Seriously! Full-scale X-rays! Of cars! Using five X-ray machines and/or a massive German-sourced X-ray machine, in a studio that features 30-inch-thick walls, British artist Nick Veasey took X-ray images of so many cars, and they’re stunning.

Vidframe Min Top
Vidframe Min Bottom

Shot in profile like a classic cutaway, these X-ray images do precisely what you’d expect, the whole raison d’etre of X-rays themselves: show what’s under the skin, in incredible detail. They’re so damn good. How did I miss these? They’ve been around over a decade! Anyway, let’s look at some of these:

Cs Xray Messer

Since I used that BMW Isetta in the top image, let’s check out another microcar: the esserschmitt KR200, this one a convertible version. The layout is pretty obvious for these little bathtub-torpedoes: narrow body, with pretty much all the mechanical stuff crammed in the tail.

Cs Xray Caddy

At the other extreme, there’s this 1970 Cadillac Sedan de Ville. The packaging isn’t especially clever here, but with all that real estate to play with, it doesn’t need to be! The interior space and trunk are vast and generous simply because this thing is so long that if you walk past it, you may want to take a break at the B-pillar.

Cs Xray Mini

I suppose the opposite of that Caddy is the Mini, which is an absolute triumph of packaging and making the most with the least. About 80% of this car is usable for people or stuff, an open cube with seats bolted to a smaller cube absolutely crammed with mechanical bits.

Cs Xray Fiat500

It’s interesting to compare the Mini to a similarly-sized car that attempted basically the same thing, just backwards: the Fiat 500. The rear engine leaves a similar percentage of usable space for people and stuff, but it’s not quite as space-efficient as the Mini. It’s still impressive, though!

Let’s look at some larger and even more iconic rear engine cars:

Cs Xray Beetle

You know I had to put the Beetle ones Veasey did in here. The Beetle’s packaging I’ve always liked; sure, the luggage area is effectively split between front and rear, but that’s not so bad, though I still think that rear window should have been openable to get better access to the rear luggage well.

This is interesting, too: Veasey also did a convertible Beetle:

Cs Xray Beetlevert

…and, significantly, this one is a Super Beetle, I think a ’71, pre-bigger curved windshield. You can see the coil springs of the MacPhersons struts up front that replaced the torsion bars, and you can see how much bigger the trunk is.

Cs Xray 356

The Beetle’s more athletic sibling is also interesting to see, the Porsche 356. It’s very clearly the same principles, but adapted for very different goals. Interior room is lost, but I think most Porsche owners were okay with that sacrifice.

Cs Xray Microbus

Okay, one more rear-engined car: a Microbus. Sometimes Veasey used corpses borrowed from med schools and in protective suits to pose people in these shots, and the result is pretty effective. I’m not sure about the dog?

The Microbus, being essentially a box on wheels, is fantastic space-utilization wise, and in these X-rays you can really see how efficiently that drivetrain is packaged, low and at the rear.

Cs Xray 2cv

Okay, let’s get to one of my current obsessions, the Citroën 2CV. It’s also quite good packaging-wise, as it’s almost empty aft of the firewall. The engine is way up front and pretty compact, and while there’s a lot of dead space in the engine compartment, there’s plenty of open space behind it. Some people mount the spare tire over the engine to use that excess space! And the lawn-chair nature of those seats is pretty obvious here, too.

Also, note how kicked-up the rear of that chassis is! And the horizontal interconnected suspension springs under the floor!

Cs Xray Ds

The legendary DS is a vastly more complex car, and you can see that in the cutaway. A lot of the length is in that hood, but there’s still plenty of room in there.

Cs Xray Gullwing

The iconic Mercedes-Benz Gullwing really reveals its sports car roots here, being quite full of engine, and that engine set well back from the front axle, making it at least almost front-mid. Look how high those chassis rails are at the rear, too.

Cs Xray C2vette

The C2 Corvette Stingray is also a car that’s mostly engine dragging around a little teardrop to hold people and some stuff. This X-ray really helps you appreciate the classic sports car silhouette of these, too.

Cs Xray C4vette

The C3 Corvette takes the proportions of the C2 and pushes them even further, and feels even more like a fiberglass envelope around a massive engine in these X-rays. The detail on these is just stunning – is that the crankshaft I see there? Damn!

Cs Xray F100

Here’s another one with a skinny fella, this time on the tailgate of a 1948 Mercury truck, of all things, a re-badged Ford F-100. I’m surprised to see how far back those engines were set!

It’s worth checking out the artist’s site, there’s so many more X-ray cars there. I could look at these all day. I want to X-ray everything in my house now! Help!

(all images: Nick Veasey)

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Ex-Exeo
Ex-Exeo
1 day ago

I wonder where in Germany they sourced the machine to X-ray cars. Maybe here?

https://www.dark-tourism.com/index.php/355-marienborn-border-crossing-memorial

Dodsworth
Member
Dodsworth
1 day ago

What a great idea. Have a dog push a Microbus and increase its power by 25%.

Ashley Volvoslut
Ashley Volvoslut
1 day ago
Reply to  Dodsworth

*golf clap*

Martin Ibert
Member
Martin Ibert
1 day ago

Here’s an “M”. I hope you know where to put it.

Ben
Member
Ben
1 day ago

Sometimes Veasey used corpses borrowed from med schools and in protective suits to pose people in these shots

Hey, who turned out the lights?

Hey, who turned out the lights?

Hey…

Flyingstitch
Flyingstitch
1 day ago

The Caddy was very confusing at first, because the slope of the decklid screams B-body, and the ghostly fins look like they’re tacked on to a somewhat humbler car.

JJ
Member
JJ
1 day ago

It’s fun to see how much of the caddy’s front was “bumper.”

Andy Individual
Andy Individual
1 day ago

I really appreciate the insight here.

Funny thing. I’ve actually driven an Isetta. At the time I was intrigued by how the forward control worked, but I don’t recall realizing that it was a mid engine car. Totally overlooked that. Must have been hidden by the sheet metal.

RustyJunkyardClassicFanatic
Member
RustyJunkyardClassicFanatic
1 day ago

Thanks for the “X-Ray”ted Cold Start!
Since you showed the Isetta, I must recommend to anyone who hasn’t read it, an early Autopian piece on the full history of the Isetta (and not one joke about Steve Urkel!- “Did I do that?” It’s really a well written and very interesting article:
https://www.theautopian.com/the-full-history-of-the-most-famous-microcar-the-bmw-isetta/

Basher
Basher
1 day ago

Vehicle xrays and exploded engineering drawings are on my list for tattoo ideas. OOH, and red/blue 3D images.

Ashley Volvoslut
Ashley Volvoslut
1 day ago
Reply to  Basher

I have a blueprint style tattoo. The item is rendered in 3d but has all the specs called out like an engineered drawing. It’s getting on about 15 years old at this point and the small numbers are starting to blur but other than that it holds up well and gets a decent amount of comments.

Lot_49
Member
Lot_49
1 day ago

Cannot get enough Deux Chevaux content, although DS-19 stuff is great too.

Lori Hille
Member
Lori Hille
1 day ago

Sometimes you read a headline and you just know that it’s a Torch article!

Cheap Bastard
Member
Cheap Bastard
1 day ago

“Sometimes Veasey used corpses borrowed from med schools and in protective suits to pose people in these shots, and the result is pretty effective. I’m not sure about the dog?”

Pretty sure those humans were just the skeletons since you don’t see the shadows of anything but bone. The dog however might be an actual corpse.

“the Citroën 2CV. It’s also quite good packaging-wise, as it’s almost empty aft of the firewall.”

The suspension system under the cabin is quite interesting to see.

Last edited 1 day ago by Cheap Bastard
OCS-BN
Member
OCS-BN
1 day ago
Reply to  Cheap Bastard

Thank you for clarifying the thing about the human corpses. I was wondering about that. The dog likely is taxidermy? The artist couldn’t find human taxidermy, I suppose.

Cheap Bastard
Member
Cheap Bastard
1 day ago
Reply to  OCS-BN

“The dog likely is taxidermy?”

That would be my guess since we see skin but no guts.

Ineffable
Member
Ineffable
1 day ago
Reply to  Cheap Bastard

you don’t see guts with plain xrays. but still i’d guess taxidermy – lungs too big and probably a styrofoam core. also I doubt he’s gotten around the medicolegal problems with xraying humans and animals for fun.

there is a lot of postprocessing going on here. I’m assuming he takes a bunch of exposures and stitches/overlays them together. No way you can see through metal and see the seat material at the same time.

Fascinating technique though.

Last edited 1 day ago by Ineffable
Cheap Bastard
Member
Cheap Bastard
1 day ago
Reply to  Ineffable

Taxidermy makes a lot more sense.

Black Peter
Black Peter
1 day ago
Reply to  Ineffable

Exactly this.. It’s worth looking at the site, they are cool, but yes, no way you can blast enough X-ray to see through an engine block (or see the connecting rods of a Harley) and still see the seat material (or in some of the skeletons, their clothing). It’s neat, but not an “x-ray of a car” it’s a art piece using X-rays and cars.
Oh also the “half spare tire” in the Gullwing, yeah, that doesn’t happen.

Last edited 1 day ago by Black Peter
M. Park Hunter
Member
M. Park Hunter
1 day ago
Reply to  Cheap Bastard

Very obedient, but only knows one trick.

“Who’s a good boy, Taxidermy? Stay… stay… staaaayyyy…”

Ashley Volvoslut
Ashley Volvoslut
1 day ago
Reply to  OCS-BN

Skin doesn’t preserve well. Not in an aesthetically pleasing way anyway. That’s also subjective I guess… But… This conversation is weird enough.

TheDrunkenWrench
Member
TheDrunkenWrench
1 day ago
Reply to  Cheap Bastard

Nope, CHUCK TESTA!

Jay Vette
Member
Jay Vette
1 day ago

Do you think he owns a Chuck Tesla?

TheDrunkenWrench
Member
TheDrunkenWrench
1 day ago
Reply to  Jay Vette

Yeah, but it’s a non-working display model

M. Park Hunter
Member
M. Park Hunter
1 day ago
Reply to  Cheap Bastard

I’m guessing that at the X-ray exposure needed to penetrate metal, anything less dense than bone is basically invisible. Though it’s a good bet there’s also processing and combining of images going on.

Jb996
Member
Jb996
1 day ago
Reply to  Cheap Bastard

Yeah, definitely alot of processing to get the depth of field and the various exposures right. It’s still very impressive. But if corpses, he has a few that appear to be freestanding with no visible structure:
https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5a96a42b266c07429bbb82d4/1740666630773-1N7F7ENU1R0LQDGTD2KT/Waitress.jpg

Cheap Bastard
Member
Cheap Bastard
1 day ago
Reply to  Jb996

That’s kinda what adolescent me was dreaming up while reading ads for mail order x-ray specs but in a much more naughty/sexy/erotic way than this creepy/weird/macabre picture.

Church
Member
Church
1 day ago

Quite cool, but also a little ghoulish with the corpses.

UnseenCat
UnseenCat
1 day ago
Reply to  Church

I don’t know, the Microbus with the skeletons has a certain Grateful Dead album-cover vibe to it…

A Tangle of Kraken
Member
A Tangle of Kraken
1 day ago
Reply to  UnseenCat

Especially if you can cut a record on the developed X-ray film as the underground scene back did in the Soviet days: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ribs_(recordings)

Lincoln Clown CaR
Member
Lincoln Clown CaR
1 day ago
Reply to  Church

If I donated my body to science and found out I had been loaned out to make fun pictures, I’d probably come back and haunt somebody.

Basher
Basher
1 day ago
Reply to  Church

But are they actually corpses – they look Johnny 5 alive.

Jb996
Member
Jb996
1 day ago
Reply to  Basher

Yeah, I”m not sure that they are corpses. I think at a low enough dose, and signing a few waivers, live people will do stuff for money. I posted this above, but this and a few other’s of people appear to be freestanding. Of course the wires could be edited out. Who knows what’s real anymore. It could all be AI for all I know.

https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5a96a42b266c07429bbb82d4/1740666630773-1N7F7ENU1R0LQDGTD2KT/Waitress.jpg?format=1000w

Turbeaux
Member
Turbeaux
1 day ago

Please David, do not approve Torch’s requisition for an X-ray.

Twobox Designgineer
Twobox Designgineer
1 day ago
Reply to  Turbeaux

Aw come on, he can even x-ray his Ataris and Apples and V-techs!

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