This car is a species of its own. The Vulcan! The future of the Supercar.
As the cover slid off of Aston Martin’s new flagship Supercar at the Geneva International Motor Show on March 3, 2015, all I could think of was how am I going to get this monumental creation into my portfolio. The biggest challenge that I would come across was that there were only 24 going to be produced and three were going to the United States. For 11 months before the cars were delivered to the U.S., I had no idea where I would have to travel to see one up close. Excitement rose when I found out that Bernie Moreno, who owns Aston Martin Cleveland in North Olmstead, Ohio, had a Fiama Red Vulcan for sale for $3.4 million.
Making the drive to Cleveland a few years back was dreadful. The 13-hour trip was long then and I was not looking forward to it now. There were a few phone calls that would have to be made to go there to photograph the car in its setting. There were some people I knew who were acquaintances with Bernie Moreno, and I felt I had a decent shot at getting access. However, not being able to find any dates to take a couple of days off, I put this trip on hold. This naturally aspirated fire-breathing 7.0 Litre, V12, 820hp monstrosity of a car would have to wait.
A month or two ago, I was scrolling through my Facebook newsfeed when a good friend Peter Ladas (YuppieRacing.net) posted a photo of the Vulcan from Cleveland, commenting that the car was coming to Boston for the Gold Rush Rally in May and would be displayed at Mercedes-Benz of Burlington in Massachusetts a week before the event. Reaching high to the sky and letting out some hootin’ and hollerin’, I was stoked out of my mind. My goal was to find out how to get the Vulcan behind my lens. My chances increased as I knew that Ed Owen (European Auto Solutions) and Peter work closely with this dealership and that I have done some work with them in the past. Ed reached out to the dealership and set me up a photo session the night before the dealership’s Cars and Cappuccino event.
The Gold Rush Rally was soon to be in Boston and I was asked to cover the event. The night before I stayed at Ted Yerardi’s (Yerardi Transportation) as he was transporting a McLaren/Mercedes SLR to the event the next morning. Before loading the car in the trailer, we moved the car around in his front yard to take a few snaps. This one ended up being both of our favorites (see photo below). When we arrived at Boston City Hall Plaza, I photographed Ted taking the car off of the trailer to provide him with shots for his website and email newsletters. To my right, I heard someone say “Vulcan!” and about ten car spotters went running past me. Making my way to the street I was hit with the most intense feeling of excitement about seeing this car in person. I pulled out my video camera to take footage of it driving past me. It looked like a car straight out of the video game, Ridge Racer, and was perfect from front to back. Flawless! As it purred past me, I stood there, mouth agape, and making solid memories in my head! As interesting as it would have been to go on the rally as a co-pilot, as I was invited, I had to sincerely decline as I had the Vulcan photo shoot the next day.
This was a very important shoot for me and I wanted to bring someone along with me that could help out but also benefit from this experience. Who is better than Karthik Bhandary? Karthik knows a thing or two about drawing cars and wants to become an automotive designer for Lamborghini. He loves the aggressive styling of the cars and his talent is quite popular in the local car community. He has drawn many of the locals’ cars with fine detail and accuracy. He would be the perfect assistant for this shoot as he planned on drawing the car for Bernie Moreno. I wanted him to see what it was like to photograph a car like this in a low-lighting situation. Karthik brought his father and best friend, who had just landed from India that afternoon. What a treat to be able to share my experience with someone else who is going to appreciate it the same.
Unfortunately, as happened with the McLaren F1 photo shoot, the Vulcan had to be shot indoors, in the service area of the dealership/ Slightly disappointed but still appreciative I had to make the best of the environment, shiny reflective glass and all. To get the level photograph I was aiming for, I would need it to be pitch black. The lights from the showroom adjacent to the service area were very strong, causing reflections on the side of the car. The lights were not able to turn off without a code. The cleaning crew was there, but I didn’t want to disrupt what they were doing. The piercing light also lit up my background more than I had wanted. I was able to nail a great shot but unfortunately, other angles of the car were difficult to grab as the background was a dealership. As most of you know, I do not add different backgrounds to my work. It is always a learning experience and this time I found out that a big black sheet could be used to block some but not all reflections. We were not able to move the car because we were the only ones there.
Sadly, I was not able to sit in the car, which made taking interior shots a challenge and difficult. The roll cage and deep race seats made putting a tripod inside impossible. I felt it was a bust and I wasn’t going to have enough coverage to write an article. I felt defeated. Like I have said in the past every shoot never goes as planned.
The next day I contacted Sean King the VP at Mercedes-Benz of Burlington and showed him the stunning front ¾ shot and asked if I could go back to do some interior shots while they still had the car at the showroom. He said that wouldn’t be a problem and I was feeling relieved that I was able to get better shots. My friend, Ben Davis, who I met at R/C Excitement in Fitchburg, helped assist me and he was excited to have the opportunity to be up close and personal with the Aston Martin Vulcan. I got the shots, and I felt on top of my game again.
