Obvio ! posthumously renders homage to our friends and partners Paulo Goulart (UJuly 11, 2000), Rodolpho Olival Costa (UDecember 3, 2002); Juscelino Kubitscheck de Oliveira (UAugust 22, 1976), Francisco das Chagas Machado (USeptember 27, 2004); Harley J. Earl (UApril 10, 1969); Ed Roth (UApril 4, 2001) and Norman Casari (UDecember 31, 2005), choosing them as “godparents”, for they are responsible for giving the major part of the company’s inspiration...
... Dacon’s Owner Paulo de Aguiar Goulart...
Paulo Goulart´s company - DACON - was the largest VW dealer and the exclusive distributor of Porsche cars in Brasil since 1968, based in São Paulo, Brasil. Dacon was highly involved with racing cars and won a lot of competitions in Brasil and in the team started drivers like Emerson Fittipaldi (the “MOUSE”), Wilson Fittipaldi Junior, (the “BIG TIGER”), Anisio Campos (Obvio !´s Designer), Rodolpho Olival Costa, Totó Porto, Ludovino Peres, Lian Duarte and José Carlos Pace (the “MOCO”) .
The DACON Racing Team, was very famous with the Karmann-Ghia/Porsche DACON – a set of four Karmann-Ghia with fiberglass bodyshell using motor, gearbox, brakes and wheels of Porsche 904 - and with a powerful team of pilots, won all racings.
Paulo signs "OK" for his cars of Dacon Racing Team at the Interlagos speedway´s
12-hours race, held on March 19, 1967. In background - at Team Dacon’s pit - pilots
José Carlos "Moco" Pace and Wilson Fittipaldi Jr.
Obvio !’s birth began at the end of year 2000, when it was still a “simple idea” and a decision was made to submit it - with the help of Marcos Pettinati – to Paulo Goulart in a way for him to learn about it, evaluate it and give his opinion on the basis and perspectives of the project. Paulo immediately got enthusiastic about it and everybody noticed his waggish smile, with that brightness in the back of his eyes, typical of those that knows about things. He immediately said: “The problem to overcome is to get a first-line motorization pursuing a good weight-to-power ratio, because small cars need very powerful engines, and that’s what the consumers look for, preferably a new, well-born engine of unsuspected quality”.
Interlagos, August of 1967: Paulo Goulart signs “OK” to Wilsinho, under the look of Greco (worried)
and an aggressive military policeman; personally refueling the K-G/P of Wilson and Emerson and
the attempt of a military policeman to strike Emerson Fittipaldi at the pits...
The "little turttle" of the pilot José Carlos "MOCO" Pace and the "little owl" of the pilot Anisio Campos applieds in two of the four the Karmann-Ghia/Porsche of Equipe Dacon, numbers 2 and 6...
Everybody agreed with “shapes and principles” of what a new Brasilian designed urban car should be. Our “big boss” had already approved the idea and the directions of Obvio ! project... and the whole team always say “Thank you for all, Paulo Goulart — wherever you are —, this company renders you homage and we own our inspiration to you”.
The landmark Dacon´s Building in São Paulo, Paulo with (in background of the third photo)
Jorge “Louco” de Moraes - Chief of Maintenance of Dacon´s exclusive brands distribution
in Brasil: Porsche, British-Leyland, Citroën and BMW.
....to the great partner Rodolpho “Moustache” Olival Costa,
pilot of the Team Dacon....
Anisio Campos and Rodolpho, before the race start
Rodolpho the winner — 500 km of Recife in 1963
... to the great Lawyer Francisco das Chagas Machado, a friend,
a strong partner and an stimulator since the beginning of the Obvio ! Project, a real
example of dreams followed by perseverance turning into reality...
Francisco Machado with Anisio at the INT - National Institute of Technology,
overlooking the creation of the Obvio ! Zerodoze...
... to former Brasilian president Juscelino Kubitschek de Oliveira, another
example of “enthusiasm and optimism”, will power, determination
and pragmatism that impregnated the Brasilians with a special
caress for cars that are really "produced or developed in Brasil"...
... to the Designer Harley J. Earl - "The Da Vinci of Detroit", when
"one obvious looking person" can make a difference...
The historical research and pictures chronicled below provide a surprisingly clear metaphor of the road or direction the auto pioneer Harley Earl wanted to take GM down moving into the 1960s: Building Smaller, More Compact Cars.
Leading up to his retiring in the last quarter of 1958, this innovator pushed hard so the next generation of leaders could endorse and meet the challenge/demands of what many young American consumers wanted to drive going into the sixties. Instead of being warmly greeted like he had always been in the past 30-odd years when introducing his concepts on forward vision and long-term planning to other leaders of the corporation, Earl was met by a formidable wall of opposition. Essentially, a group of younger ultra conservative administrative leaders believed they could do it better now on their own...
Try and conceptualize what Detroit would be like today if Harley Earl's last big vision or triumph had not been upset ?
Notice date, shown above, when these pictures were taken at the GM
Tech Center (Styling Auditorium Courtyard).
For example, in mid-1957 Mr. Earl had a GM Photographic’s lens-men photograph these foreign competitor’s small cars intermingled with GM’s newest small car line inside the GM Styling/Design viewing courtyard (Earl just introduced the ultra modern two seated "Corvette" in 1953).
Harley Earl's hybrid design engineers – male and female – are shown with respective
small compact cars they own; VW, MG, Triumph, etc...
These truth-telling photos were taken for business, not amusement, reasons. Clearly,
it was 15-years before a very big trend began, whereby foreign auto-company
rivals would start taking huge bites out of Detroit’s market share pie!
The pictures shown here do not tell lies. This segment of Harley Earl's legacy provides another vivid paper trail of hard evidence the media and the public has never seen or heard before – the story GM’s past leaders (really culminating with the capitulation Roger Smith put into motion that almost bankrupted this company in the early 1990s) were able to keep this blunder well hidden under wraps in history. After all, since H. J. Earl had the original idea for GM to run with the “American small car” theme long before it became enormously successful, do you think the men who chose to go down the wrong path on something like this would ever admit the oversight, or come clean on a mistake that ended up costing the Motor City trillions of dollars in lost revenues as well as setting back the entire American auto industry leading into the 21st century? Not a chance. What mainly ended blossoming in Japan, Germany and Korea should have been born in Detroit’s backyard.
Because of herd mentality, and really after the lifeblood began hemorrhaging from GM, many other American auto companies in and of the Detroit region began following the leader (GM)…loosing money, prestige, brand strength and of course the ever-important market share. Starting in the 1960s the Motor City’s slide would go on to last decades of time; so, of course the city of Detroit fell prey and became perhaps its greatest victim from these ambivalent auto exec's battle cry, "we don't build small cars in Detroit." Naturally, the self-centered men responsible for the debacle made sure to disguise and confuse the real reason, which was, they were no longer hungry and had no vision or plan for continued progress for America’s auto industry or Detroit’s future.
So, saying and using the racial conflict (’67 Riots) as a scapegoat for Detroit’s impetus to spiral downward was an easy bandwagon to ride and help the media throw fire on. These spin-doctor’s trickery worked well, for most journalists along with the public bought exactly what they wanted them to swallow. And sadly, to this day, most people still don’t know the true side of the story—how leaders of the largest corporation in the world gave away one of America’s crown jewels (the small car trend) by simply turning down Harley Earl's last triumphant visions. This trend became the next “big” thing, it is the one that is still going on over forty years later now...
It's hard to deny Harley Earl's vision...especially since he publicly shared his viewpoints as early as 1950 in a magazine article titled, GROWING STOPS FOR AUTOMOBILES, below:
Isn't it ironic that the statements made by Harley Earl in 1950 point to the heart of the matter why General Motors lost 20 big points of market share over the last 35 years(1969-2004). Examine the evidence on how this man was a giant champion of diversifying his company away from building large cars, and wished to take GM down a more harmonic direction going into the 1960s...building millions of small cars to meet the demand of the market place. Putting it mildly though, Mr. Earl had a formidable collision with opposites...but that's another story. Anyhow, the logical comments made above are proof positive (this 300-word article above was published in the March 1950 issue of GM Folks magazine; circulation exceeded 480,000 copies..).
No doubt, this one quote by Harley Earl is going to help him rise back up in notoriety. Primarily because this succinctly accurate information cuts right through all the fog of claims and counter claims on why GM and Detroit lost so much, so fast:
"- It is a matter of record that poor
styling or improperly timed
styling has proved
financially disastrous to some
automobile manufacturers."
And more German based car designs adapted to the American-Way of Life, now from Porsche RSK...
The curved front-glass and the innovative system that closes the top and windows automatically when
any raindrops fall on a sensitized spot... a ingenious idea has never been adopted by
any automakers over the last fifty years for use on a luxury production car model ...
The same tri-star emblem of the Mercedes-Benz - only flipped by GM - leave the German factory
literally out of control... and later on was applied with modifications to avoid post-war problems...
Note the swastika and the big tri-star MB logo at the W125 streamlined car...
All trademarks showed and commented here are made with historic purposes
only, and belongs to the respective owners.
... to brilliant Ed “Big Daddy” Roth with his wonderful world of “Rat Fink” !
Ed "Big Daddy" Roth was born in Beverly Hills on March 4, 1932. He grew up in a German speaking household with a younger brother, Gordon. In school Ed learned to speak English and he liked to draw. Ed was able to do his homework and keep up with the rest of the class while he drew pictures of airplanes, hot rods and monsters. His father Henry was very strict with the brothers and kept the two out of trouble by supplying them with tools and a workshop. Ed's dad was a German cabinet maker and it was in the workshop where Ed learned how to build crazy stuff out of wood.
Ed purchased his first car in 1946 shortly after WW II ended. It was a 1933 Ford Coupe. He graduated high school in 1949, and went on to college majoring in engineering so he could advance his knowledge in automotive design. He started with his '33 Ford. Ed did pretty good in college but got bored with his engineering and physics classes cuz they just didn't have anything to do with cars.
Ed joined the Air Force in 1951 and went to bombsight school in Denver where he learned how to make maps. He became an expert barber on the side. He was stationed in Africa for awhile and then transferred to South Carolina for 4 years before coming home. Ed was honorably discharged in 1955.
By that time he owned several vehicles, he was married and had 5 children, all boys. Ed began working at Sears in the Display Department and started pin striping cars after work.
As his family grew so did the bills. In 1958 Ed went to work full time with "The Baron" and his grandson Kelly. Using junkyard parts and a newly developed product called fiberglass, Ed created automobiles in his garage. Ed's first car was called the "Little Jewel" and then shortly after that came the "Outlaw", which showed the world that anyone could design and build a car without being some kind of certified automotive engineer. All you really needed was imagination, some motor head know-how, a lot of elbow grease and gumption.
Presto! His garage became his studio where other creations came into light which include the "Beatnik Bandit" and "Rotar". Ed had plenty of imagination. He became "Big Daddy", a hot-rod Dr. Frankenstein who was more of a struggling artist than a mechanic. His garage became his studio. His cars were never meant to be driven: They were sculptures on wheels.
Ed's Racing Billboard from the 60's and the Rotar
Ed became Ed "Big Daddy" Roth, a hot-roddin' gear head, mad scientist and struggling artist who financed his inventions by selling drawings and t-shirts at drag events, fairs and car shows. Ed would draw cartoons of monsters that he created and pictures of cars. But when he personally airbrushed t-shirts with the monsters driving the cars, people went crazy and would line up at his booth.
Ed also creates many lovely T-shirts with Rat Fink and other images...
Ed's most popular monster was a repulsive rodent named Rat Fink. Roth was a genius at designing cars, but it was "Finkie" who brought him fame and fortune. Rat Fink started as a drawing that Ed had put on his refrigerator. By 1963, teenagers across America were buying Rat Fink model kits and mass-produced Rat Fink T-shirts.
When Ed got so busy that his garage couldn't handle the work, he moved his operation into a new shop in Lakewood, California. Ed had to hire several employees to help him build and produce more custom car and t-shirts. Revell American produced model car kits patterned after his creations that featured the "Beatnik Bandit" and " Road Agent". Other model kits included "Rat Fink" and the gang, joined by other gross, disgusting creatures driving the coolest hot rods.
The Gang included: Drag Nut, Mother's Worry, Mr. Gasser, and other members of the Rat Fink family and they soon became heroes to young kids across USA - and also in Brasil - who could relate to the stories and themes of the gang. Here is a very interesting Note: During 1963 Revell paid Ed a one cent royalty for each model sold. Ed brought in $ 32,000 that year in royalties, now figure out the math, that's how popular Ed's creations were.
Chik Art´s Mysterion collage
Ed creates the custom models and Revell´s launch the miniatures... a passion for generations...
There were also several record albums produced. The band was called Mr. Gasser (featuring Ed Roth) and the Weirdos. The songs featured on these records told descriptive stories about the gang and their favorite pastimes like hot rodding and surfing. The general message intended was that being different or weird was o.k. and being a Fink or a Weirdo was cool. It was a lesson some of us never forgot.
Click over each of the record covers, to listen the Weirdos musics !
Rat Fink and the gang driving their hot rods have become rock-art icons. Originally they were adopted by surf musicians and today the gang can be found everywhere. A number of punk and alternative bands have used Roth's images on LP's and CD's such as: Birthday Party "An Australian Band" with Junk Yard cover 1981 and current releases by the Voodoo Glow Skulls Cover Artist "Marco Almera". There is even a band called Rat Fink.
The "Orbitron" - developed and built in 1964 .....
Other Roth fans and enthusiasts include the Cramps and Rob Zombie of White Zombie. Rob Zombie is also an extremely gifted artist claiming that "Big Daddy" is his Daddy. You can also find Roth's creations on posters by other American cult fine artists like Coop (www.coopstuff.com) Rob Caffeine, Jack Lister, Dennis McPhail, Johnny Ace, Jimmy C, Frank Kozik and Von Franco, as many others really very good.
Ed Roth's artwork can be found throughout the late 80's and mid 90's in underground comics produced by Roth and Sloane. You can also find Roth's artwork in tattoo parlors and in art galleries. Yes, many of us consider Roth's work fine art.
The Ilene Roth´s "Road Agent" van who carry all "Big Daddy" stuff for the parties, with
a "thank you Ed" signed by the artist Coop.
Ed signing autographs @ Route 66 San Bernardino, CA September "99"
We lost our big guy on April, 4th 2001 the doctors said it was a heart attack. Ed Roth's genius has created a timeless monster. Rat Fink and the Gang will still reach the diverse demographic appeal of the young adults of today and us baby boomers of the fifties. Rat Fink and the gang will continue into the new millennium capturing a new group of Finks young and old for decades to come.
For Obvio !, at the beginning of the project, one of the Directors made a direct contact through e-mail with Ed Roth and Moldy Marvin. They became “e-friends” at once and in a conversation in January of 2004, Moldy recalled the beginning: “I remember I when we first started communicating over the internet! Ed was still alive and he really loved your concept and I believe that today he is still be interested in it". Later on, when Moldy learned more deeply the cars from Obvio !, he sent us this e-mail:
- I want one !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You gawt it....
The thing that is funny for me is that.... I don't really like much of the newer stuff that has beencomin’ out of other countries.. I'm pretty much an old school Hot Rodder...
but I really like your car a lot. It has some good styling and it is very unique
looking... and has some great features for the future motorist.
Thank you..... Moldy.
Ilene Roth, LeGrand Brothersen and Moldy Marvin was the first to know the Obvio ! 828,
at the San Francisco Airport docks, arriving from Rio de Janeiro to the SF Auto Show - November 2005.
Dear Ricardo and Steven:
Thank you for the very enjoyable trip to San Francisco.
It was a great experience to meet you and be in your booth.
Looking forward to working with both of you and to many more happy
Rat Fink Families with a Rat Fink Car in the driveway !
Have a Merry Christmas, Ilene Roth.
To know better the sites of Ratfink, of Kulture Shoq Gallery, or at the official Roth´s store "Roth Estate", of Ilene Roth - who maintain alive the soul of Ed "Big Daddy" Roth - click over the blue words in this paragraph.
Three excellent books about Ed´s life, hot-rod cars and arts ...
In the Kulture Shoq Gallery, you will find everything about POP ART and some artists of SoCal - litos, posters, works of art, etc.. from Ed Roth and Artists likeVon Franco, Sara Ray Hot Rod Art, Suzanne Williams, Eyeball John "Dekay" Detrich, The Zaideman Family, Larry "Speedo", "The Wax Wacko", David Looper, B B McGraw, Sony "Tha Doc" De Palma, Ken "Mitch" Mithroney, Robert Williams, Shag, Eric Pigors, Ian Roussel, Sunny Buick, Chad Scheres, C.J. Allen, Viggo, Marco Almera, C.C. & Anne Rider, Jimmy C and a bunch of others... to see more, please visit the site www.kultureshoq.com.
The names “Rat Fink”, Ed “Big Daddy” Roth and “Moldy Marvin, its components, images and logos shown above
... to Norman Casari, great friend of Anisio Campos and Obvio !´s team !
Norman in 1966 and his Lola T-70 (former De Paoli Brothers Team) of Brahma Team
The Journalist Jason Vogel, from O Globo newspaper, Editor of Car & Etc Magazine wrote “Good Bye, Norman” – what he wrote express our feelings about Norman:
At the ultimate minute - in June, 29th. of 1966 - the car race driver Marinho refused to run the Carcará, a car built to estabilish the first land speed record in Brazil for 1.0 Liter motor -- the “beast” had a very poor directional stability, almost out of control at high speeds. Jorge Lettry, Vemag team chief, asked Norman Casari if he would like to drive the car and assume the control of the aluminum car that would set the first Brazilian absolute land speed record by FIA standards: 212.9 km/h in a long plain and straight line sea level at the Rio-Santos road firsts kilometers - today Avenue of the Américas - at Barra da Tijuca, Rio de Janeiro. A good job for a car looking a “flying saucer”, equipped with a small DKW three cylinder, two stroke engine and 1,089 cm³ (66,45 cu.in) displacement, a proof of Norman of courage and skill (If you want to know more about the history of the streamlined Carcará, click here !).
The Carcará greatest day, in Rio de Janeiro: with Rino Malzoni (with hat) and Anisio Campos seating
at the fenders and Norman alone in the cockpit...
It was the golden years of this driver, born in S. Paulo and that moved very young to Rio with his parents. Norman started officially his car driver career in 1960, with a VW, but it was with DKW-Vemag cars that he became famous. All car racing lovers used to know the Malzoni (a sport car made from DKW-Vemag chassis and engine) white body and black hood with the number 96. Behind the steering wheel of the sporty Malzoni, Norman used to do miracles with the 1.000 cm³ (61 cu.in) two stroke engine, finishing races in front of Alfa-Romeos and Ferraris. He was Carioca champion car race (Rio de Janeiro car race championship) in 1966 and 1967. In 1968 he was vice-champion. He had a good support from manufacturer Vemag and also had a DKW-Vemag dealership named COTA.
The 96 DKW-Malzoni was feared by good performance and excellent Norman driving skills. He was
one of the masters in four wheel drifts when driving his cars in races... here a winning in
Jacarepaguá race track, in Rio de Janeiro...
— Norman was the most dedicated and professional car race driver in Rio ! affirm Brasilian automotive historian writer Paulo Scali.
The racer Jan Balder driving the Casari A1, built with Carcará spaceframe chassis and AC (from Anisio
Campos) front end, at Tarumã race track (Rio Grande do Sul state) in May 5, 1971. Norman “closing the
door”; and very glad and happy at Mauricio Chulam´s anniversary (another great Carioca car racing driver) in
Itaipava, Petrópolis 2004, when we presented the Obvio ! project to him and he agreed
to test our cars in the Rio de Janeiro Autodrome in 2006...
After the Vemag years, the driver participated in Formula V races, owned kart tracks in Rio de Janeiro and Itaipava, built go-karts and also raced with a T70 Lola. In 1971 he set another car land record at 244 km/h driving the Casari A1, a prototype with a Ford V8 engine. In his lasts years as car racing pilot he raced with Ford Maverick V8. At the end of 70 decade he was the Rio de Janeiro International Race Track director.
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The thing that is funny for me is that.... I don't really like much of the newer stuff that has beencomin’ out of other countries.. I'm pretty much an old school Hot Rodder... 
And buy the Ron Mann's DVD 
