French stonemason Rene Kress has turned his hand to automotive-themed pieces, this Porsche 911 being amongst his most prized works.
Some automotive traditions are set in stone. Take the design of the 911, for example: it would be an incredibly brave – and probably universally lambasted – man who altered the 50-year-strong DNA of Porsche’s headline model.
Rene Kress seems to have taken this idea one step further though, and actually created a lifesized replica out of stone. I should point out at this stage that the rock 911 is two-dimensional: though the prospect of seeing a full-on Flintstones-mobile on the road would be pretty cool, we’re unsure how Fred managed to pedal something that weighed several tonnes that easily.
The majority of stonemason Rene’s work constitutes your usual line of garden and kitchen-based stone edifices (with countertops, steps, ornate paving and even gravestones lining his portfolio). But since 2005, the 34-year-old sculptor has turned his hand to internal combustion for inspiration.
No stone left unturned, Rene has 13 fellow artists under his direction at his facility in Schrobenhausesn, a stone’s throw from Inglostadt. Indeed, each piece of work takes three months to complete (commitment to each piece remaining solid as a rock), weighs 300kg and measures just over three metres in length. So keen are Porsche on Rene’s new creation that it now hangs in the company’s museum in Stuttgart.
I’ll assume you’ve had your fill of stone-based puns, so I’ll rock on with my day.
Okay, now I’m really done!
