Lightning McQueen Volvo Rally Art Car

If you were 3 years old, what car do you want your parents to own? It's not an easy question to ask a 3 year old as there answers are limited. However, Lightning McQueen surely has to be one of the top. And, if you need a sporty looking vehicle to base your Lightning McQueen on - what would you choose? A Volvo 740 of course.

In this case, three grown adults made the car of their dreams, apparently. A Volvo 740 plucked from obscurity that had spent its life driving round the UK's home counties, was now made into an art car. And driven across Europe repeatedly on our events.

I've never actually worked out what the motivation to make this car was, apart from further capitalising on a Cars dvd they had obviously bought.

You may be wondering whether there are any similarities between this car and a real sports car. There aren't.

However, the side effect of being the proud owner of Lightning McQueen meant that the owner was constantly bugged by their kids to take them to school in Lightning, which included half the kids from the neighbourhood. As the owner lamented one day, we can do the school run in a brand new Mercedes, or Lightning. Lightning won every time.

So there we have it. How to impress your children. Make Lightning McQueen.

By Justin Clements Street Safari

Art Cars Hanging Out To Dry in Chile

Art Cars Hanging Out To Dry in Chile - Photo by Eliseo Fernandez / Reuters

Just got a tip from Kelly Lyles owner of Excessories Odd-Yssey about some pretty art cars hanging out to dry in Valparaiso, Chile during the National Festival Of Arts. Shown here with Generik Vapeur playing his bagpipe which I guess helps paint dry faster???

The Road Car

In this case the car IS the road and called the "road car" brought to you by Brian in Michigan. The paint is that spray stone texture with some added black splatters. The double yellow lines are custom mixed house paint so that it peels and flakes with age JUST LIKE REAL ROAD LINES. By the way it shoots blood from the windshield wiper sprayers.

Close up of the "road car" texture. This is after a test spraying from the windshield wiper "blood" while going 60mph. The rain helped it flow better and wash off easily.

Call of the Syren - Goth 72 Cadilac by Christa Ansbergs

Syren Art Car at Art Car Fest - Photo by Bagel

Christa Ansbergs is the creator of a 72 Cadillac called Syren and is a regular participant at Art Car Fest where I met her. She loves the "goth" look and the darker side of life so she drives an art car to match.

When she went looking for the right car she considered buying a used hearse, but found that they were to expensive and a pain to maintain because parts were harder to come by. So she settled for a 1972 Cadillac DeVille and got going with her art car creation. She has painted flowers on the side, appropriate goth bumper stickers all over the trunk, rope arrangement across the hood, and spray painted lace pattern the roof with a chain fence. If you look closely syren has fangs in her grill, so  make sure not stand to close.

I also found a great picture of her at Maker Faire a few years back wearing a skirt she made from bike inner tubes, rolled up in the shape of a skirt and sown together to complete her goth outfit:) Sorry it took so long to put you up on ACC, but here you are, finally:) 

Syren Art Car at Art Car Fest - Photo by Bagel

Christa Ansbergs at Maker Faire

The New Face of Corvette - Oprah Art Car and more

Photo By karrelbuck
The Oprah Corvette Art Car could very well be one of the most amazing finds of my blogging career. I am not sure who would do that to Oprah or who would do that to a Corvette, but I have a sinking suspicion. I think its the same person who made the Oprah Cake to celebrate their new Oprah tattoo.

Volvo Art Car Splattered to Perfection

Volvo Art Car Splattered to Perfection. I don't know maybe they missed a spot:)

MFP Mad Max Lemon Art Car In Hot Pursuit

Today's StreetSafari car was prepared for our US event, BABE Rally (Big Apple 2 Big Easy).

Instead of the European limit of £150-£250, the US event has a limit of $500. In 2009 when these pictures were taken the price had been increased from $250 to $500 in fact. Apparently $250 were getting hard to come by what with scrap prices getting higher.

With a doubling of the allowable car price, something quite impressive happened - the car actually got worse. You see, people were now unleashed and could buy whatever car they had dreamed of. And yes, people do dream of buying some of the mankiest car's imaginable.

For whatever reason, this team bought this wreck, and then had the bright idea to give a Mad Max theme to the car. From a distance this car looks brilliant, from close up, not quite so brilliant. The team were even busted by the neighborhood agency for spraying this car in their front yard.

After driving the car across the 1,500 of some great US roads the event ended in a Louisiana drag strip. Here, deep in the south where the mosquitos are big enough to drag you away, we set about "racing" the $500 against each other.

You've heard of the story about the hare and the tortoise? This was more like two tortoises. So imagine the commentator with a deep southern drawl explaining to the crowds why on earth these crap heaps were on his track, and you will have captured a very special moment.

By Justin Clements Street Safari

Break Time

Drag Race Time

More Break Time

Hot Pursuit Time

Hot Painted Ferrari Art Car by Ton Pret

Dutch modern painter and fashion artist Ton Pret reveals Ferrari Art-Car on Open Art Fair

The Ton Pret Ferrari project is an unique art-car project where Dutch modern artist Ton Pret transformed a high-powered Ferrari 355 into 'The Fastest Artwork of Holland'. The project was executed in the summer of 2010.

Ton Pret Artist

Ton Pret started as a painter in 2005. His success emerged fast and work was exposed in the Amsterdam “Beurs van Berlage, the Fortezza da Basso in Florence, in Ascona Italy and the Amsterdam Rijksmuseum. Not only his paintings and sculptures are popular amongst art-lovers and collectors, also his shoes, jeans and watches are in growing demand worldwide. His colorful high-heeled shoes caused a stir in the latest Paris fashion shows.

Ton Pret Ferrari

With this art-car project Ton transformed a high-powered Ferrari 355 into 'The Fastest Artwork of Holland'. Ton comments: ‘’This project was done in assignment of a lover of Dutch modern art, whom I met in the end of 2009. When he proposed to paint his Ferrari in my style I immediately said yes. I never had second thoughts.” The combination of this well-designed car, the speed and the joy of colors can be characterized as explosive. The Ton Pret Ferrari is already causing lots of controversies, especially amongst car lovers. The Ton Pret Ferrari is not meant to be sold but will be on display at selected events.

The Project

The planning for this project started in January 2010. In the beginning of May the car was prepared by Ferrari bodywork specialists. The actual painting of the car took Ton seven weeks. The complete car was hand painted, using a small size brush. To reach the desired depth of the colors all painting had to be done at least three times over. Because of these high working standards, the project demanded far more time than initially planned.

The work was also physically demanding. Because the car is painted top-to-bottom, Ton had to perform most of his creative work from difficult angles. To protect the delicate technology of the car the entire project was executed under the expert supervision of the Ferrari Bodyshop in 's-Graveland, The Netherlands.

Art-car tradition

Ton is not the first Dutch artist creating an exclusive hand painted art-car. With this project Ton follows the footsteps of Cobra artist Karel Appel and rock star and painter Herman Brood. Internationally the BMW-art-car series are well-known, featuring Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein and recently Jeff Koons.

Recently more and more cars are being decorated with a special car foil. This process is cost-effective and quick, the foil can be applied within a day. Because the original artwork is copied on foil the result can be easily reproduced. This technique was not an option for this project. The goal of Ton and the owner of the Ferrari was to create a real object of art that is and will always remain a unique piece.

The Ferrari

The Ferrari 355 GTS Competizione is in perfect condition. The car runs over 185 miles per hour. It has a 8 cylinder / 3.5 liter engine and weighs 1350 kilo. The original color was Giallo Modena (Ferrari yellow).

article via open art fair

Electric Goat Scooter, All the Rage - Alex Harrah

Alex Harrah could possible have created the worlds first electric art scooter. He took your basic scooter and replaced the handle bars with goats head or possibly a rams head. Either way horns for handlebars and cup holder is a nice Gothic touch.

Alex uses this scooter to get around due to being diagnosed with Alpha-1 as a result of having been a heavy smoker in the past. He now campaigns against smoking with his two other art cars.

The first was an art car called Cigs Kill created using the body of 1951 Nash Statesman and the frame of a 1978 Lincoln Mark V with extreme detail that took him seven years to complete.

Cigs Kill Art Car by Alex Harrah - Photo by T. Mitchell Jones

The most recent art car is a 1968 Cadillac hearse painted with cigs cigarettes called Home Grown Terror.

Home Grown Terror Art Car by Alex Harrah - Photo by Tim Klein

Art Car submitted by Ghetto MySpace

Its not so much about this graffiti art car and the guy sitting pretty on the roof with the Gatorade bottle, as it is about guy who sent this picture. Dan Goodman stand up comic is the creator of a web site called Ghetto Myspace with real pics from the web's worst hood that is both both fascinating and terrifying at the same time. I warn you, I got sucked into it 20 pages deep and viewer discretion is advised due to the mature nature of the photos.

***MATURE CONTENT WARNING*** 

Explicit Material Depicting:
men with guns, women with guns, kids with guns, guns with guns, lots of cash, art made with cash, more cash, people eating cash, gold teeth, booty shots, guns and cash, drugs and guns, drugs, cash and guns, art made with guns, guns pointed at you, dead gang members in coffins, tattoos and guns, tattoos guns and cash, tattoos and cash, strippers with cash, strippers with cash and guns, corn rows with guns, corn rows with tattoos cash and guns, the bird with guns, the bird with cash, the bird with booty guns cash and tattoos, babies and guns, dogs cash and guns and the one that freaked me out...babies with guns and cash.

You have been warned...

4 Startfish + 4 Barbies = TWCRV aka The Worlds Cutest RV

I got an "art car" submission the other day for an RV owner who had about 4 star fish, 4 barbies,  one shark, three fish, one Easter bunny, one seagull, two happy faces, a cat painted tire cover, a bunch of burning man stickers, and two bikes. The rest of the RV is totally bare. At first I rejected the submission which I rarely do but I had a change of heart after I looked up the definition of an Art Car.

An art car is a vehicle that has had its appearance modified as an act of personal artistic expression. Art cars are often driven and owned by their creators, who are sometimes referred to as "Cartists"

I guess by definition the "TWCRV" AKA The Worlds Cutest RV is an Art Car. OK Sheldon, you made it to ACC, but promise me you will be adding more stuff and then send me a picture of your progress.

My definition of an art car here on Art Car Central is the same as the above definition BUT, I was looking for something that was a bit more "covered". Like the Art Car Campers below.

Double Decker RV at Burning Man

Wesley Dezern's RV, by artist Pat Waldron

Graffiti RV

Drive by Paintball RV Art Car

Hot Westcoaster Mailster Art Car For Sale

This hot 1965 Westcoaster Mailster Art Car is now for sale right on craiglist for only $2500 in Phoenix AZ. This old mail truck in phoenix runs great and still has the original v twin motor with a 3 speed manual transmission. Its a must have for this years art car parade season.

Miami EV Project - VW Golf Art Car by LEBO Studios

Have you ever sat around with your friend and though, "hey, we should make our car an electric car"?

Danny Alva and Donato Helbling woke up one day and decided to turn their VW into an electric car. This DIY project can be found Miami EV Project for all to see and keep up on their journey.

They took a Volkswagen Golf III, gave it an amazing paint job by LEBO Studios, called the Buzz and swapped out the engine and fuel tank for an electric motor and batteries. After about 70 days of hard work, the final product was on display at the Green Art Fair Miami 2008. Even though the two were a bit exhausted by the challenge, they were ready to tackle more conversions soon.

Their mission is to research and develop electric vehicles and to provide public education and promotion of this alternative way of transportation. Helbling's big question is this: "If we can do it, why can't everybody? Do we really need to wait for car companies to sell us a new electric car?" To answer that, keep an eye out for Alva and Helbling to possibly work on a reality show or documentary series called "Green Your Ride."

Mercedes Art Car or Illuminati Conspiracy

I am not sure what a half a Mercedes art car with the face of Karl Max and Jimi Hendrix means but here are some thoughts.

1) Goofy kid who thinks that Karl and Jimi were in a band together.

2) Artistic commentary: Karl Marx a German communist philosopher wrote against the capitalistic system in his Communist Manifesto is represented in this half Mercedes Art Car.

3) Its part of a secret government conspiracy and the government media complex funded by George Soros backed by the Bilderberg Group with roots in the Illuminati.  Their goal is to take over the world, and create a one world government in which the elite will rule the masses. They will do this by collapsing our current economic system and then setting up a new system making it mandatory for everyone to get implanted with a bio chip aka "the mark of the beast" in order to buy and sell products. They will start by cutting Mercedes cars in half, painting them with images of Karl Marx and then attaching them to federal buildings as a sign that the end is near.


4) Just a Mercedes Art Car.

What do you think this means???

Jeff Towns Art Car Lights up and Burns Rubber - Accessorod

Jeff Towns has managed to combine the best of three worlds, Art, Safety and Burnt Rubber. He has turned his 80's Oldsmobile art car in to a glow in the dark burning rubber monster machine. Nice work.

Nancy Reagan Art Car Billboard

uploaded by ehoyer.

Here is an art car with a giant photo of Nancy Reagan on a van totally protected from towing, wheel booting and vandalism. Its in San Francisco so I guess it needs all that, but I am not sure the purpose of it all.

The Making of Stellabelle Art Car - Video

Here is an art car from one of my facebook friend named Leah Stella called Stellabelle a 99 Toyota with Almost 200,000 miles on it. The outside depicts worms, lights and Dr. Suess style things and was painted using exterior house paint. Stella is a videographer, composer, graphic artist and Youtube director with a very interesting video of the making of her art car and if you like this there is plenty of it where that came from on her YouTube channel.

Bollywood Taxi Art Car - Basanti the Bollywood Amby

I received this wonderful Indian Bollywood Taxi Art Car made from an Amby car, one of India Iconic cars from Valay the other day. Not only is it painted on the outside but its also got a great festive disco feel on the inside with plenty of red plush material and few Indian disco balls.. This is the Indian version of the Ultimate Taxi from Aspen Colorado.

Basanti is Julian Parr's brain child.
It's hand painted in Bollywood poster art style with Bollywood's most iconic movies and their songs from the past. Exteriors designed by Valay Gada and Satinder and the interiors done by Julian himself...

An ex regional director of Oxfam GB Julian needed to have fun after a day long of 'saving the world' and Basanti the ambassador does just that....It's kitsch, mad and brings a smile to even the urchins who for a second join the escape Bollywood movies provides to the masses from their tough days and keeps them going....