For my college english class, I'm writing an argumentative essay as to why cars and automobile customization should be seen as a more acceptable art form. I'm writing for the idea, as in support of it

My professor has stated that we are allowed to include images and ask other's opinions, so if you would like, I ask you to post an image of your car, and if I am allowed to use it in my paper. If i do choose it, I'll PM you for more information to properly and legally cite you and your image in my paper.

What do you all think?

 

I would help you out, but my car is pretty much stock lol

 

I think it is going to be very difficult to pull off a paper trying to convince people custom cars are art. You would have a way better argument if you found someone who custom made everything for their car and went from there. If you choose a car with just some modifications someone could argue that they didnt make most of the parts but just purchased them. Anyways good luck with the paper!

 

Get redraif in here her car is a peice of art definitely

 

I can see how our cars are rolling forms of art. Speaking for myself I have been through every part on my car at some point or another. Each thing I have done to it has been away for me to express myself with it. I myself am not real flashy, but I do like performance. That is why I went from a tamed 305 to a built and modded 350 that sounds like a NHRA prostock car when I roll into town. I don't like a lot of chrome. Not that there is anything wrong with it, its just not my taste. Also I like the cars with out ground effects. Again, nothing wrong with them, I could have added them during my restoration. They are just not my taste. Again, just a means of self expression and way for everyone to make them their own.

 

I by far do not have the most custom stuff here, but my car looks anything but stock. On the underside of the car, I made the trans crossmember, the exhaust, the torque arm crossmember, the lower radiator support, and modified my Spohn torque arm.

You can go to my Car Domain page for more pics, but here are the three main ones I like.







I can tell you that building a car to be perfectly functioning and look good is an art form. Especially building all the torque arm stuff. Its a lot of stuff squeezed into a small space. Even my PCV system is designed to be perfectly functioning and look good. The breather side is completely hidden to look good.

 

I can't draw stick people without a compass and a ruler, but give me a sheet of 20 ga. steel and a few pieces of shop equipment and I'm an artist!!!

Cars are just as much art as sculpture is art. Both are a man using his hands to create something that is unique unto itself. The old customizers were the real masters. Their tools and equipment to them are the same as Van Gogh's paint brush was to him!

As with any form of art, automotive creations go from mild to wild. Terms like shaved, frenched, channeled, sectioned, chopped, rolled, and smoothed are the means us "artists" used to achieve the end result we first see in the mind's eye just the same as a paint artist uses his brushes, sponges, and pallete to put on canvas what he first sees in finished form in his mind's eye!

I tell people who are learning customizing to listen to the car and it will tell you what it wants--and most of them look at me like I said I drove my flying saucer to work!!! Cars do talk and will tell you what they want, if you can't hear them it's because you just haven't learned the language yet! Keep listening and learning, the language barrier will be broke down.

Anyone who doesn't consider automotive customization to be an art form needs to be taken--dragged by the hair if necessary--to the LA Roadsters show on Father's Day, or the SEMA show in Vegas in November, the Detroit Autorama, or right to Mecca, the America's Most Beautiful Roadster show (formerly the Oakland Roadster Show) and they will see an art form that is mind boggling from the technical aspect of the cars as well as the artistic fit and finish of the cars on display! If they can't see art in these shows, then I would submit they don't know art at all!

Those of us who truly live for the art of custom cars don't need to copy someone else's ideas or build a "tribute" car copying someone else's work and more then Andy Warhol would need to copy the Mona Lisa!

Let the artist come out in you!!!! Don't settle for store bought bolt-ons, don't copy the latest fad, don't play "could of, would of, should of" with someone else's project, don't pick your paint scheme and colors by a poll, and most importantly don't hold back on your design because "they" (whoever the hell "they" are) might not like it!!! Pick your subject carefully, don't take the first bolt out until you can "see" the finished product in your mind's eye, plan the project to the last detail, and don't take any short cuts or quick fixes that will cause you to make apologies and excuses when the car is done!!! Just Do It!!! There's no time limit on creating art, if you don't have the money to do what you want then wait until you do! Don't listen to the "quicker and cheaper" crowd, they're not artists, just show offs! And above all, remember that fit, finish, and detail is what turns just another car into an artistic triumph!!

Ok, soapbox put away and I'll go back to the garage now!!!!

 

They have awards for the artistry for cars... Ever hear of Autorama?

http://www.autorama.com/casi/

There are also markets for those car builders... SEMA? ring any bells... mostly all of SEMA is for cutomizers.... What about Chip Foose, he is an artist thru and thru....

Een companies like Eastwood are more or less based on customization....


John

 

Thinking of cars as an art form makes plenty of sense. I see this in the progression that each takes. Just as there is an evolution of art styles on canvas, so is there one in cars. Progressively we modify the styling each year (decade century, etc), until we eventually end of with a piece that doesn't look at all like its original inspiration. That is art.