Yes, this 1986 Yugo convertible (go here if the listing disappears) suffered some Kentucky hail damage, so the car's owner (the seller's grandfather) "got the idea of turning it into a WhaleMobile off of some cartoon, and he took his crazy idea and ran with it." Sadly, the seller possesses "an inexplicable fear of these evil creatures" and must sell… and his loss is your gain! It has a functioning blowhole with water pump, and the tail even features aero-enhancing manual controls. This fine machine got some attention on the 24 Hours Of LeMons forums, but it appears that no team has what it takes to put it on a race track. That's shameful, but we know you have what it takes to make it your daily driver. Come on, Yugo Whalemobile!
[Louisville Craigslist]

Most of the time, I'm not a big fan of the "glue shit all over the car" school of art car creation- I feel that it's a calculated diss of the concept of the automobile itself in many cases- but when it's this extreme I can't help but approve. We're talking 10,000 pens here, not some half-assed glue-gun-and-50-army-men job. You can learn more about artist Costas Schuler at his website.

For much more comprehensive Maker Faire art car coverage, take a look at Dwegmull's photos on his site.

I checked out the snake charming, burlesque performances, accordion music, and cotton-candy booths inside the warehouse, and it was all pretty entertaining… but I was there for the cars. My primary mission: to convince these art car builders to bring their creations to the Goin' For Broken 24 Hours Of LeMons race, since the Sashimi Tabernacle Choir was such a hit at the Gator-O-Rama LeMons. Here's what I found:

The Boiler Bar is having a May Day celebration at their Magnolia Street HQ, starting at 8:00 PM tonight. It's unclear how many art cars will show up, but the Marriage Wrecker and Neverwas LB&O Trolley should be there in addition to the Golden Mean, and there will also be "Snake Charming, CanCan Girls, Belly, Glass, Fire & May Pole Dancing, Burlesques, Balancing Acts, and Old Timey Music." I'll be there, trying to recruit art car builders for the 24 Hours Of LeMons. Give that snail a roll cage and some more horsepower and it could totally compete on the track!
The Boiler Bar

It is possible to do this sort of art car right (though I tend to prefer projects more along the lines of the Sashimi Tabernacle Choir), provided the creator is willing to stick with some kind of theme, or at least go way overboard on the quantity of decorations. This wagon manages to succeed on both counts.


It was pretty easy to figure out the name of this '88 Taurus wagon art car, because it's painted in big letters on the rear window. Even after going through the rigors of the final ride to the wrecking yard, the GPPOP remains pretty much intact.


It wasn't difficult for me to learn more about the GPPOP's history, because there's a URL right on the side of the car. This leads to "Ian's Hippie Wife's Psychedelic Art Car Page"…


And thus we are able to view the Groovalicious Purple Princess Of Peace and her creator in all their antiwar glory, back when The Crusher wasn't looming as an immediate threat.


Why, there's even a song about the Groovalicious Purple Princess Of Peace!


Not to mention a standup comedy routine about the car. It appears that the GPPOP was pretty well-known in the Bay Area art car world; it makes appearances on this site and this Flickr set.


For whatever reason, the GPPOP's glory days are over. Some of her parts will live on in other, more quotidian Tauruses and Sables, while we wonder why she's on Death Row. Did she throw a rod? Fail to pass smog? Gather $47,000 worth of parking tickets and get towed by The Man? We're going to need to track down Ms. Hughes and get her to join a 24 Hours Of LeMons team!

LeMons Supreme Court Justice Lieberman and myself were already heavily armed and in a foul mood due to the freezing-assedly windy weather during the BS Inspection phase of the prerace activities when a certain Alfa Romeo-driving team attempted to bribe us (unironically) with Boone's Farm wine and processed cheese slices. We hit 'em with 10 laps for that crime against our snobbish coastal-elite sensitive California palates (in addition to 8 laps for plain cheatin'), and that pretty much set the mood in the penalty box for the rest of the weekend.


Naturally, we kept the old traditional LeMons favorites, such as Preaching To The Converted. Here we see a member of the Über-Recidivist-but-much-beloved Los Diablos team preaching the tale of a rescued Ford Pinto from The Hemi In The Barn.


Speaking of Los Diablos, those sombrero-wearin', Camaro-spinnin'drivin' Texans provided us with all the props for a great locally-themed penalty: Houston, We Have A Problem! The miscreant dons a NASA jumpsuit and baseball cap, then must eat a generous helping of Tang powder- dry, just like the astronauts! That's followed with a Moon Pie chaser, also dry (later we replaced the Moon Pie with a fresh lemon, which solved the dry-mouth problem but seemed extra sour coming on top of super-sweet dry Tang). Gracias, Diablos!


LeMons Supreme Court Justice Lieberman, in his rule as Mean Judge (I'm the sucker for bullshit "not my fault" stories Nice Judge), developed a real fondness for what he called the "writing penalties." Early on, we just handed the miscreant a rattle can and had him or her tag the race car with a description of the crime committed.


That didn't keep the miscreants off the track for long enough, so Justice Lieberman- apparently in the throes of some elementary school flashback- came up with the idea of having the team write their crime over and over on the car. 50 times… 100 times… 200 times…


But what do you do once you've made a team write "I will not pass under yellow" on their Grand Prix 200 times, and they still show up in the penalty box? Bible chapters! Here's a Pontiac driver copying out Chapter 36 of Genesis on the roof of his car, in Sharpie: And these the sons of Oolibama, the wife of Esau: duke Jehus, duke Ihelon, duke Core. These are the dukes of Oolibama, the daughter of Ana, and wife of Esau. These are the sons of Esau, and these the dukes of them: the same is Edom.


Remember Bob Ross? Of course you do, and so we decided to honor the late artist with The Bob Ross Penalty. This one is the brainchild of LeMons Supreme Court Justice Scott, who dispensed judgments from his Segway-O-Law-Enforcement. Miscreants are given paint, brushes, and a book containing some Bob Ross masterpieces. They must then recreate one of those paintings on the hood of their race car; if the onlookers don't give their effort the thumbs-up, they must start over on another body panel.


Judge Scott's Segway-O-Law-Enforcement proved very handy when leading the Parade Of Incontinently Bad Drivers around the pits. Let's say your double-Neon team manages to rack up 12 black flags in what seemed like about two hours. What do you think happens next? Well, if you're in our penalty box, you get to tape on some adult diapers, then follow Judge Scott on a sl-o-o-o-ow cruise around the pits, hand on the shoulder of the miscreant in front of you, labor-gang-style, and you must shout out "WE'RE BAD DRIVERS!" every time he raises his gavel. Oh, the crowds loved this one!


The Art Car Parade was another audience-pleaser. The Sashimi Tabernacle Choir guys were kind enough to show up and offer their services, so we'd stack up a few miscreants and have them take a leisurely cruise around the pits while the STC led the parade.


Some henchmen of the Choir showed up as well. This Chrysler convertible often joined the Art Car Parade.


The Buick Reflectra must be an awesome sight at night! We're doing our best to talk the Houston art-car contingent into building something to put on the racetrack for the Yeehaw It's Texas 24 Hours Of LeMons in October.


Another Judge Scott creation was the self-explanatory Habitat For Dogmanity. Believe it or not, we were able to fit two miscreants at once inside the doghouse.


The Marcel Marceu, aka Mime Your Crime, requires audience approval in order for the miscreant to return to the race. He or she puts on a beret, striped shirt, and white greasepaint, and then must act out the crime that led to the penalty box visit. We saw some very innovative ways for racers to show spinouts, passes under yellow flags, ignoring of black flags, and fender-crunching aggression.


Here's another Mean Judge Lieberman special: Tires On Your Roof! That's what you get when we're so damn sick of seeing your spinout-prone Saab (this penalty was pretty much Saab-specific, though the MGB-GT was able to earn it by simply using up all the other punishments) showing up in the penalty box that we want to make you run around the pits trying to find the drill, bolts, and big fender washers that you'll need to make an old tire stay in place at racing speeds. It usually took a gratifyingly long time for miscreants to round up all the tools and hardware needed to attach the tire, but that didn't stop the Norwegian Slaabs from getting it twice!


We thought up the Studs & Spurs penalty when we spotted this beefcake calendar at the Wal-Mart next to our motel. Originally we were just going to tape calendar pages to the doors of the more macho machines, but Judge Lieberman felt that making the miscreant match the poses in the calendar appealed to his mile-wide cruel streak seemed like more fun. If the ladies in the audience don't like the pose, the miscreant must keep trying until he gets it right!


The penalty box was extremely busy all weekend, and you're just seeing a fraction of the justice that was handed down at the Gator-O-Rama. We think up new penalties for each race, so be sure to head to Carolina Motorsports Park next month to enjoy them in person!

The STC has been around for a while, and those of you already familiar with it should feel a warm sense of been-around-the-block hipness… which you should not express with "this soooo old, ur n00b" comments, because this most definitely is not that kind of site. Before we go any further, take a look at what this fine Swedish automobile now does:



No, you're not hallucinating. A bunch of crazy Texans bought hundreds of Big Mouth Billy Basses and Rocky The Singing Lobsters- remember those horrible things?- stuck 'em all over a 1984 Volvo 244, and then rigged up a Linux-based control system to control all the servos and lights inside the critters. To add to the fun, it turned out that the Long March Glorious Revolutionary Singing Seafood Factory #1488 saved 0.4 yuan per unit by failing to standardize the wiring colors, which meant that the builders had to manually test the circuits on each one before connecting it to the control computer. Yes, we're already pricing animated singing toys for the Black Metal V8olvo!

[Sashimi Tabernacle Choir via Geeks Are Sexy, thanks to mjrchapin for the tip]

Chief Perpetrator Lamm determines the People's Choice winner by wandering the pits and seeking the opinions of the rabble (in the old days, the rabble had a chance to vote directly, but that turned out to be too much hassle). There were several really strong contenders, including the Family Truckster Pinto.


The Faster Farms Chickens team was also considered a People's Choice powerhouse, but they ended up taking the equally coveted Dangerous Banned Technology trophy for their bowling-ball-actuated ironing-board wing.


And, of course, you've got to include the mighty Porcubimmer on the People's Choice short list. Pricks outside! But it's hard to argue with a team that builds a 400-pound particle-board steam locomotive that towers eight feet above their Mustang, so in the end it was the train that got the thousand bucks in People's Choice prize nickels. It didn't handle so well on the track, but the drivers were polite and were pretty good about not getting in the way of the quicker cars. Congratulations, Bi-Polar Express!

Thanks to the Mad Science Boys and Mad Science Sr for many of these photos!

With lazy arcs on the clean canvas, this little roadster that could left its mark on the art world in this piece entitled "An Expression of Joy." After hours of painstakingly driving the car to and fro in exacting patterns to get the paint thickness just right, we see a car that has become more than just a car, but partially an artist itself. Dennis Hopper was there, which seems oddly appropriate. Below, we've got the press release and a short clip showing how the whole thing went down.

Unique Performance: Artist Robin Rhode, Director Jake Scott and the brand new BMW Roadster. Imagine a canvas nearly as large as a football field. On it bold, swirling shapes in primary colors like red, yellow and blue. As the eye uncovers the rhythm of the lines, curves, circles and color splotches, something else is revealed: these forms must have been created by tire treads! A work of art like no other, created by an artist like no other - the new BMW Z4 Roadster.

Over the years BMW has offered great contemporary artists the chance to express themselves on the surfaces of a variety of the marque's sports cars. However, the art performance created by the young South-African Robin Rhode daringly moves beyond the concept behind the BMW Art Car Collection. Here the car is no longer just a stunning model, but itself executing artist. "This work is an expression of painting in action - my hope is to communicate the power and thrill inherent in the creation of art", says Rhode. "For me, the use of an untraditional paintbrush like a high performance car is a great way to investigate the relationship between emotion, technology and industrial creativity." The development of the picture, this process of formation itself is as important as the completed oeuvre. For this reason the Z4 performance is suggestively titled "An Expression of Joy".

The powerful and vibrant images created by the treads on the huge canvas appear dynamic and spontaneous, as if created out of the whim of the moment. Yet each movement had been painstakingly planned to the last detail and was the result of an immense technical effort. Unlike the legendary "action paintings" created by Jackson Pollock nothing was left to chance. As an artist working at the cutting edge of performing and fine arts, Robin Rhode is an experienced planner and capable of organizing and directing a large technical staff, but with "An Expression of Joy" even he broke new ground. This in every respect extraordinary work of art that was to emerge in the huge Downey Studios of Los Angeles offered another equally challenging aspect. During the creation of the painting, prize-winning young director Jake Scott intended to film the complete performance for the TV campaign accompanying the new Z4 Roadster's launch in 2009.

But how was the palette of colors actually applied to the tires? How was the BMW Z4 harnessed to Robin Rhode's specific concept? And how was Jake Scott able to transform this dynamic act of creation into an equally fascinating film? These questions reflect how many demanding aspects needed to be dealt with in order to create a performance blending high tech and artistic vision. Obviously, in the beginning was an idea. The idea was to present the innovative next generation of the BMW Z4 in a totally unusual location. "One source of inspiration was the seminal work of Gerhard Richter's series of paintings 'Red, Yellow, Blue' made in 1973 for the company headquarters in Munich, Germany", Rhode explains. Another reference point were the experimental optic animations from the 1920s and German Expressionist Film. "The tracks left by the tires combine the two-dimensional plane of the picture with the three-dimensional space of the actual driving experience."

The artist began by sketches, using black finger paints on paper to draw an outline of the general shapes and rhythms. Then Robin Rhode created the visual equivalent of a storyboard with the exact details of each driving sequence and the specific color used. Of course, the driver received a copy of the storyboard that he was able to prop up in the cockpit. Since it was nearly impossible to follow the development of the emerging tracks, given the sheer size of the pictoral dimensions, Rhode also furnished a miniature of "An Expression of Joy" complete with two models of the car in order to simulate driving maneuvers in advance of the actual "paint drive".

The art performance was a challenge for the driver as well as driving the MINI for the movie "Italian Job". Accustomed to taking high performance cars to their limit on test tracks, here he needed to follow the exacting choreography established by Rhode. Which meant executing the same moves back and forth several times if the artist wasn't satisfied by the specific color intensity, and yet keeping the tracks of the treads perfectly aligned each time. Each of the colors was individually applied through remote-controlled nozzles mounted near the axles of the roadster. To avoid an accidental mix of the colors due to residue in the treads, new sets of tires were constantly being rolled in and carefully exchanged, a feat of logistics in itself. From time to time a sock-clad Robin Rhode literally stepped into the picture to pour on more color, where necessary adding generous drips. An alluring aspect accidentally created by this motorized paint brush were the sprays and splotches of color highlighting the wheel casings of the Z4, resulting in visual traces and echoes of the dynamics of the composition. The monumental canvas itself was composed of individual segments that had been attached together to create a surface measuring 100' by 200' and thus allowing the driving and painting process to be sequenced in quadrants. This solution also benefits all future storing and moving of the artwork. Segments of the spectacular giant picture will be on the road in 2009, first to be shown at the Detroit Motor Show.

Robin Rhode and his team executed the project in 12 hours. That was also the time frame essentially allotted to director Jake Scott and his crew in which to shoot the Z4's chromatic driving movements. The challenge was that each segment of his film for the BMW campaign needed to be "just right" the first time around. The usual number of takes just would not possible for this kind of recording. Scott, who is just wrapping up his first feature-length film, has won numerous prizes for music videos and commercials. The cinematographer was able to draw on his experience documenting rock concerts in order to deal with the singular character of this particular live performance. The dynamic undertaking of a car painting was captured with 45 simultaneous camera angles. So, while Robin Rhode was watching the color choreography unfurl, Jake Scott kept a critical eye on all the many screens monitoring the camera movements. "It is always a gift for a filmmaker to watch an artist of any discipline work", Scott recounts. "It is creation at its core and I have been privileged to observe musicians, actors and now a significant, young artist. I am excited to showcase the rarely seen link between art and technology in action."

The huge space of the studio and the giant dimensions of the lowered tub in which the canvas had been spread out, offered exciting vantage points for the placement of the cameras. At the same time it also meant coordinating two highly complex and diverse projects - the actual art performance and the shooting of a TV commercial - down to the last second. But despite this double challenge demanding concentration and precision timing the atmosphere surrounding all the teams involved was relaxed.

Certainly, Dennis Hopper seemed impressed by the easy, professional low-key air of the project. The enigmatic movie star was there on assignment from "Vanity Fair" to take pictures of "An Expression of Joy" as a work of art in progress. The former "Easy Rider" not only shares a passion for wheels, but is considered to be one of the truly serious, important art collectors of Hollywood.

Robin Rhode
The artist, who was born in 1976 in Cape Town and now lives in Berlin, has made a name for himself in the past few years on account of his distinctive artistic work. His oeuvre centres on performances that have evolved from his experiences as a high school student growing in the Johannesburg suburbs, supplemented culture (sports, music, and fashion) that he likes to mingle with the process of "making art". In 2001, Rhode was nominated for South Africa's FNB Vita Art Prize. He has been included in several group exhibitions, including Dislocation. Image. Identity. South Africa, Centro Cultural de Maria, O'Porto, Portugal (2002); Shelf Life, Gasworks Gallery, London, England (2001); and Juncture, The Granary, Cape Town, and Studio Voltaire, London (2001). His solo exhibitions include Fresh: Robin Rhode at South Africa National Gallery, Cape Town (2000).

Jake Scott
The Englishman Jake Scott, born 1965, has been directing commercials and music videos for over 15 years, during which time he has accumulated stellar recognition in his field such as numerous MTV awards, a Grammy Nomination, an Emmy and the Grand Prix at Cannes. His clients include renowned brands like Adidas, American Express, AOL, Coca Cola and JP Morgan. The list of artists he has worked with also reads like a Who's Who of the music industry: REM, U2, Smashing Pumpkins and George Michaels. Jake Scott, who is the son of famous director Sir Ridley Scott ("Alien", "Blade Runner", "Gladiator") has just completed work on his second feature-length film, "Welcome to the Riley's" with "Sopranos" star James Gandolfini.

[Motive and SlamXHype]

We'll spot you the Fox Fairmont, and several of the others are slam-dunks for any semi-knowledgeable car geek. But who can identify all eight cars on the very famous Car Spindle, located in a shopping mall parking lot in Berwyn, Illinois? Come on, it's way more fun than slaving in The Man's vile salt mines on a fine Monday morning. – Murilee Martin

Spindle sculpture in Berwyn, IL [oakparkdining.com]

Related:
In Soviet Russia, Art Car Photographs You! [internal]

I don't know that I can put this any better or crazier than the author of the source site has:

"One night In the fall of 1993, Harrod Blank had a dream in which he covered his car with cameras and then drove around and took pictures of people on the streets. The public, unaware that the cameras worked, reacted naturally. At the end of the dream, Harrod looked at pictures taken with the van of faces frozen in the moment of awe, pictures so powerful that the next morning he decided to attempt to build such a vehicle in reality."

The Camera Van

Related:
Highly Precise Art: BMW Art Car Videos [internal]