Artist Max Siedentopf prowls the streets of Amsterdam at night, armed with masking tape and cardboard. He waits. He watches. When he sees his prey, he springs into action. His prey are boring cars, and his action is making them into supercars.
Well, sorta supercars. Siedentopf calls his project Slapdash Supercars because, you know, cardboard and tape make for a pretty half-assed supercar. Still, the results are pretty delightful, with cardboard air dams and massive wings and hood scoops and even headlight-reshaping masks, all out of cardboard, and all do wonders for their boring rides.
I’m sure there’s some people that would be mortified by the idea of someone doing this to their car, but I’m not one of them. I think this is fantastic. There’s pretty minimal chance of damage from these materials, and I can’t think of a better way to transform a tedious morning slog out to the car for a dreary commute into something actually fun and unexpected.
In an interview with Vice, he explained why he’s doing this:
“Individuality, self-expression, and status are more important than ever these days. But for some reason you see that things as ordinary as cars are getting personalized less and less, while it could be a strange but great form of self-expression. I thought I’d do people a favor by giving them a custom-made supercar.”
He brings up a really fascinating point here — why are so many people so afraid to have cars that stand out? You can see this in the popular color choices now — silvers and whites and other neutrals dominate, and most mainstream cars don’t have colors that standout. It’s only at the extreme low or high ends of the market that you get people too rich or too broke to give a shit and actually have some fun.
Keep it up, Max. Now I’m really hoping some lucky recipient of a Slapdash Supercar makeover drives the car directly to the nearest body shop and just says “Here. Make that.”
Photos credit Max Siedentopf, used with permission
Contact the author at jason@jalopnik.com.