Mike Mullen's Psychedelic 1961 Citroën Mystery Art Car

Mike Mullen's Psychedelic 1961 Citroen Mystery Art Car

Mike Mullen's Psychedelic 1961 Citroen Mystery Art Car

Mike Mullen's Psychedelic 1961 Citroen Mystery Art Car

Mike Mullen's Psychedelic 1961 Citroen Mystery Art Car

Mullen, 55, is a court officer in Detroit, Mich., who evicts people whose homes are in foreclosure, became an over night art car owner when he came upon this Psychedelic 1961 Citroën Mystery painted art car parked in a garage. On a typical day inspecting homes he opened up the garage of a house and found a 1961 Citroën parked beside five other European sports cars: an Austin-Healey, a Jensen-Healey, two Saab Sonetts, a Triumph TR8 and the eye-popping Citroën.

It turns out that the artists, possibly university students or teachers, transformed 61 Citreon from ordinary to OMG in Minneapolis about 40 years ago. Mullen, who now owns the art car, is set on finding out who created this amazing art car and thank them personally. By posting his story on art car central we hope to reach out and find those responsible for this amazing work of art.

If you are responsible please step forward and be congratulated:)

For the complete story

10,000 pieces of scrap metal + 3 German Friends = Amazing Scrap Metal Mercedes 300SLR Art Car

Mercedes 300 SLK Scrap Metal Art Car - Art Car Central

Three German friends set out to pay homage to the classic 1955 Mercedes 300 SLR ‘Uhlenhaut Coupe’ by recreating it entirely out of 10,000 pieces of SCRAP METAL. Armin Ciesielski, Peter Brakel and Walter Willer who work for a German company called Giganten aus Stahl (Giants of Steel) decided one day to recreate one of the greatest cars ever made and set out to make a life size mercedes art car. The three sculptors went through thousands of pieces of scrap metal for their recycled art car masterpiece and spent several months cutting and putting about 2200lbs of it all together. Although Ciesielski claims he could rebuild any car out of crap metal, he admits this particular project was more difficult due to the car's detailed intricacy and the work that went into making the car’s engine identical to the original. If any one is interested this Scrap Metal Mercedes Art Car, its for sale for about $90,000 and proudly featured here on Art Car Central.
via Offbeat Earth
 

Mercedes 300 SLK Scrap Metal Art Car - Art Car Central

Mercedes 300 SLK Scrap Metal Art Car - Art Car Central

Mercedes 300 SLK Scrap Metal Art Car - Art Car Central

Mercedes 300 SLK Scrap Metal Art Car - Art Car Central

Mercedes 300 SLK Scrap Metal Art Car - Art Car Central

Mercedes 300 SLK Scrap Metal Art Car - Art Car Central

Original Mercedes 300 SLR

Photos via

Graffiti Fiat Art Car

I found this little Graffiti Fiat beauty the other day, Love it.

10 Great Ways To Paint a Volvo - Volvo getting in on the art car bandwagon

Volvo Art Car by Lowrider

Volvo is the latest company to get in on the art car band wagon along with BMW, Tesla and many others.

Last February at a rail station in Zurich ten groups of Swiss street artists painted and repainted Volvo S60 and canvas. It took five days to record the event with a camera mounted across from the exhibit that took a photo of the artists’ accomplishments every five seconds. The video by the way is fantastic. Over a period of five days approximately 35,000 commuters got a chance to see these graffiti street artist work their craft on a volvo art car.

One of the artist took advantage of the time-lapse photography and made their project into a very humporous stop-motion animation

“Our intentions with this art project was to express and emphasize in a creative and innovative way the design of the Volvo S60,” said Volvo Cars Switzerland president Anouk Poelmann.

The cars turned out great but its too bad they had to paint over each peace, it would have been great to see each of these art cars out on the road turning heads.

Volvo Art Car by Donovan, Onu and wes 21

Volvo Art Car by Blackyard

Volvo Art Car by Daim

Volvo Art Car by Nevercrew

Volvo Art Car by Sukibamboo

Volvo Art Cr by C-Line

Art by Yummy Industries

Volvo Art Car by Pius Portmann

via

Mangled Madness Rally Car - The Duck By Jaryn part 2

In the last installment of a StreetSafari ArtCar we showed you the Citroen 1CV. We even left a cliff hanger! How's that for blogging?

The long and short of it is that Mr Ducks, owner of the Duck, knows these cars like the back of his hand. Which he should since he hand builds these things from scratch.

So whenever he goes missing on an event we don't unduly worry. He's probably in some town somewhere repairing the Duck. Doesn't matter what it is, he can repair it 9/10. No problems at all.

Even when teams tell us in the evening "it looked terminal", short of the car being on fire, we tell them that he'll make it, and most times he turns up late into the evening looking worse for wear, looking a bit grimier, but with a great story to tell (we think - as we don't know Czech).

On this particular event, he had genuinely gone missing though. But again, we weren't too concerned as he'll pop out somewhere. Which is exactly what he did. At the end in Prague, in a proper Citroen 2CV. Which was odd. He was sporting a rather large plaster on his head as well. This can only end well.

He then proceeded to show us the following pictures. He even brought a translator for the evening.

The outcome was that when a crate fell out of the back of an Italian lorry, all the cars dived left and right, including the Duck.

But with a suspension travel in excess of 12 inches, the car simply flipped over, rolled 4 times, and spilled it's contents across an Italian Autostrada. As he was off the main route, no one on the rally had actually seen what had happened.

The Italians put him in hospital overnight before flying him back to Prague the following day. The day after he drove into Prague (not far from his home) to see us, and tell us about his great adventure.

Please be careful with your Art Cars!
By Justin Clements Street Safari 
Original posted on Art Car Central

Volvo Tank and Helicopter Banger Rally Art Car

End2End is a Land's End to John O'Groats banger rally in the UK. The event is based around camping rather than hotels, although we don't mind teams doing guest houses if camping is too rough.

However, we do encourage caravans on this event. Its a Banger Rally meets Carry On Camping.

With that said, Team Atlantic Booze Cruisers took up the challenge of making a caravan theme for their art car and caravan. They took a perfectly good volvo with a camper and turned into a Tank with a gun turret of unknown fire power. The caravan was made to look a like a bloated RAF helicopter. Not sure if it will ever take to the sky's, but I am sure its very comfy on the inside. Bernard Montgomery would be proud of these troops.

Only the mind of a warped individual (Rob) could possibly come up with the Volvo Tank and Helicopter.

You decide:

a) we like how your mind works, Rob
b) we are actually quite disturbed how your mind works, Rob
or c) hey, I can do better than that!

Enjoy the build pictures!

The Art of Heavy Car Lifting - Phil Pfister at 2009 World's Strongest Man Competition

One way to save on gas is to simply pick up the car and move it yourself. That is what Phil Pfister is doing here at the 2009 World's Strongest Man Competition in Malta. You can see that vain in his head from space.

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

The Sauna - Riding the Alps in Style

The Sauna was built from a Volvo 240 and taken on CzechWrecks 2009, a 1500 mile 4 day journey starting from Calais, France through Swiss and Italian Alps all the way to Prague, Czech Republic.

What we have here is about 1/3rd of a ton of wood paneling being applied to the Volvo.

If you are wondering whether this wood had any impact on performance, I am assured it did. What performance they had to start with, remember that Volvo 240 are agricultural at best, that performance was soon zeroed.

Chris and Tom and their team built this car to raise money for charity and an opportunity to travel in their bath towels riding the sauna over some of the highest passes in Europe.

Crochet Doily Art Car

Its been a while but this Crochet Doily Art Car was found Prague and its an old Skoda Octavia Combi was well worth the wait.
via

Porsche 356 Art Car painted with M.C Escher Reptiles

This Porsche 356 was painted by Author and Graphic Designer Jasper Fforde with M.C Escher's famous reptiles. This art car was based on a car driven by a character in one of his books.

Hot Turbo VW Radio Flyer Art Car Built by Toby Hall

Hot Turbo VW Radio Flyer Art Car Built by Toby Hall
Toby Hall is one of those people who will forever remain a kid at heart, just by looking at his latest creation. He recently built a full size Radio Flyer on a VW bug chassis, with a 1641cc flat-four and a Renault 5 turbo that will turn heads and burn rubber. Toby got the idea by watching Tool Time on TV during an episode when Tim the Toolman brought home a motorized Radio Flyer as a Christmas gift. He knew instantly that he had to build one and then went out and got busy. Toby spent a lot of time building his new toy with a tubed frame, bomber style seats, exposed engine and a great paint job. One the coolest features is the tow that can be pulled both by car and by hand when the handle is tilted down. Toby's Radio Flyer was just featured in this months volksworld magazine out of the UK and its my prediction that his art car will go viral. So glad we could have another hot Radio Flyer along with the one Bob Castaneda built in the US back in 1996.

Ford Kuga Art Car Painting by Ian Cook - Painted with RC Cars and Tires

On Saturday 4th September - Artist Ian Cook aka Popbang Colour painted the Ford Kuga live on the Internet using radio controlled cars. The Ford Kuga team was there to capture all the action. Check out the video of how he did and for more photos go to flickr.