(from a july-'02 LJ post)
For the last 1-3 years I have had an artcar concept in my head. I refer to this conceptual car as 'Scar'. It is going to be a post-apocalypse, road-warrior-esque machine. I want a car that is all flat black, with large sheets of steel screwed onto it's battered body. The front a rear bumpers gone and monsterous bumpers of welded iron in their place. An interior gutted of niceties and leaving only the barest essentials. Sheet steel, iron, leather, metal mesh, flat black spraypaint. Not plastic, the latest trendy colors and something to impress the neighbors.
A vehicle designed to handle anything thrown at it and keep coming back for more. A car where body-work means beat and weld it until it works again, then spray it black and go.
Evil, dark, brutal, violent. A car that will cause other people on the highway to fear for their life, and make SUV drivers feel very ineffectual indeed.
In other words, not a nice car.
(from this May-'04 LJ entry shortly after I bought the Nova as a $500 beater)
"So I spent a lot of time at work today pondering using the Nova for my 'Scar' artcar concept. This is an artcar I've wanted to build for a few years now. The basic concept is a vaguely mad-max style car. Something that has been living in a harsh and brutal place and which the owner has been forced to modify, reinforce rebuild and repair with whatever he could find just to keep it going. There'll be a lot of harsh edges and battered parts and an overall look of dark brutal functionality. A vehicle where everything is there for a perpose and nothing more. Nothing for pretty, nothing for show.
Large welded steel front and rear bumpers with extra spot and fog lights, pieces of rusty sheetmetal screwed to the body to provide added protection. Jacked up suspension with big tough tires. A spare tire bolted to the trunklid, battered jerry cans for gas and water bolted to the rear fenders. Strengthened roof with grab handles so it can be used as a mobile fighting or firing platform. A tank-style hatch added to the roof to premit access and a better firing position. Everything bent, battered, rusty. A car where a paint job is a pointless luxury, and shooting something quickly with black spraypaint is 'good enough'. The interior would be loaded with extra gauges to keep tabs on the engine, as an unexpected breakdown could prove fatal. Banks of extra switches to control added features and lights. Cobbled together communications gear slung under an overloaded dashboard. Wire mesh over rear windows to protect from them being smashed in.
The drivetrain would be simple and tough. No turbos, no fuel injection. Just a simple durable engine that can take lots of abuse and keep chugging. Mufflers for when you want a little stealth, and with the pull of a lever exhaust dumping out of straight pipes. Roaring at full volume, all those horses let out to run.
Yeah, that's what I want.
