Purely Aesthetics

Rat rod styled-automobiles of the 1940s up to the 1960s are set to grace the Road Agents Car Show at East Hartford, Connecticut this weekend.

Customized cars that have been reproduced will be showcased in the said event. Automobiles from the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s were accurately recreated and or restored. To make the vehicles look and feel older, most rat rods that will appear in the Road Agents Car show will be unfinished and geared only with the bare essentials.

The usual rat rod automobiles are frequently channeled over the frame, and sectioned or with the roofs chopped for a lower profile. Moreover, the rat rods have chopped tops, shaved trim, grills, taillights and other miscellaneous body parts are swapped between makes and models. Lastly, a good number of the work and engineering is done only by the owner of the vehicle.

The annual Labor Day Weekend Car Show, which has been hosted by the Oregon Coast Aquarium for years, will be showcasing celebrated vintage and non-vintage autos and trucks, street rods, muscle cars, sport cars, customs, imports, and classics at the Aquarium parking lot this September 1 and 2.

Celebrated every end of summer, the car show’s anticipated highlights include the performance parts cars of the Race by Design. The company offers race packages that guarantee to transform daily import autos into mean racing four-wheel machines.

“There are a lot of car enthusiasts in and around Oregon,” said Dick Miller, who is the Aquarium Exhibits Technician and show organizer. “You always see something you like. Everyone has their own taste, but you have to respect what each person has done - some of the paint jobs are incredible.”

The $10-dollar vehicle entry-event is sure to have something for everyone, from a stock model to a wild custom car.

General Motors (GM) Holden’s newly-crafted FJ Holden, which is Australia’s most iconic car, will be the most anticipated car at the 13th Annual Woodward Dream Cruise in Detroit yesterday.

FJ Holden’s designer Richard Ferlazzo was behind the wheels of the anticipated debut of the car at a pre-event cruise at Coney Island last August 17. The customized 5.2 meter radical pillar-less coupe has been powered by a 480 kW supercharged six-liter V8 engine. Last August 18, the four automotive stars of the hit-movie Transformers also joined the refurbished FJ Holden at a special GM exhibit at Athens Coney Island.

Holden’s chief designer and project leader Ferlazzo was more than thrilled after the reincarnated FJ Holden graced the Woodward Dream Cruise.

“There is no venue in the world more suitable than Woodward to showcase the Holden,” said Ferlazzo. “Displaying Holden alongside thousands of outrageous and unique cars, with such a receptive audience, was a great thrill.”

The then concept car FJ Holden was first introduced at the Australian International Motor Show in Sydney in October 2005. Earlier this year, it was awarded the 2007 North American Concept Car of the Year.

Out of the thousands of racing fans who joined Kodak’s “Think like Ryan” car design contest, one of the five finalists will be adorning veteran racer Ryan Newman’s car in the NASCAR Nextel Cup’s Sharp Aquos 500 at the California Speedway this September 2.

More than 3,100 car designs were submitted for Newman’s No. 12 Dodge Charger, but only one of the top five finalists will be given the chance to adorn the Dodge next month. One of the five hopefuls is Lockheed Martin’s design engineer Jeff Kolts, who is a Forth Worth resident, is keeping his fingers crossed until the NASCAR proper.

“I’ve tried to imagine winning it all in my mind, and it’s kept me awake some nights,” said Kolts. “I just wonder how cool it would be to experience all that. Every day since I submitted the design, it’s like I’ve been on pins and needles.”

Flames on the fender and an outlined number 12 on the side, which is painted in bold red, are just some of the highlights in Kolts’ creation.

The eventual winner was chosen through voting, which ended only last week, and will be announced a day before the race wars. Kodak’s car design winner will be awarded with a trip to Fontana, VIP passes, and a rare meet and greet with Newman. Moreover, a new printer and a year’s supply of ink will also be given to the winner.

Car detailing and upgrades are no longer just for the privately-owned automobiles as a Pennsylvania-based police department took time and effort to create a fine-looking police car.

The Hummelstown Borough Police Department has done a few tinkering in its 2007 Dodge Chargers police cars for the Law and Order magazine’s 2007 International Police Vehicle Design Contest. Hummelstown took the top prize for the police car design competition, which is only open for departments with less than 50 officers.

“Overall, we find our new cars to be strikingly attractive to the eye,” said Chief Scott Heher of Itasca’s fleet of new dark blue 2007 Dodge Chargers. “And the award is great because we can have some fun with it while displaying our creativity as an organization.”

The police cars from this town veered away from the traditional black and white colors for a more attractive and modern dark blue color. What made the police cars more pleasant-looking are the new reflective “police” decals. Some gold and white reflective graphics are also fused with the decals.

For owners who want to make a looker out of bland-looking Toyota, Lexus, and Scion vehicles, the California-based Calty Design Research (CA) has been made available to kick up some life into these automobiles

The CA design studio, which houses in Newport Beach, has been developing advance concept designs while the Ann Arbor, MI design studio supports the North American production with color, trim and wheel design.