Car Classic 2014

Words by Tim Wong

Car Classic is a the annual car show that takes place at the Art Center College of Design’s Pasadena hillside campus. This isn’t you typical car show where everyone is looking at the fastest car or most well modified, but rather the design and aesthetic elements of vehicles in the artistic sense. Even though it sounds a pretentious when worded like that, it is by no means an event full of elitist art snobs. The people attending the event range from students from the school out to do sketches to genuine car people just spending a Sunday talking with car people and looking at rare and unique cars. And by unique cars, I mean cars you will rarely ever see anywhere because they are in some collector’s garage.

This year’s theme was “Street to Screen” which featuring a gathering of some of the most notable vehicles from television and movies. I’m a fan of movies and television not in the tradition sense because I don’t really care to meet the celebrities that play the role (not that it isn’t cool), but rather interact with the same environments that the characters interacted with. I personally love seeing movies cars as much as visiting the locations of where things were shot far as it kind of brings you closer to the world created by the stories.

Right off the bat (pun intended), we have the 1967 Volkswagen-based Mystery Machine van from Scooby-Doo, 1960 Volkswagen Beetle from Herbie Fully Loaded, and allegedly the first Batmobile ever. This recently restored Batmobile is based off of a 1956 Oldsmobile.

It’s curvy body lines are made from fiberglass.

Three other Batmobiles including the 1960s television series, 1995’s Batman Forever and 1997’s Batman & Robin were also present. If you’ve followed the blog two years ago, I posted a feature of all the Batmobiles before.