Thankful for the one-offs

"JR1" (type35bugatti) 11/28/2013 at 11:00 • Filed to: Thanksgiving, oppositelock

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In the automotive landscape there are many different kinds of cars; the muscle cars, the sports cars, the boring cars, the super cars, and the offroaders. One of the most controversial is one-offs. The cars that make you stop dead in your your tracks and stare. Unlike concept cars these bespoke legends of the automotive world make it out into the wild. Little Timmy could see one drive down the road and make a Bentley look invisible. If you are lucky you can see one of these pieces of art booming through the streets.

Once these cars become one-offs designed and styled by coach-builders they become more than just a car. They become fine art. Fine art is considered to be defined specifically for the aesthetic purpose, to be judged and enjoyed for the meaningfulness expressed through the architecture. They are the cars that are equaling pleasing to look at and to drive. Sure you may argue the cars are hardly ever driven and that in our culture is blasphemy! However the one-offs inspire design and innovation simply by standing still. They draw some of the worlds greatest designers into the car business to make the cars that will be memorable for generations to come.

Sure we may never drive them, some off us may never even see them, however like the Mona Lisa these cars have no purpose other than to please someone visually. I could sit there and look at these bespoke one-0ffs for hours and every time I could find a new line, a new piece of the puzzle to appreciate it's stunning beauty even more. They may be garage queens, impossibly expensive, and unicorns of the automotive landscape. Their flaws though help give them character, they are incredible triumphs of mind over matter. I love them, not because I want to own them (I do) but because they are fine art. So this thanksgiving I wanted to just take a second and give thanks to the cars and the designers that inspire generations of artists. To the bespoke one-offs, without them the car-culture would lose a little bit of its soul.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!