How can anyone know the exact traits and elements that define various things in life? Then, how can anyone apply them to specific areas, such as the automotive industry?
For that, people have come up, over time, with many definitions of various segments and niches. For example, because it suits our CGI purpose today, a pickup is usually a light-duty truck sporting an enclosed cabin of various dimensions along with a roofless cargo bed surrounded by three low walls and fitted with an end consisting of a tailgate. They come with various bed and wheelbase lengths, and different cabin configurations, but the tradition stays the same – they are used for work, leisure, and as utility tools on and off tarmac roads.
For the latter, automakers have come up with an easy solution – usually pickup trucks have a much higher ground clearance than passenger cars, standard or optional all-wheel drive, as well as a toughened chassis that can withstand lots of rock-crawling and dune-bashing punishment, all the while not forgetting to tow and haul just about anything – from boats to cozy campers and everything in between. Meanwhile, sports cars are the exact opposite, as they are a performance-oriented class of passenger cars that put handling, dynamics, acceleration, top speed, and the general thrill of driving above all else, including comfort, access, and more.
But what if people started playing with the facts and figures? Well, that certainly happened in the real world as well. For example, sports cars have come to embrace the (mild) off-road lifestyle nowadays and a couple of the latest OEM examples come from the Lamborghini and Porsche garages by way of Huracan Sterrato and 911 Dakar limited editions. On the opposite side of the automotive trophic chain, brands like Ram Trucks or Ford have produced what they think to be the ultimate pickup trucks. First, the Blue Oval imagined that its popular F-150 needed to come up on top of everything (especially sandy dunes and rocks) with the Raptor version. Then, not long ago, Ram Trucks decided that it could ‘refine’ the idea to an extreme and invented the 1500 TRX to keep the dinosaur inspiration and come up with something cooler, aka a 702-hp 6.2-liter supercharged V8 truck.
Naturally, Ford could not remain on the sideline, and instead of presenting a carnivorous dinosaur bigger than T-Rex, like the Giant Spinosaurus, they decided to come clean out of the Jurassic World closet with the 700-hp, 5.2-liter supercharged V8 Predator, the Raptor R. Alas, some people could not care less if engineers stole the S550 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500’s mill and still only have eyes for the ‘regular’ Ford F-150 Raptor. Such might be the case – albeit across the imaginative realm of digital car content creators – with Abimelec Arellano, the virtual automotive artist with the abimelecdesign branding on social media. And it’s all a kind of reminder of his early 3D rendering times, as his original digital work of the era involved a first-generation Ford F-150 Raptor “lowered on nice wheels.”
Now he switched the focus on the fresher third-gen Raptor, and he shuffled the dune-bashing and rock-crawling expectations with something that has a bit of street-tuned JDM flavor. As such, his idea of a perfect F-150 is to have it slammed on “everyone’s favorites,” aka RAYS’ Volk Racing Wheels, the TE37s – which are considered most (in)famous for being the origin of the forged sports wheel, according to the Japanese aftermarket outlet. There is also other stuff going on, of course. Such as the ADD Off-Road (Addictive Desert Designs) rear bumper, the Satin Black paint job mixed with gloss black details, the carbon fiber accents, and a generally widened (by way of fender flares) atmosphere. So now it’s only good for attempting drifts and tailgate parties, apparently…
Anyway, my second CGI example for swimming against the current comes from Sean Demetros, the digital creator behind the ‘Demetr0s Designs’ label and a kind of ‘maniac’ of virtual monthly series. Now he is currently on a pop-up headlight journey of imagined discovery and the latest victim is an unsuspecting Lamborghini Huracan. Without its knowledge, the wedge-shaped supercar got the edgy styling all messed up with hide-out headlights and also got treated to a cartoonish green and yellow atmosphere. Interestingly, the green menace has everything matching in contrasting green and black – including the interior, as well as the rooftop box! Cool, right? So how about casting a quick vote – do any of these creations seem deserving of our CGI hall pass, or is neither of them dreamy enough to properly stir the mind and soul?
Aurel has aimed high all his life (literally, at 16 he was flying gliders all by himself) so in 2006 he switched careers and got hired as a writer at his favorite magazine. Since then, his work has been published both by print and online outlets, most recently right here, on autoevolution. Full profile
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