There were so many weird cars at this year’s SEMA show that we couldn’t do real coverage of all of them. Because this one is by far the weirdest, we decided to see what we can find and put together a story that’s sure to keep people interested for many years to come.
Everybody saw the weird chromed steel creation in Las Vegas and was puzzled by it. It was clear that a lot of hours had been spent on doing every individual part from tubes, even the suspension or the seats. But why go through all that trouble for something that can’t go fast and is about as beautiful as a crowd of zombies? For art, of course.
As you can probably tell already, the art car gets its inspiration from the popular HBO television show Game of Thrones. Just in case you’re one of the few people that didn’t watch it, you should know that Valyrian steel is a fictional metal that was forged in the days of the Valyrian Freehold. It’s stronger yet lighter than normal steel and requires no sharpening or maintenance. Also, a sword made from this stuff is said to be one of two things that can kill the White Walkers, the baddies of this series.
Henry Chang and his team in Las Vegas spent over 2,000 hours creating this art from 304 and 316 stainless steel. This made its debut during this year’s Burning Man event and came complete with a big kinetic sculpture perched on its rear end. In front of that sits a 2015 Ford 5.0L Coyote engine that is tasked with moving this 27-foot long monster.
The art car is not yet finished. Those wheels that look like they were stolen from the Tumbler Batmobile will be capped by arches, and there will also be more bodywork installed. As for the sculpture, it was inspired by models of the solar system and the tourbillon mechanisms of watches. It works by delivering the power through numerous gears to various prop shafts, but it isn’t quite ready either. At some point, “Valerian Steel” will even become road-legal.
Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida. Full profile
Would you like AUTOEVOLUTION to send you notifications?
Google News