theblackgt
Active Member
- Joined
- Aug 4, 2022
- Threads
- 5
- Messages
- 37
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- 28
- Location
- USA
- Website
- www.instagram.com
- Car(s)
- MK5 Supra, MK7 GTI, F07 550 GT
- Thread starter
- #1
Hi all. I've been lurking here for a while but it's about time I made a proper thread. I use the term 'build' loosely as it usually is attributed to crazy built motor setups or otherwise; mine has a long way to go in that respect. Nevertheless, here is the result of my ridiculous ideas being channeled into a 2020 Supra 3.0 Premium. Being a vehicle livery designer, my commentary below is in regards to visual aspect of the car, but these are purely my opinions so take it with a grain of salt.
Shameless Instagram plug because I have to – @theblackgt for my personal cars, @corsaautodesign for my other work.
A beautiful concept squished onto a tiny platform for production.
While I liked the Supra, I never loved it visually. The FT-1 was stunning and the Supra has many handsome features, but squeezing its styling cues onto a short 97.2" wheelbase (15" shorter than the FT1) created a lot of aesthetic flaws IMO. Two in particular bothered me most, the nose and the windows. The headlight shape flows with the car's F1-esque nose – while the FT-1 had strong hood lines and prominent front flares, the A90's lines were softened heavily. In some lighting, non-metallic colors like Renaissance Red or Nitro Yellow can completely hide the nose's shape, making the headlights feel lost with no body lines to accentuate them. Then with the windows – most cars' side windows will follow the shape of the roofline, but the Supra's side windows have a sharper taper. This makes the bubble roof look too thick IMO, especially in the front (it reminds me of a toupee lol). The black A-pillar creates a "sunglass visor" look like an R35 GTR, but while the windshield is frameless, the side windows are not. The window trim broken up by the A-pillar, and the sunken side windows take away from the seamless window illusion both the GTR and FT-1 have. I can go on but this is already long enough, let's get to the fun part. TL;DR the Supra is a good looking car with some visual oddities.
Creating a kit to compliment the car's cues.
This was a car I wanted to visually transform myself as much as I could, so everything besides the wheels and wing were designed by yours truly. The aero kit takes inspiration from cars like the Mclaren Solus GT to renders by talented artists like The Hycade. The front lip and rear diffuser were designed to both integrate into the bumpers and create a "stacked" effect with the factory lip and diffuser. The tail light pieces, loosely inspired by longtail cars, flow into the diffuser to create a seamless one-piece look. The front mouth piece and lip fins remind me of a snake, which led to the nickname Stryker (also the name of the final Dodge Viper emblem). Shoutout to Galvez Customs, he's built all my aero kits and is someone who can always bring my ridiculous ideas to life.
While rendering ideas for the kit, I threw a LBWK Huracan wing on for fun. Then by pure coincidence, I stumbled upon a render of a wing similar to the idea. After much back and forth, I ended up being the first US car to run Yiso Carbon's new wing. It's a quality piece, the carbon weave is excellent and fitment is solid. The wing takes much inspiration from the Koenigsegg One:1. Speaking of Koenigsegg, the Jesko Absolut was the inspiration for the AeroDiscs mounted to the rear wheels. TL;DR the best way to describe my goal for the aero was to create an 'extreme' version of the Supra, like how the ACR is to the Viper or Black Series is to the AMG GTR.
Turning a car into a canvas.
Let me start by saying I know these intense wrap designs are not for everyone, and that was never the point. The whole point is to create conversation through controversy – whether you love or hate it you'll talk about it, much like an actual art piece. There is a lot of themes within the artwork, but mainly it is a fusion of baroque architectural styling (e.g. Palace of Versailles) with samurai yoroi/oni mask design. Besides the intricate artwork, I wanted the design to both highlight certain features of the car's shape and visually alter some parts (like the nose/windows mentioned above). The actual wrap install itself is also insanely complex, as it features a combination of different materials from brushed to specialty reflective vinyl, along with multi-layer aspects like embossing. Big shoutout to Gus from 506 Wraps for being the other half behind this wrap, as a good designer can only do so much without a great installer. This is one of the first times a wrap installer has pushed to do more work than I've asked, as the embossing was his idea. Both the sides and hood are embossed, and even the "Try Flash For Pics" on the sides is reverse embossed, in which the dark letters are actually cutouts exposing the forged carbon of the door garnish, while the thin outline around the words is raised with the emboss. I've worked with many wrap shops before, so believe me when I say there are many shops who could not tackle an install this challenging.
Thanks for coming to my TED talk.
There is definitely a lot more I can say about this project but I'll stop here for now. I'm very grateful for the response the car's had online so far – the original debut video passed 5 million views on IG, and within just over a month I've had a few other 6/7 digit hits. Again I know this car will stir the pot for many, and so I'm ready for all kinds of comments. By no means is this the wildest Supra out there, many of you have far better and more complete builds. This is just the product of someone who wanted to make a life-size hot wheels, and I wanted to share it with y'all.
(MOD LIST IN THE POST BELOW)
P.S. I did up this Supra as a thank you to my mom – she initially used to co-design with me and I owe my creative sense to her, so long story short I told her to find a car she likes and I'll do my magic. So shoutout to the real OG
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