21st Century Art Cars (Not the dumb hippie ones)

Words: Kristopher Monroe

DJ Spooky is shilling cars for Infiniti, so I guess pretty much anything goes. Why not have graffiti artists design their own automobiles? Scion is running with that idea, with their new line of three cars conceptualized by legendary graf writers Haze and Futura, and LA tattoo artist Mister Cartoon. They’ve created some slick (if not always fuel efficient) rides.

Mister Cartoon more-or-less tattooed the somewhat boxy xB model with his signature images and made it into the quintessential Latino low-rider (mpg 31/35). Futura went minimal with his black high gloss xA model design, which includes a rear screen projector that basically plays Scion commercials on your back window if you’re into that sort of thing (mpg 31/38). The slickest design comes from Haze on the tC, which is covered with black, white and silver graf-style lines and arrows and has some crazy, cool-looking rims (mpg 23/30).

This may be the future of art cars, but what’s sad is that none of them are at all cheap. I still like the idea of tagging up your own clunker and rolling down the street ghetto style, but if you’ve got a few extra grand lying around you’ll be the envy of everyone with one of these stylish rides (and envy, I think, is the point). Don’t hate them because they’re beautiful; hate them because you can’t damn afford one.