Metalex Roadster
Weird Car of the Day #461: Metalex (MTX) Roadster – Felicitations
I don’t know about you, but one of the reasons I go to galleries is to stand as close to the art as possible.
Scale and proportion, in person, are much easier to grasp. I like to bask in large paintings and photographs, scanning works both for minute, precise details and flashes of spontaneity.
I have pencils and pens and some supplies, but the gaps in my ability to transform those tools into actual art are vast. I’m not sad or bitter or defeated — I’m only recognizing the brilliance of artists through my own struggle.
Since the early days of the car industry, when General Motors formalized the role of design, the vaunted Art and Colour Section (1927-1937), there’s been an industrial push and pull between what you can and cannot see.
Outside, cars need to express an appealing image, freedom, and possibilities: the art.
Inside, ‘oily bits’ are a domain of mechanical complexity, noise, vibration, and function: the canvas.
Car design is kinetic sculpture, with paint on top, and a clockwork of mechanical guts packed inside.
Just as having a brush and paint doesn’t automatically make you an artist, in the automotive world, a sawzall and fibreglass doesn’t make you a car designer.
The Metalex (MTX) Roadster is a good example of why.
Some small cars lend themselves surprisingly well to the roadster treatment, namely the Suzuki Swiftster by Zender.
michael banovsky
A Škoda Favorit, from some angles, looks great without its hatchback. From other angles, specifically side-on, it's far from my favourite.
