Inspiration comes from the strangest places.
Last year at OBLIVION there was an old, white Suzuki Swift with the pink and turquoise graphics. I hated it. Months later, I stumbled across online pics of a fox-body Mustang called ‘TimeFox88’ with a similar colour scheme, and I thought it looked perfect. I guess a sportscar with an era-correct style is just plain cool. An econobox, not so much.
For the summer car shows, I wanted my ’92 SVX to stand out this year. To be one of a kind, and be more of a reflection of my style and taste. The old Subaru is too big and heavy to ever be a track car, but it can be a show car. So I started brainstorming about how to create an original livery that looks like it could have been a factory decal package.
The retro-futuristic music and aesthetic styles called Outrun, Vaporwave, and Synthwave really tap into those nostalgia centres in the brain of a ’70s child raised in the ’80s. Vaporwave aesthetic uses a light pastel palette, mall imagery, and 8-bit computer graphics. Conversely there’s Synthwave which uses high-contrast, neon colours, with futuristic graphics as seen through an ’80s lens. Outrun is named after the 1986 Sega video game ‘OutRun’ and features aesthetics like gradient sunsets, palm trees and brutalist sports cars speeding down deserted roads.
The result is a polarizing design with bold visual elements. It’s an attempt to recreate the spirit of the ’80s and ’90s, long before the world wide web, when this lo-rez video game look actually meant high-tech. Also, the use of vibrant, over-saturated colours is meant to convey a sense of optimism and positivity. Even the font on the OBLIVION windshield banner casts horizonal shadows that make the driver feel like they’re in a Duran Duran video.
Between the body-kit, air-suspension, and retro decals, the SVX is far from original, and the judges at OBLIVION place a strong emphasis on ‘stock’ appearance. No was was the SVX getting a trophy like at the Subie Showdown which was a little disappointing considering the effort to make it look just right.
But on the Monday morning after OBLIVION VII, a video was posted on TikTok by CarsByMichael1 who even commented “So happy I finally got to see an SVX 😛 never seen a real one before.” Hey, at last somebody at OBLICION liked the car!
Ughhhh that Mustang 😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍
https://www.instagram.com/p/C-scWxnxq6E/
Absolutely wild car. Era correct, yet modernized.
Amazing 🤩