Driving around a car that looks like it’s made of space fabric is now a little bit more possible, as demonstrated in this modified black painting that DipYourCar applied to a Mitsubishi Lancer. The resulting car, located by Gizmodo, absorbs 99.4 percent of the light, but has speckled luminescent patches that make it look like the night sky.
The project required the use of Musoy Black paint from Koyo Orient Japan and the application of HyperShift, pearly particles used to create shiny finishes on cars. After a few adjustments with thinner, the end result is impressive, even if it is as fragile and impractical as DipYourCar suggests.
The effect is reminiscent of Vantablack, a light-absorbing material made of carbon nanotubes. Wild applications of Vantablack are well documented, from cartoon holes in museums to other cars, like this BMW. But this project really highlights one of the strangest aspects of the material. The rights to create art with Vantablack were granted exclusively to one artist, Anish Kapoor. Vantablack “requires specialized application to achieve its aesthetic effect”, according to the material creator Surrey NanoSystems, and Kapoor is apparently one of the few people qualified to apply it. Kapoor’s license and the other use of Vantablack in the military and aerospace industries kept him out of reach of the average artist or car enthusiast, giving his visual effect an even more attractive quality.
Check out this video to learn more about the origins of Vantablack.
Vantablack’s exclusivity has led to competition from other artists and the creation of products like Musou Black, which almost replicate the effects of the real Vantablack. As you can see with DipYourCarof the project, is more than enough. My advice is to suggest some appropriate space music, play a gif of that car and fall into the void of the weekend. You won.