DRIP DRIED

Drip Dried

Felix Holst tells us about how he executed one of the most unique art cars we’ve seen in a long time.

“I had this vision in my head of like a shark hanging off the edge of a fishing boat. This very slippery, aerodynamic form hanging vertically. That was the genesis of the idea, and at that point I had to figure out how to do it.”

Felix Holst’s 912 is not like other art cars. Totally self-funded and produced out of sheer curiosity, it takes guts to embark on a project like this without the backing of a generous sponsor or any kind of safety net in case things don’t go as planned.

Felix’s art style is colourful, vibrant, and heavily charged with a sense of motion and noise. Most of it however is confined to paint on a canvas, which is a comparatively low-stakes medium to work on. A 1969 Porsche 912 takes a little more care, which is why Felix decided to suspend it from a rope under a telehandler before getting started.

“I use a lot of graffiti methodologies in my paintings, drips and thick coats and so on. I wanted the car to reflect that but I knew that if I just used the same techniques, then the artwork would just look like it’s dripping off the body. All the dynamic and excitement would be lost. One night I realised that the only way to do it would be to hang the car from its nose, so the paint would run along the length of the body and you’d get this effect of appearing in motion while standing still.

I was only thinking about it until one day the Overcrest Productions guys asked me if I had any ideas for a centrepiece at their upcoming Monterey Car Week event. So I said ‘oh I’ve got this idea about hanging a Porsche…’ and before I’d even gotten the words out of my mouth I realised that I’d committed to it.

I just knew it had to be a complete running and driving car, not just a salvaged body shell. The whole thing took just under a year and it’s still not really finished.”

Though he might have gotten away with just painting it as a static display, Felix wanted his 912 art car to be a little more functional than that. So on top of making sure the artwork looked right, he had to contend with all the other things that come with a 57 year old project car.

“I wanted it to be my own car. I didn’t want it to be sponsored by anybody and I didn’t want it to be some form of corporate event, so I had to find a Porsche that I could afford. After about six weeks of searching, I found this 1969 912 that had awful 80s and 90s parts nailed onto it.

"One night I realised that the only way to do it would be to hang the car from its nose, so the paint would run along the length of the body and you’d get this effect of appearing in motion while standing still."

"I just knew it had to be a complete running and driving car, not just a salvaged body shell. The whole thing took just under a year and it’s still not really finished.”

Over the course of three weeks I stripped it down and fitted a bunch of original parts I had on the shelf for a different project. I fixed it and resprayed it in the backyard to a reasonable standard, in the original shade of cocoa brown. I laid out some base graphics, and then I painted it live in front of the Overcrest crowd at Monterey Car Week.

Jeff Zwart was there, he loved it and of course the call came in a few months later asking if I’d be interested in displaying it at Air|Water. Now there’s a big difference between a car bought for peanuts and painted under a crane and a car that is ready to be displayed amongst the best of the best at a show like that, so I had to improve the car further.

I fitted new rocker panels, new rubbers, new wheels, full clearcoat and various bits of rust repair. It was a lot more involved than I thought it would be, but the end result really reflects my art style and the car I wanted it to be. It was so well received at Air|Water, I had so many people from different walks of life asking me questions about it. I was worried people might think it was sloppy, but I didn’t hear a single negative comment. Definitely the best experience I’ve had with the car so far.”