5 cars with faces made for pumpkin-carving
Let’s be clear, some cars have a face for the big screen (just about any Aston Martin, for example). Others have a mug for radio (Fiat Multipla, anyone?). Somewhere in between are the cars that best lend their front ends to . . . pumpkins.
Because it is decorative gourd season, folks, we figured it was time to come up with the nowhere-near definitive list of automotive jack-o-lanterns. There’s a delicate balance, of course, between what’s easy to sketch on paper and what translates well to the side of a giant orange fruit, but who are we to determine what is and isn’t possible when you put carving tools in the hands of a master, uh, squashwright? (We’re in it solely for the seeds, anyway—salted. None of this butter and cinnamon-sugar business, thanks).
So, without further ado, your 2023 list of the auto faces best translated into jack-o-lanternmobiles.
Austin-Healey Bugeye Sprite
Not all Halloween décor needs to be spooky. And whatever the opposite of spooky is, the Sprite is it. With a big goofy smile and big goofy eyes, this Brit is the ideal kid-greeter for your front stoop. Be careful, though, one wrong slice and you might turn this happy little Jekyll into its more sinister Hyde—the Daimler SP250.
Rolls-Royce Phantom II
Beyond its ghostly name, the ginormous Rolls presents a face only its cyborg mother could love—and people with half a million bucks to drop on a luxo-commuter. Keep in mind the front end of this thing is as big and as upright as the face of an HD Silverado, so you’ll want a fat, slab-sided pumpkin to accommodate that maw and the squinty, menacing eyes.
BMW i4
BMW’s trademark kidney-bean front end easily translates to fleshy sculpture, and the marque’s history offers up a broad range of simple, elegant faces to choose from. The 2002? Adorable! For this exercise, however, we’re looking squarely at the visage applied to the German carmaker’s all-electric sedan. To go from the understated elegance of the E21 (1975–83) 3 Series to the bucktoothed grin of today’s battery-powered i4 is a curious evolution indeed. This car doesn’t even need a grille; why BMW gave it the largest one ever devised is a mystery for our time.
Isuzu VehiCROSS
If goofy cartoon vampires are your thing, then the weirdly adorable VehiCROSS is the perfect template for your masterpiece. The tiny sharp teeth poking out from the grille are juuuust threatening enough to say “I bite” while the rest of the thing screams “BUT IT TICKLES!” Wrapping the lower half of the pumpkin in black plastic is optional but, for the sake of authenticity, mandatory.
Studebaker Avanti
If you’re pressed for time, or you simply don’t know how to do noses, skip that feature entirely by carving an Avanti face. Make it easy on yourself by going the 1963–’64 route: You really just need a couple of circles spaced an uncomfortably long distance apart, with a long, thin, completely flat line beneath them. Boom, done. And no one will mistake it for anything else.
What are you carving up this Halloween? Share your car-themed jack-o-lanterns with us on Facebook by clicking this link.
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Reading this after the chicken trax was perfect.
Good Grief! — As Charlie Brown would almost certainly say here.
Is this perhaps the most inane and ridiculous attempt on an article, ever put upon us here?
I cannot recall any other, as terribly conceived as this.
Although probably already done somewhere else; a retrospective of “cars in scary movies”, or “cars involved in every scary media” would be far more welcome.
AND entertaining and informative.
It’s all out there.
Next time — try a better, smarter approach.
We deserve it. Are you capable of it?
I agree completely, maybe they’re pulling stories from Scholastic Magazine?
Haters gonna hate. Happy Haloween!
I thought the story was brilliant, offering something new and different in the field of often repetitive automotive journalism. The choices were perfect, the Avanti welcomingly unexpected.
Yes… lighten up folks. Halloween is for fun. Too much serious business going on in the world already…
Hagerty doesn’t want to pay knowledgeable lifelong autoholics for indepth historical articles when they’ve got kids willing to come up with filler like the above and listicles.
Hagerty provides a nice forum for all avowed gear heads, but they’re in business to sell insurance policies. Nothing wrong with that at all. But that’s the focus, other than the occasional work from Larry Webster, Don Sherman, Aaron Robinson, whose pieces are exemplars of research and effort.
So, why are we here? We’re autoholics….and optimists.
Gimme a brake. No one is forcing anybody else to read this. I found this kinda refreshing after all the stories about hi tec and hi lux cars I will never be able to afford and probably never drive like McLaren,Ferrari,Rolls Royce,or anything electric. Should have included Miata. Two big smiles, the one on the car and the one on the driver.
I agree. Sometimes a fun article is just a nice break for lots of techy insights. I also agree that the MX-5 easily has a few versions that could make the list.
Spot on.
Not the best idea but the BMW snout is scary ugly!
I agree that if you want SCARY pumpkins, model it after the BMW I4…
The bugeye sprite is more of a ‘happy face’…
The ultimate blank slate is a Tesla… Can I use a chainsaw to carve it?
The ’53 Buick has always been a car I found scary-looking.
So was the 1950.
Agreed about the 1950… scariest maybe.
Don’t forget 1954 Buick
O(((((((())))))))O
61 Desoto and 58 Edsel are already scary. Honorable mention to 61 Plymouth, too.
Absolutely agree with your comment. Journalistic desperation perhaps? LOL!
Hey naysayers, check yourselves. Not every article has to be a literary masterpiece. Sometimes writing is just for fun, like this piece. I enjoyed it, but if it doesn’t suit your fancy, move on. There is plenty more content to be viewed on this site.
TOTALLY agree Mr. Sievers….I look forward to every Hagerty article….and my God given brain allows me to choose between reading or not reading.
The new BMWs look like Bette Midler in Hocus Pocus.
OMG-that’s it! I’ve been trying to put my finger on it. Everyone says “beaver” but I knew it was something else.
Definitely the best is the A-H Bugeye!
Definitely the A-H Bugeye is the best!
What about the 51-54 Hudson Hornets? Pixar didn’t have to get too creative to give Doc Hudson a grumpy face.
The Bug eye and Isuzu are perfect.
The Avanti…well, you’d need to add the offset hood bulge.
Too bad they couldn’t post pictures of pumpkins carved from these images.
I was counting on it. It was about to be page 1 for a Studebaker Drivers Club chapter newsletter. Darn.