BaDassumption Part 1

Foreword by Brett Thomas

One of the things that I love most about modding is how much individual style a person can put into his or her work. Inspiration and ideas can be so unique - signature touches that can make two cases of similar build type and quality look entirely different. Modding isn't just shoving a computer into a prettier box - it's taking one of the most expensive pieces of furniture that you own and turning it into something as artistic as a finely sculpted table or chair. It is art, architecture, form and function.

And sometimes, it's just plain out there. Sometimes it's gloriously odd, with design pieces that are so cobbled together that it seems almost like they shouldn't fit. And yet there it sits, looking beautifully tied together by something you just can't really even explain. It's this type of design that permeated the "pop" culture of 1950s and 1960s Americana...and now 2007's latest mod project, BaDassumption by Pieter Bijleveld, aka dutchcedar.

Borne out of the "futuristic" designs of the 1960's, Pieter has created something that has never really been seen before in case modding. In my discussions with him over the past few months, I've been amazed at the unique ideas and attention to (very novel) detail that he's put into this mod. As an architect by day and an active and helpful modder in our forums by night, dutchcedar's log has been getting a lot of attention - and he's been nice enough to grant us the exclusive of the one, the only...

Introduction

It was at the Oakland Grand National Roadster Show, back in the sixties, that I first saw a bubble top show car. Like many other youngsters fascinated with cars that were lucky enough to get up close to these crazy creations, it left its mark in the ole' memory bank for the many years that followed. They were the radical customs of Ed “Big Daddy” Roth, George Barris, Dean Jeffries, Bill Cushenberry and others, who built their cars from scratch, using parts pilfered from here, there and everywhere. (Much like some of the best mods - Ed.)

The bubble car creators used things like exposed engines, drilled frame rails and any number of off-the-wall ideas to create their rolling sculptures. They were often painted in the panellised style of Steve Watson, with bright candy and metal-flake paints and were certainly all about breaking the mold of what you would expect a car to look like. One thing they all had was a weirdness that made them look almost inoperable, in spite of being perfectly functional (well, some of them didn’t actually run... but that’s for another day), but what stuck in my mind most of all were the bubble tops.

Inspiration

Although I've rarely seen a bubble top car I didn't like, my all-time favourite is Ed Roth's famous Beatnik Bandit. The car is probably the single greatest influence on the design of BaDassumption. In 1995, Ed also released a second version of the car, dubbed the Beatnick Bandit II.

A little extra thanks

Big thanks go out to the following guys for lots of great input and help in designing and building this crazy homage to the bubble topped show cars of the sixties:

Matt "Starbuck3733T" Sprinsky
Bill "mnpctech" Owen
Phil Williams (fillip)
Edward "scopEDog" Saavedra
Nexxo
Knipex
Richard Pugh (Pug)
fivecheebs
Dr Fibbles
OCBlue
Invalid
John "zittware" Zitterkopf
Gary "God's Unicorn" Caine

I also want to thank Moldy Marvin for his help with the Ed "Big Daddy" Roth estate in the permission to use our good friend Rat Fink in the logo.

I hope you enjoy the show!