Art Center college of Design to host Car Classic in July

Art Center College of Design announced today that it will host Car Classic ’09, a gathering of the world’s top automotive designers, collectors and enthusiasts. This year’s theme, “By Air, Land and Sea,” celebrates vehicles that push the boundaries of design. The one-day event will take place Sunday, July 19, 2009 from 10 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on the College’s Hillside Campus at 1700 Lida Street in Pasadena.

This year, to reflect the broadening scope of Art Center’s Department of Transportation Design, Car Classic moves beyond the automobile to showcase the best of all types of transportation. The historic and fruitful relationship between aircraft and watercraft design and the automotive industry will be explored in an exhibition featuring more than 100 rare and exotic vehicles, including classic, sports, and custom cars, hot rods, motorcycles, aircraft, watercraft and more.

In keeping with the event’s expanded theme, the keynote address will be delivered by Burt Rutan, the aerospace engineer world-renowned for his designs of the record-breaking aircraft Voyager and SpaceShipOne, winner of the 2004 Ansari X-Prize. Rutan, who is currently preparing to launch the Virgin Galactic spaceline with Sir Richard Branson, opening the doors for sub-orbital space tourism, is scheduled to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award from Art Center and General Motors Design at Car Classic ’09. Rutan has long been an inspiration to Art Center students, especially those who visited his aerospace and specialty composites development company, Scaled Composites, as part of their class on materials and methods.

Throughout Car Classic ’09, Art Center’s Hillside campus will be open to the public for tours of design studios and galleries, where guests can view the work of the next generation of artists and designers. Event attendees will have the opportunity to meet leaders in transportation design—many of whom are alumni of Art Center College of Design.

This year’s Car Classic culminates Art Center’s celebration of 60 years of transportation design. It is estimated that more than half of the world's automotive designers are Art Center alumni, who currently hold top design positions at the studios of Pininfarina, Ferrari-Maserati, Ford, General Motors, DaimlerChrysler, BMW, Porsche, Audi, Volvo, Nissan, Aston Martin, Hummer, Mazda, Toyota/Lexus and Volkswagen North America, among others.

Exhibitor applications for Car Classic ’09 are due by Friday, May 15, 2009 and are available at http://www2.artcenter.edu/designoffice/ads/carclassic/2009CarClassicRegForm.pdf.

Car Classic ’09 tickets are $60 at the door or $50 online. Art Center alumni can save $20 by purchasing tickets online at http://www.artcenter.edu/carclassic/index.jsf.