James Hetfield and Rick Dore’s Black Pearl to Appear at the 2014 Los Angeles Auto Show
The stunning, award-winning Black Pearl, designed by Metallica’s James Hetfield and built from the ground up by world renowned custom car builder Rick Dore, has been turning heads at shows all around the United States for the past year and is coming home to California to appear at this year’s Los Angeles Auto Show November 18th through 30th.
“It is a real honor to have the Black Pearl included in this year’s Los Angeles Auto Show,” shared Dore in anticipation of the event.
“The Black Pearl is one of those things that we initially had been taking other vehicles and cutting and pasting, making [our] own prototype in a way,” explained Hetfield.
James Hetfield
“This one we actually started from scratch. We started with a ’48 Jag and basically tried to work it, work it down to frame and build it up from scratch from a drawing. It took it to a whole new level of car building: from a drawing.”
The Black Pearl head on, photo courtesy of rickdore.com
Rick Dore
With its fastback roof and sleek lines, the Black Pearl was inspired by some of the early concept cars of the 1930s, while the chassis is based off of the 1948 Jaguar Hetfield mentioned. The body was completely hand-fabricated and shaped by Marcel and Luc De Lay under the direction of Dore, whose Rick Dore Kustoms finished the rest of the project before the lustrous black finish was applied by Daryl Hollenbeck.
In the past year the Pearl has made appearances at The Grand National Roadster Show, winning the 2014 Al Slonaker, Blackie Gejelan and George Barris Kustom awards, and at The Goodguys, winning Mother’s Custom of the Year and Best In Show. The elegant vehicle was also shown at The Quail and A Motor Sports Gathering, amongst other elite events, most recently a new exhibit, The World’s Greatest Sports Coupes, at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles that ran through October 18. The exhibit is sponsored by Jaguar and features a dozen sports coupes, each individually selected by twelve celebrity guest curators.
Photo courtesy dwrenched.com
Founded in 1907, the Los Angeles Auto Show (LA Auto Show) is one of the most influential and best-attended auto shows on the planet and encompasses more than 870,000 square feet. Each November, show creator ANSA Productions gathers the who’s who of the auto industry to unveil the future of vehicular mobility in the car culture capital of the world. Delivering worldwide media exposure, global industry networking and experiential marketing in the nation’s largest car buying market, the Show’s trade days (Press Days) draw more than 12,000 auto industry decision makers and influencers, including 4,000 members of the media from more than 50 countries. ANSA Productions also recently launched the Connected Car Expo (CCE, a three-day trade show held in conjunction with Press Days that brings together the entire eco-system that is driving, no pun intended, the convergence of technology and the automobile. Following Press Days, the Show opens its doors to the public and hosts approximately 900,000 guests over the course of ten exciting days.
The Los Angeles Auto Show is open to the public November 21st through November 30th. For admission info and tickets, please visit laautoshow.com.