Somewhere between a McLaren Special Ops Bespoke and a rainy-day craft project, there is a Slapdash Supercar. And somewhere between a renowned public monument artist like Maya Lin and people who draw moustaches on subway posters, there is Max Siedentopf.

Siedentopf spent a few early mornings last autumn adding enhancements to the cars of some fellow Amsterdam residents, preserving the corrugated customisations in photos. These weren’t requested add-ons, though, but a guerilla attempt to add some ad hoc individuality to a boring car culture.

“Everyone wants to personalise everything and be unique,” says Siedentopf. “However, I noticed that for some reason the individualisation of one’s car has decreased quite a bit over the past few years. Resultant out of this, and growing up with Pimp My Ride, I decided to help a few people to turn their ordinary car into their own temporary supercar.”

Siedentopf chose a neighbourhood in the west of Amsterdam with an industrial feel, and added air scoops, spoilers, and aerodynamic fendercraft to “the most average and mediocre cars I could find.”

I decided to help a few people to turn their ordinary car into their own temporary supercar

“I collected loads of cardboard boxes beforehand and prepared one or two designs the night before I went out. Even though it might seem like the series was shot all at once, I was actually only able to do one or two a morning around 4:30am because I had way too many custom car parts to carry around.”

“The series is called Slapdash Supercars, because once I found a good car, I slapped the pieces on and dashed away as fast as possible.” He never captured the reactions of the car owners as they stumbled into the big reveal. “Sometimes it’s better to imagine what might’ve happened than to stick around and deal with the reactions,” he notes.

“I don’t refer to myself as an artist really,” Siedentopf says, “rather a guy that just tries to come up with fun ideas. I’m also very much intrigued how you can turn ordinary things and situations really easily into something extra-ordinary.

And does Siedentopf pimp his own ride? “I love [customised cars],” he says, “but for now I’ll stick to my bicycle.”

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