FEVER DREAMS

The Nightshade is your childhood dream brought to life

- Aditya Upadhyaula

When I was about five years old, I had a fever. It was the most terrifying thing ever because I couldn’t move my legs for a week. Before you think I’m trying to rip-off a Pink Floyd song, this really did happen. I was confined to the couch in front of the TV for the whole week and did nothing but watch cartoons and play with my Hot Wheels cars. As feverish kids are wont to do, though, I also drifted in and out of sleep. I had dreams so vivid, I didn’t know what was real anymore. During one of these sleep excursions, I came face to face with a talking car. Now, I don’t remember what it said all those years ago, but if it could speak French, it would most certainly say déjà vu with one look at the Autologue Designs Nightshade.

Like a sane person who definitely doesn’t have voices in his head, I asked myself why this car exists to begin with. The answer is that Hot Wheels commissioned two life-size recreations of its cars to celebrate its 50th anniversary. This particular one was based off an ’80s Camaro from Hot Wheels’ Flames collection. Now, ’80s Camaros aren’t exactly abundant, so a Hindustan Motors Contessa was chosen as a reasonable facsimile for this build. The Contessa always gave me hotrod vibes and I’m glad to see that come to life in this creation.