Kyle Busch, Eat Your Car Out
Elgin artists create replica of NASCAR racer
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Kyle Busch's #18 M&M's Toyota is the inspiration behind the chocolate car.
No, it’s not Halloween or Valentine’s Day, but chocolate is always on our minds...and now, it's hitting the road.
A team of artists in Elgin proved they could satisfy even the biggest sweet tooth by creating a life-size replica of the No. 18 Toyota Camry “M&M” car that Kyle Busch drove.
The twist? The car is made of the milky and delectable confection we all know and love – chocolate.
The team, consisting of leader Jim Victor and two assistants, has spent that past week at the Elgin-based Hatch Distribution Services warehouse working on the car. They created a wooden and Styrofoam skeleton and then used about 1,700 pounds of various chocolates to create its exterior.
"It's just big," Victor told the Daily Herald. "First of all, you have to find a place to work. My studio was inadequate. We left room for an inch of chocolate on it. It's real milk chocolate."
The final piece of art will be colored brown with the number 18, and details like headlights will be incorporated on the surface.
The car will make its debut at the Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet on Friday for the Lifelock.com 400 race this weekend. Busch won both the Nationwide and Sprint Cup races at last year’s event.
But what fun is staring at a car made of chocolate if you can’t have any for yourself? That’s the beauty of it – you can. The chocolate car promotes the Mars “Real Chocolate Relief Act” which gives away coupons for free candy bars at realchocolate.com.
With the excitement of NASCAR combined with Willy Wonka-esque tastiness, who could really resist?
Posted Tuesday, Jul 14, 2009 - 1:33 AM CST
