5 cars with faces made for pumpkin-carving

Let’s be clear, some cars have a face for the big screen (just about any Aston Martin, for example). Others have a mug for radio (Fiat Multipla, anyone?). Somewhere in between are the cars that best lend their front ends to . . . pumpkins.

Because it is decorative gourd season, folks, we figured it was time to come up with the nowhere-near definitive list of automotive jack-o-lanterns. There’s a delicate balance, of course, between what’s easy to sketch on paper and what translates well to the side of a giant orange fruit, but who are we to determine what is and isn’t possible when you put carving tools in the hands of a master, uh, squashwright? (We’re in it solely for the seeds, anyway—salted. None of this butter and cinnamon-sugar business, thanks).

So, without further ado, your 2023 list of the auto faces best translated into jack-o-lanternmobiles.

Austin-Healey Bugeye Sprite

Not all Halloween décor needs to be spooky. And whatever the opposite of spooky is, the Sprite is it. With a big goofy smile and big goofy eyes, this Brit is the ideal kid-greeter for your front stoop. Be careful, though, one wrong slice and you might turn this happy little Jekyll into its more sinister Hyde—the Daimler SP250.

Rolls-Royce Phantom II

Beyond its ghostly name, the ginormous Rolls presents a face only its cyborg mother could love—and people with half a million bucks to drop on a luxo-commuter. Keep in mind the front end of this thing is as big and as upright as the face of an HD Silverado, so you’ll want a fat, slab-sided pumpkin to accommodate that maw and the squinty, menacing eyes.

BMW i4

BMW’s trademark kidney-bean front end easily translates to fleshy sculpture, and the marque’s history offers up a broad range of simple, elegant faces to choose from. The 2002? Adorable! For this exercise, however, we’re looking squarely at the visage applied to the German carmaker’s all-electric sedan. To go from the understated elegance of the E21 (1975–83) 3 Series to the bucktoothed grin of today’s battery-powered i4 is a curious evolution indeed. This car doesn’t even need a grille; why BMW gave it the largest one ever devised is a mystery for our time.

Isuzu VehiCROSS

If goofy cartoon vampires are your thing, then the weirdly adorable VehiCROSS is the perfect template for your masterpiece. The tiny sharp teeth poking out from the grille are juuuust threatening enough to say “I bite” while the rest of the thing screams “BUT IT TICKLES!” Wrapping the lower half of the pumpkin in black plastic is optional but, for the sake of authenticity, mandatory.

Studebaker Avanti

If you’re pressed for time, or you simply don’t know how to do noses, skip that feature entirely by carving an Avanti face. Make it easy on yourself by going the 1963–’64 route: You really just need a couple of circles spaced an uncomfortably long distance apart, with a long, thin, completely flat line beneath them. Boom, done. And no one will mistake it for anything else.

What are you carving up this Halloween? Share your car-themed jack-o-lanterns with us on Facebook by clicking this link.

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