A Laser-Etched Plaque Of Your Car Is The Best Present Any Petrolhead Could Receive

A couple of weeks ago I received a message:

Hey Alex, I guess you probably get this all time, but if someone were thinking of sending a certain MX-5-driving Car Throttle staffer an awesome MX-5-themed gift, where would it be addressed to?

As it happens, yes, I sometimes get messages like this. Some products that are offered don’t really fit the CT remit, so I politely decline, while others are right up my street, so I naturally say ‘hell yeah, I’m interested’. This time around, I wasn’t sure what might come, but I was curious.

A couple of days later, a package arrived at CT HQ. Because I’d previously chatted to a bloke about dash-cams (we’ll be doing product tests on three units very soon), I was convinced that what had arrived were cameras, but closer inspection of the smart black box revealed a ‘Black Art Graphics’ logo. Whatever was inside was too heavy to be a sticker (my initial guess when I got the message), so I opened the package up and was stunned when I saw that my MX-5 had been immortalised in A3 size as a laser-etched plaque.

Now before I continue, I feel compelled to tell you that this blog is not a sponsored post. This is me, a normal bloke who loves cars (especially MX-5s…have I mentioned that I own an MX-5?) telling fellow car lovers how awesome this is. I mean, it’s crazy cool!

The attention to detail and materials used are insane (5251 grade aluminium is laser cut down into 420x297mm plates with 5mm radiused corners, and then ground to a brush effect finish), and to see my number plate, VIN number, name and even my ‘Prius Repellent’ sticker (+7hp) on the rear bumper is hilarious.

Detailed on the plaque is my car’s transmission, suspension, engine, brakes, chassis, steering and performance, and the finish of the whole package is classy and beautifully elegant.

To create a plaque like this (you can get custom ones made of your car, bike, or anything you like) there’s a process that the Black Art Graphics team goes through, including using reference material (hi-res images), converting the images into line art, research on specifications, approval from you, and then manufacture, which looks a little bit like this…

After that, the plaque is flipped over and put back in the machine to mark the reverse of the plate with the fitting kit locations. You even get epoxy resin for the hook at the top and sticky rubber stoppers which you put at the bottom to ensure it sits flat on the wall. No detail has been overlooked.

Needless to say, my personalised MX-5 plaque is now hanging on my living room wall after much time spent figuring out where ‘pride of place’ should be with my girlfriend, Gabz and his girlfriend and our American flat mate.

Obviously, a piece of art such as this doesn’t come particularly cheap. Prices typically vary between £125 and £150 depending on the quality/detail of the artwork (a single view ‘isometric’ style drawing costs £99), but I think that’s a small price to pay for something that I’ll be keeping for as long as I’m breathing.

Because we’re a community of car lovers, I’m sure that a lot of you will want a plaque of your own, so to sweeten the deal, owner Daniel Kozakewycz is offering a 15 per cent discount when using voucher code CarThrottle2015. And yes, he’s happy to ship worldwide.

If you want a custom plaque of your car (with your wheels and any mods you’ve done etc), then go to the Black Art Graphics contact form and send Daniel a message with your requirments. Once you’re happy, you can use the discount voucher.

To sum up:

If you love your car and if you’ve got a bit of cash to spend, then immortalise it with a laser-etched plaque. Equally, if you’ve got a car-loving friend’s birthday coming up, then this is the perfect present for him or her!

To see more of Black Art Graphics, you can follow them on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. To know more about the creative process, here are all the technical details.