1948 Jaguar `Black Pearl` Custom
Rock & roll music and custom cars have a lot in common. A creative spirit, immense talent and uncompromising dedication are required to create and reveal the inner soul of a song or a car. James Hetfield has mastered both. His band Metallica sits in the prestigious Rock & Roll Hall of Fame while serving as the face of heavy metal music for decades. His ever-growing stable of custom cars has won hot rodding’s biggest prizes. His latest effort, a coachbuilt custom he designed with partner Rick Dore is his most powerful statement yet.
Unlike other cars in the James Hetfield collection, The Black Pearlis built from scratch: a fully customized model. This is not a particular brand or model. Its carved and handmade body is inspired by the tears and harmonious body transitions of European and American cars of the 1930s and 1940s.
The Black Pearl stands on the outer frame rails of a 1948 Jaguar MK4 on which the aluminum panels were laid. To the surprise of Dore and Hetfield, the original frame found itself to be much more fragile than expected, the result of an English metal construction post World War II. It has been modified and solidified by famous Marcel DeLay, who died in 2018 at the age of 89.
Originally, the 1948 Jaguar MK4 is a four-door vehicle that Hetfield describes as a “saloon”. That’s why he asked for the car to be changed into a two-seater. Under the hood? A Ford V8 engine of 302cu.in. with 375 horsepower with a Ford C4 automatic transmission. An air suspension and new brake and fuel lines have also been added to the vehicle.
Custom interior! The seats are covered in cream-white leather, in complete opposition to the glossy black of the exterior. The dashboard gauges came from a Plymouth 1934, but the graphics have all been redone by Classic Instruments. The steering wheel? A Lincoln steering wheel from the early 1940s whose diameter was reduced to 17 inches. For people who don’t know much about car, don’t get yourself wrong if you recognize the center of the steering wheel and associate it with a Lincoln, this vehicle is not one!
For James Hetfield, The Black Pearl is a piece of art, a car construction that pushes the limits. Built from a hand drawing, Hetfield continues: “this has led to a whole new level of car building: from a drawing on a 8-by-10 sheet. ”
Dore, for his part, is still surprised to have designed such a car: “They bent a quarter-inch steel bar to form a skeleton, designed a rough plan using duct tape and cardboard to fill it, and have entirely shaped the metal body by hand.”
