Generally, concept cars are shown in controlled environments. At salons. Auto shows. In restaurants or conference rooms. All are places where the setting is set such that the vehicles are shown under the optimal conditions. Conditions that are established. After all, these vehicles are special, so they need to be seen in the best possible light.

Link To Graphic On the Beach: California Cruiser, Kahuna, Avenger, Airflight and Tomahawkat South Beach.

The light in Miami’s South Beach is certainly good if the amount of exposed skin is any measure of quality. But Miami’s South Beach is anything but a controlled environment. Especially when the Umoja Culture Festival hits the Art Deco District on Memorial Day weekend. Not familiar with the Umoja fest? Well, then you probably aren’t among the estimated 250,000 people who came from far and wide to party to the hip-hop beat, to see and to be seen, wearing bling-bling (and sometimes little else), rolling in tricked out Escalades and 7s, fitted with 20s and spinners.

Link To Graphic "KAHUNA" means"the Boss" in Hawaiian. No Woody of yore.

Despite the evident presence of the law up and down Collins Avenue and Ocean Drive, to describe South Beach as a “controlled environment” would be to exaggerate.

Yet here we are, on the beach behind the Delano Hotel, a hotel that is modestly described on its website as “The Hippest Hotel on the Hippest Beach.” The level of hipness is immeasurably boosted by a group from the Chrysler Group, especially three guys who are wearing outfits dominated by the color black, three guys who could probably teach Phillipe Starck, who designed the Delano’s lobby, a thing or three about executing designs that turn more heads than Beyoncé or Britney would. They are all three car designers, Joe Dehner, Mike Nichols, and Alan Barrington, the first two from the studios in the Auburn Hills facility of DaimlerChrysler and the latter from the Chrysler Pacifica studio. They are on South Beach with cars. Concept cars. The cars that Chrysler has shown at auto shows during the past several months (Paris. . .Geneva. . .Detroit). The Chrysler Airflite and California Cruiser. The Dodge Avenger and Kahuna. Oh, yes, there’s that other one over there: the Tomahawk. (Mark Walters, who designed the Tomahawk, is absent from the beach that evening but he would have simply accentuated the quartet’s fundamental Motor City Otherness—all appeared to have spent long hours in front of CAD screens or in garages, not in the sun.)

Link To Graphic Where does the PT CRUISER go next?

Then the cars move from the beach onto the road. South on Collins. A quick left and then a right onto Ocean. Past the restaurants and the bars. Past the place—or is that “palace”—where Versace met his end. Past hundreds of people who do double takes. People who shout out, “What’s that!?!” People who insist, “I want one!” People who make hand gestures that are those of approval, not something one should do with oneself. And people who are sitting in their rides who are undoubtedly feeling a sinking in their egos, knowing that no matter how much time and effort, no matter how many Benjamins, their wheels just didn’t cut it when it came to those rigs. Not a chance.

The purpose of the South Beach adventure was to gauge the response of people to the vehicles, people who are in a highly fashion-conscious zone, people who are concerned with looking. . .and looking good. Clearly, the Chrysler Design staff has got it. Got it good.

Link To Graphic See more of the Chrysler Airflight, Tomahawk and Dodge Avenger.