Metallica's James Hetfield wins custom car of the year for "Black Pearl"

It's been four years since Metallica's last new album, but lead singer and co-founder James Hetfield has been busy touring and with a different kind of metal-bending. A long-time hot-rod collector, Hetfield and his car pal Rick Dore has won top prizes for his cars before, but his latest creation — known simply as the Black Pearl — has been named custom car of the year by the Goodguys Rod & Custom Association. And for good reason.

The Black Pearl isn't a hot rod, but an entirely custom vehicle; all of the body panels were hand-formed from aluminum by Marcel and Luc De Lay, based on designs from Hetfield, Dore and themselves, along with a custom interior and wheels. While it has the frame of a 1948 Jaguar, and a Ford V-8 good for 375 hp, the Black Pearl was meant more as a work of automotive art than a speedster.