Fan Car Showcase at MomoCon brings iconic film cars, unique wraps to Atlanta

When Mark Zoran drives one of his replica cars, it’s not uncommon for fellow drivers to gawk at him.

Sometimes people ask for photos. Once, while he was driving outside of Atlanta, another driver stopped beside him to take a photograph of his car.

While that attention may feel strange for some people, it comes with the territory when your car is a restored and street-legal DeLorean that looks like it just came off the set of “Back to the Future.”

“It’s kind of surreal,” he said. “One of the neatest things is to be driving through town and you look over your shoulder at a store window, and you see yourself in this iconic film car.”

It’s surreal for others, too, who don’t expect to see Bumblebee from “Transformers” driving alongside them.

Mark Zoran poses with one of the replica cars he built through his North Carolina-based company Razorfly Studios. (Courtesy of MomoCon)

Two of Zoran’s car restorations — the “Back to the Future” DeLorean will be among them — will be on display at this week’s MomoCon, an Atlanta festival celebrating anime, animation, comics and games. The Fan Car Showcase will feature around 50 replica cars and itashas, vehicles wrapped with art from popular Japanese anime, manga and video games.

The car showcase has grown since 2015, when Zoran started out with just his restored 1983 DeLorean.

Zoran has worked in the prop and costume industry for 25 years with his North Carolina-based company Razorfly Studios, but he’s always been interested in cars. His passion was sparked in part by his father, who built model cars that have been featured in magazines.

But his tastes leaned toward film cars. When he was young, Zoran would build models based on movie cars, and if there was one he couldn’t find, he would buy the model of the regular car and modify it to look like a replica.

While working in prop design, he realized he could build his own time machine, so why not attach it to a DeLorean? That first project took him a few years to finish.

Since then, he’s worked on an assortment of vehicles, including a restoration of a 1951 Studebaker as Fozzie Bear’s car from “The Muppet Movie,” which will be displayed in the Studebaker National Museum, as well as cars from “Transformers, “Jurassic Park” and “Wayne’s World.”

Next up? Work on the Batmobile from the 1989 Michael Keaton-led “Batman,” Zoran said.

“The joke is it takes a certain type of crazy to start taking a vehicle and completely modifying it, not only for a movie, but also what we do is one step further where we’ve modified it but have made it road legal,” Zoran said.

But Zoran isn’t alone in this passion for car restoration and modifications. He’s been joined by other modification enthusiasts since first starting to show his cars at MomoCon in 2015.

MomoCon's Fan Car Showcase sees dozens of itasha cars — vehicles that have been wrapped in art from anime, manga and video games. (Courtesy of MomoCon)

“We’re looking for people who have put a lot of heart and soul into their craft, and we are looking for the best of the best,” Zoran said.

There are two categories Zoran takes applications for — a section for replica cars and vehicles that were actually used in movies and a section for itasha cars.

North Carolina resident Joe Metscher falls into the latter category. Metscher does automotive painting for a living, but as a hobby he wraps his cars with art from various anime he enjoys.

Joe Metscher will bring his Subaru Forester itasha to MomoCon that features a character from "Kantai Collection" on it. (Courtesy of Joe Metscher)

At this year’s MomoCon, he’s bringing a Subaru Forester that he painted to look like a battleship with gray on top and a mercury red bottom. It’s wrapped with art inspired by “Kantai Collection,” a Japanese arcade game that inspired a spinoff anime. He chose to represent the Shimakaze character on the side.

He’ll also bring a bright pink Hummer that features two characters from the “Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt” anime.

Joe Metscher's bright pink Hummer features characters from the anime "Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt." (Courtesy of Joe Metscher)

MomoCon offers him and his friends an opportunity to hang out and chat about their common interest. He said a group will usually spend time at the Fan Car Showcase, debriefing away from the packed crowds at the convention and chatting with people interested in the hobby, one of Metscher’s favorite parts of the experience.

“I’m happy to kind of pay it forward. The people online made me motivated to do it, so now we’re giving all these new people a chance. It’s right in front of their eyes, and they can ask us questions about it and get motivated to wrap their own cars,” he said.

Joe Metscher's dirt bike features Twin Turbo from the anime "Umamusume." (Courtesy of Joe Metscher)