Craft, chrome & credits.

Thank you to the artists and recordists whose work makes the garage feel alive.

The jukebox

All eighteen recordings are by Kevin MacLeod / incompetech.com, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0. Four themed channels shuffle songs and advance when a song ends. No track is put on a repeating loop. Official catalog and licensing.

• Hotrock — Racing; original MP3 retained.
• Hep Cats — Shows / Heritage; original MP3 retained.
• Surf Shimmy — Garage / Cruising; original MP3 retained.
• Malt Shop Bop — Garage / Cruising; original MP3 retained.
• Whiskey on the Mississippi — Workshop / Craft; original MP3 retained.
• Surf Inspector — Workshop / Craft; original MP3 retained.
• Sock Hop — Garage;
• Happy Bee - Surf — Garage;
• Bummin on Tremelo — Garage;
• Exhilarate — Racing;
• Breakdown — Racing;
• Sax, Rock, and Roll — Racing;
• OctoBlues — Workshop; Guitar: Brett Van Donsel
• Nile's Blues — Workshop;
• Slow Burn — Workshop;
• Deuces — Shows;
• Ultralounge — Shows;
• Hot Swing — Shows;

The twelve new recordings were transcoded from the official MP3 downloads to stereo AAC at 44.1 kHz, constrained variable bitrate targeting 160 kbps. No trimming or normalization was applied. Original compositions and complete song durations are retained, including the 50-second Hot Swing. Download sources, attribution and conversion details.

Recorded engines & tires

• Big Block V8 Rev by Henaway — actual Ford 460 throttle rev, used for the opening and Deuce garage/dyno rev. CC0.
• CHEVY HOT ROD MP3 by tubbers — recorded 1955 Chevrolet idle and low-load layers. CC0.
• Performance Cars by muted.io — samples 012, 013, 017, 023, 027, 028, 029, 031 and 051 provide distinct natural garage and dyno revs; sample 029 also supplies upper-load sound. Exact vehicles are unspecified. CC0.
• Car tire squeal skid loop by Tom Haigh (audible-edge), loop edited by qubodup. CC BY 3.0.
• Crash Collision by qubodup. CC0.
• VHCL - Engine Turning Over v8.wav by conleec. CC BY 4.0.

Engine and tire samples were trimmed, filtered, resampled, normalized and crossfaded. Runtime pitch and layer mixing follow engine speed, throttle and drift. The opening plays an actual recorded Ford throttle rev, then a stereo peelout made from the credited tire and engine recordings, followed by event music. Garage previews preserve natural throttle movement; each car has a separate recording. Runtime sound profiles are arcade interpretations, not recordings of the named historic cars. Dyno feedback uses two independent cues: carburetor mixture controls muffling on both the lean and rich sides, while distributor timing controls loudness. The ideal tune is clear and loud, preserving the recorded rev pitch. Automatic per-car revs receive the same live tuning changes, separated by two seconds of idle; dyno music is reduced to 33% of the selected music level. A filtered transient from the upper-load recording provides the knock effect.

Show-floor voices & reactions

Bright Female and Mature Female voice clip packs by cicifyre provide nine distinct recorded reactions. Gastric Distress by LFA provides Trixie’s comic extra exhaust. Both are CC0. Clips were trimmed, converted to mono PCM, level-matched and given short edge fades. Character names and roles are fictional; the performers do not portray historical people.

Workshop floor

Square Black and White Ceramic Checker Tiles (Tiles 0059) by TextureCan, CC0. Original 1K color, roughness and OpenGL normal maps are repeated at a game scale of 60 cm per tile. Wall-mounted banners and two roadside billboards reuse the supplied Car Kulture Deluxe and Ol’ Skool Rodz logos on original 3D surfaces and frames.

Detailed car models

These three source models use CC BY 4.0 and were obtained through the Objaverse collection.

• Hot Rod Pickup by Fredrik Johansen. Used for the rat rod and adapted exposed engines. Meshes reduced, textures optimized, coordinates normalized and wheels separated for animation.
• Coupe '33 Hotrod #1 - Low poly model by Daniel Zhabotinsky. Used for the full-fender 1933 coupe. Also adapted into the game's Deuce-inspired custom by removing fenders, running boards, hood, grille and bumpers, then fitting an upright radiator shell and exposed engine. This modified custom is not an exact factory 1932 body reproduction.
• Ford Model T roadster by BeArt. Bucket body, doors, seats and controls adapted to a custom drag chassis, with a supercharged V8, slicks, roll bar and wheelie bars.

Paint materials, tuning, custom parts, pinstripes and game animation are adaptations. Orbitron, Beatnik Bandit, Deora and Mantaray have original geometry rebuilt against multiple photographic views, including body profiles, wheel placement, glazing and fittings. These are reference-guided game models, not scans or dimensionally certified replicas. Reference sources and modeling notes. Performance and tuning are fictional arcade approximations.

1971 Buick Riviera kit

The Riviera uses the 61-piece 1:10 digital kit supplied by the project owner. The assembled body, opening hood, 455 engine, glass, interior, bumpers, lights and wheel geometry were adapted for the game. Print pins and concealed spares were removed; meshes were reduced, materials separated, wheel pivots restored and the hood hinge retained. This is a game adaptation of the supplied kit. Conversion notes.

Studio & technology

Studio Small 09 HDRI by Sergej Majboroda / Poly Haven, CC0. Used for reflections and lighting.

Three.js, MIT license. Read license.

Car Kulture Deluxe

The official Car Kulture Deluxe logo is supplied by carkulturedeluxe.com. Car Kulture Deluxe and Ol’ Skool Rodz were separated into transparent assets. The game displays the CKD script in white, preserving the red CAR KULTURE lettering.

Show & Shine pinups

Ruby Bell, Goldie Vega, Marina Vale, Stella Nova, Sunny Reyes, Roxy Sparks, Betty Redline, Trixie Torque, Celeste Lane and Vivian Voss are original fictional adult characters created for Kustom Kings. Their illustrations were made with the built-in image-generation tool, paired with the game’s cars and accompanied by original fictional biographies.

Kustom roots

The original game artwork and pinstripe challenges draw on the kustom traditions of Ed Roth, Von Dutch, Tom Kelly and the builders of the 1960s. No artist endorsement is implied.