Hmm. I suppose everyone has a right to define "art" in his or her own terms. To me, however, "art" is an abstraction of form, and form is derivative of function. In my opinion, of course -- and people will disagree about form following function.

Anyway, see-sawing a pickup truck up and down with compressed air or hydraulics is not an extension of the function of a truck, and therefore not a proper extension of the form. Jacking it up and putting oversized and basically non-function-enhancing wheels on it does abstract from form. I still think it's ugly, but that's opinion, not definition.

Hey, I don't even like clear-coats. Goddamn paint should do the job. Don't gild the lily. :-)

Sorry -- arguing about bullshit like "what is beautiful?" is a weakness of mine. Yup, waste of time, but what else have I got to do?