Amanda Shinji of Pontiac Motorati Island in Second Life - SLCC Chicago

Ask Patty has been spending a lot of time in Second Life on Pontiac’s Motorati Island. On the island we have met some awesome car-lovin’ gals! We interviewed Amanda Shinji of the Parkade nightclub about her car customizing hobby.

Ask Patty: How did you get interested in designing cars in SL? Have you always loved cars?

Amanda Shinji: I've been interested in cars since my parents first took me out and I saw all the different wheels that they had.   I used to point to the wheels of a car and be able to identify it from them alone.   I'm a bit of a tomboy when it comes to cars and I have a particular fondness for Japanese cars, especially the Mazda RX7 FD, which is my dream car and the one that one day, I will own.   

I found out that Scion had a virtual dealership in SL (alongside Pontiac, Nissan and now Mercedes Benz) and bought myself a tC, but I found it boring to drive, so I set about learning how to modify scripts and bodywork and it sort of went from there.   The beauty of modifying a car in SL is that you can do what you want.  Okay, there are limitations with making a certain number of objects (aka 'prims') move, but there are ways around that.

AP: How long have you been in SL and how did you learn to built cars in SL. Tell me about your building studio in SL

AS: I've been in SL since December 2006, when I joined to see a virtual concert by a band that I like and then stayed as it looked like fun. I learned to build by literally playing with prims; seeing what button did what, and how I could manipulate them and then when I discovered cars in SL. Everything just felt natural for me to start building and modifying them.

My studio is based around a small workshop, situated just down the road from the AskPatty.com site actually.   It's a small place, nothing fancy, a bit grubby but you can tell it's mine as it has a string of Pontiac Solstice GXPs parked outside, all displaying modifications or custom graphics that I've made.   I also have a high-altitude building platform, where I've recently been working on newer cars, like my Pro Stock Solstice GXP and the Ultimate Drift Spec car too.