Thanks for all that info and I'll try the website.  Presently, I've done a pretty good tire.  Since it's all cylinders, spline work for the lug nuts, and grabbing a pretty good tire thread .jpg, the work wasn't too bad.  Just had to use flat mapping in both color and bump channels.

I can get the backgrounds for the top/bottom, left, right, and front rear.  However, they don't appear in the perspective view so sizing and aligning all three views aren't working too well.

Most of my half made cars look like they've been in an Alabama wreck--all 19 of 'em.  I think though that I'm on to a technique that may work.

After creating a side with the curves I want, I'm doing the duplicate with symmetry thing and rotating the duplicate 180,  and align it with the master (keep on forgetting to move them away from the "wire" skeleton--when you use polys and Gordon, one gets both the skeleton and figure). 

It looks like everything can be easy IF you don't forget simple things like the above and if Carrara 5 Pro doesn't freeze or gets that rendering failure error and I loose everything. 

Well back to the rendering board with your tips
Jan