Bobby Murray Chevrolet Cruise-Night

Don't ask me why a car dealer would host a cruise-in, during the middle of the week, but Bobby Murray Chevrolet did just that. I heard about it from Caddyman65, so we met there after work, along with Zman and Reece. The real plan was to meet there and go for beers/burgers afterwards, but the folks running the cruise did their best to make folks welcome. Matter of fact, NC State head coach, Chuck Amato was going to be there at 8:00 to talk Wolfpack football, and there was Bojangles chicken on hand for folks who brought their cars.

Caddyman rolled up in his badass Rivullac, with Reese riding shotgun. This car just looks evil. The recently added Astro Supremes are just another step along the way to shaping this kustom the way Caddyman wants it. As if the Riviera front-end, grafted to the drop-top Caddy wasn't enough... the tail-light and exhaust treatments in store are going to be mind bending

The turnout for the cruise was relatively small, but considering it was during the week, I give the dealership credit for trying. Too bad Chevrolet can't try a little harder in their design department. We took long, hard looks at the new HHR, SSR, and the Impala SS. All three are retro-designs, based on earlier vehicles (how's that for redundant?). The HHR emulates a 50's-era Suburban; the SSR is supposed to embody the spirit of the '47-'53 Advanced Design Pickup; and the Impala? well, that one's easy enough.

The problem is, that all three cars have been so stylized and slicked-up, that there just isn't much interesting to look at in terms of details. Where is the trim and accent pieces? How about some chrome bumpers to break up the monochrome paint scheme? Zman extoled on the virtues of some chrome treatment for the tail-light bezels. (Okay, so the HHR had a chrome roof rack... but surely the boys in Detroit can do better than this!)


I guess it all comes down to parts and manufacturing costs. I guess that's also the reason I opted to purchase a 1953 Chevy 1/2 Ton Pickup. Why pay $45K+ for a "hotrod truck" (built on a minivan chassis, btw), when you can own the real-deal for way less then 1/4 the price!?!? Sure, it will take some amount of money, time, talent, and perserverance (likely a BUNCH of all four of these things). But in the end, which vehicle is going to get more thumbs-ups? Probably the Rivullac.

-murph

FHM Estonia Magazine Article

Shortly after I posted some pics from the West Coast Kustoms Paso Robles show this year, I received an email from an editor at FHM Magazine in Estonia. He was interested in using my pics for a piece he was doing on kustoms. I was kinda surprised (and a bit skeptical), cuz my pics weren't that great, and I had no idea how he came across the pics on the HAMB so fast (I didn't think any of the search engines would have picked them up yet).

So we exchange a few emails, and I sent him thirty or so, high-res pics with descriptions. I thought it was cool that someone wanted to use my pics, but pretty much wrote the whole thing off as a goof. A coupla months go by and I haven't heard anything, so just for fun, I dropped him some email earlier this week.

Well, today he sends me a postscript (pdf) file of the complete article from the July issue of FHM-Estonia. It looks pretty slick! Unfortunately, I don't read a lick of Estonian, so I can't tell much about the article. It does appear that he used the descriptions I sent him (easy to tell by English words that were not translated). There seems to be a short interview on page 5, with the guy in the picture from page 1. I also appear to have gotten photo credits in the left margin of page 2. No paycheck, but hey, it is cool to see your words and pics in print (even if the words are in a foreign language, and the print is digital).

One thing I did find ironic is that the story is laced with advertisements for billet wheels and steering wheels. LOL I guess someone has to pay the bills? Here's a link to a pdf of the article if you want to check it out.

Link to July Issue of FHM-Estonia Kustom Article

And yes, I sent pictures of my own cars (I feel like a dork). I really had no idea the pics were actually gonna end up in print. At the same time, I didn't tell him which of the thirty pics to use. So... I guess it just shows that Estonians have particularly good taste in rods and customs.

-murph