One of the joys of the Geneva show is that it’s anything but bland. Independent design firms large and small, tuners you’ve never heard of, energy companies, hopeful car builders looking for startup money, you name it.
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DETROIT — Justin Lilly stares at his 1951 Ford pickup and can’t help but be a little afraid.
The truck has more than $130,000 worth of upgrades, sounds like a growling demon and is “murdered out” — slang for the truck’s all-black rims, paint job and tinted windows.
“It’s a monster,” the 20-year-old Jackson resident said. “That all black just makes it look scary.”
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Lilly, who was on a ventilator as a child and now has only 23 percent of the lung capacity of someone with healthy lungs, asked the Ann Arbor Make-a-Wish chapter if they could line up someone to paint his truck.
The group came through and he and a crew of Washtenaw Community College instructors, students and community volunteers spent the past 18 months raising funds and tracking down parts for the truck.
The tricked-out truck will be on display this weekend at the annual Autorama in the Cobo Convention Center, the oldest hot rod show of its kind in the nation. The show is a love fest for those who love muscle cars, cool trucks and all the after-market goodies that make them so sweet.
“I’ve junked better vehicles than this,” said Gary Sobbry, chairman of the college’s auto body program, of the truck when he first saw it. “It was worth less than $500.”
Not anymore. The truck has been displayed in Las Vegas and is part of a 10-page spread of the March edition of Truckin’ Magazine. Lilly has not yet driven the truck and is waiting for lessons on what to expect from a vehicle with a 600 horsepower engine.
“I’ve been for two rides in it,” Lilly said. “Everybody is going to be looking at me.”
Lilly’s grandfather bought the truck more than 30 years ago for Lilly’s father. Lilly’s parents went to the prom in the truck and after a few years it just sat on the family’s property in Jackson.
Justin Lilly began tinkering with it and asked only for a paint job because he did not think it would be good to take in the paint fumes and other chemicals. He had no idea that thousands of hours of work would be put into the truck for free once people heard about his story. He also did not know how much money and parts were raised until a reporter told him.
“That is just insane,” he said. “I’m really grateful to anybody and everybody who got involved. It is like Christmas, only the presents never stop. I don’t know if I can ever tell these people thank you enough.”
Make-a-Wish officials said they do not encourage pricy gifts for the people the nonprofit helps but went along with the truck upgrades because donations covered the work.
Sobbry said his classes are the only one of their kind in North America that focus on high-end customization jobs. He said local businesses and corporations donated money, experts or parts without being begged to do so.
The Ford Motor Co. donated a $30,000 drive train that was essential to the project, he said.
“There were no questions he asked,” Sobbry said. “Without them we never would have been able to do the build.”
Ford also sent one of their top mechanics who donated hundreds of hours of work on the truck.
“We don’t do Pimp My Ride (an MTV show in which people’s cars are customized for free) and put a blender in the dash,” Sobbry said. “That makes for great TV. We build from the ground up.”
Lilly said he will never forget the kindness everyone has shown him.
“It really shows you what kind of integrity they have,” he said. “Beforehand, I didn’t know any of these guys and they did not know me. It makes you step back and say people do care.”
You can reach Santiago Esparza at (313) 222-2127 or sesparza@detnews.com.
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Allan Rushforth is one fit man. He swims, cycles, runs, surfs and rock climbs.
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Indeed, but Chrysler is working hard to prove that itâs not dead yet, and its latest offerings are three electric concept cars that will debut in Detroit at the start of 2008. And like nearly every concept these days all three are supposedly eco-friendly, with each car featuring a lithium-ion battery pack.
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Ford’s new Fiesta will get Martin Smith’s kinetic design language, so it’ll finally have the looks to match its handling. The rakishly styled hatch will be unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show in March 2008, but we’ve already caught both the three- and five-door cars testing. Click below to see the Fiesta in action.
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This is the new Mercedes CLK, taking a breather after some undercover ice-dancing with an Audi A5. Perhaps itâs practicing for the main event â a showdown with the 3-series Coupe when the C-class-derived two-door is launched in early 2009. Weâve also snapped the car testing in Germany and bagged the first interior shots of the CLK.
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Robby Gordon received a season-saving reprieve from a NASCAR appeals committee Wednesday when the three-member panel restored the 100 points he had been docked for an unapproved front bumper on his No. 7 Dodge at Daytona.
The Associated Press reported that The National Stock Car Racing Commission also lifted crew chief Frank Kerr’s six-week suspension, but raised his monetary fine from $100,000 to $150,000. The fine is the largest in NASCAR history, topping the $100,000 set by Michael Waltrip last season and matched several times.
“We are grateful the commissioners rescinded the points penalty and suspension but disappointed by the fine,” Gordon said. “Still, we see this as a victory for Robby Gordon Motorsports. We feel like justice was done and appreciate NASCAR creating a system that allowed us to take our appeal to the … commission.”
The rare appeals victory drastically eases Gordon’s burden for the foreseeable future. After Sunday’s 42nd-place finish in Las Vegas, Gordon had plummeted to 37th in the standings. That put Gordon below the coveted top-35 mark, which guarantees drivers a spot in the field each week, and put NASCAR’s only independent driver-owner in jeopardy of missing races. With the points restored, Gordon is 21st in the standings.
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Does Cadillac not want us cupholder-oriented women as customers? Are non-cupholder girls sexier? Because if thatâs the case, Caddy, donât use sex appeal to get me to like your horsepower and available features. Try pairing the horsepower with some finesse, or perhaps making the navigation system behind that 8-inch screen easy to use. Make a car that actually fits a âdifferent kind of woman.â
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More goofy Japanese videos to kill time.
This is an older video from a normal Japanese network TV with the popular comedy duo ‘Fujiwara’. His mission is to eat the whole cake while riding shotgun with a drifting gal in her S13. Watch to the end for a nice finale.
The famous “nameneko” cats which were pretty popular in the 80’s at the height of bosozoku/yanki mania. I actually just saw something on TV tonight that said the nameneko is coming back in popularity. Check out the S30Z and what appears to be a Corvette at the end of the video!
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By Robert Farago
February 15, 2008 - 5,431 Views
Yup, there it was, buried in an Automotive News [AN, sub] story announcing that Pontiac dealers aren’t going to get a Trans Am version of the new Chevrolet Camaro. You know, the Canadian-built rear wheel-drive muscle car that’s due out this spring. Sorry, I mean fall. Winter. OK, February ‘09. Anyway, GM told a meeting of B-P-G (Buick, Pontiac, GMC) dealers that “new legislation requiring vehicles to reach a fleet average of 35 mpg by 2020″ has plucked the screaming chicken. In fact, Pontiac “might not end up as GM’s performance division.” [NB: I think that means that none of GM’s eight U.S. brands gets a performance remit.] “The plan is being tweaked because of the gas situation,” revealed Lynn Thompson, owner of Thompson Motor Sales in Springfield, Mo. “I hope they don’t give up on performance because they don’t have to. You can use four-cylinder engines to achieve incredible power.” To placate any B-P-G dealer deluded enough to expect something roughly akin to coherent branding from GM, the American automaker also announced that they’re unleashing 12 new or special-edition vehicles over the next 20 months. (Sneak peak! Get ready for a special-edition GMC Sierra pickup called “Pro Grade.”) In case you’re wondering what separates a Pontiac from a Chevy, Buick or Saturn (or anything else) now that the former “We Build Excitement” division isn’t building excitement, I have no idea. Does anyone?
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Dang. I actually like the look of that Trans Am more than the forthcoming Camaro.
Chevy = mass consumer market
Pontiac = fleet sales?
Oh, and in case you’re wondering separates a Pontiac from a Chevy, Buick or Saturn (or anything else), now that they’re ditching the performance shtick, I have no idea. Does anyone?
Plastic body molding, faux spoilers, and, of course, DRIVING EXCITEMENT!
At least when they had side cladding they had some sort of identity.
How about firing everyone at GM making over $200,000 per year, promoting whoever is left.
Tell ‘em all they have 24 months to turn it around or shut ‘er down.
Sometimes in Scrabble the only move is to throw in your letters and start over. Clearly GM management can’t get any more incoherent than it already is.
Advertising cars that don’t exist like the Volt, taking all the plastic cladding off Pontiac and replacing the old image with, well, nothing, spending a bunch of money to give new products to the brand nobody cares about (Saturn) and on and on.
These guys are overpaid chimps.
Pontiac = Chevrolet with split grille
Buick = Chevrolet with velour seats
Cadillac = Chevrolet with velour seats and chrome
GMC = Chevrolet with GMC badges
Daewoo = Chevrolet without Chevrolet
I have to second Jonathon, Pontiac version would look better. The all black, undisguised tester Camaro looks like it rear-ended something due to the droopy hood falling over the headlights.
That Trans Am does look pretty sharp. And much, much better than the forthcoming Camaro.
How about building economical cars that drive well, like the Mazda3 or the lesser-engined BMWs that aren’t sold here? Oh, yeah, that takes true engineering and manufacturing competence.
low-powered-engines are not the enemy of performance. Weight is the enemy of performance. But who am I kidding? This is America.
So what does this mean? More G5/Cobalt clones, because they’ve got the best gas mileage GM can produce out of a regular engine (granted it doesn’t meet the new CAFE standards but then, what does?). And there’s the daewoo… er, Aveo. Which might.
*sigh* Or they can just suck it up and pay the fines, or weasel their way out of it by offering E85 versions of their cars. Which IIRC is how they’ve been getting by, up to this point.
Not so fast, muscle isn’t quite dead at Pontiac.
The G8 sedan and G8 ST will both carry the tire-smoking, sideways-driving, muscle car banner at Pontiac for awhile.
The G8 line will add a GXP model for 2009 which includes the Corvette’s LS3 V8 and it will offer a six-speed manual. Holden begins production on MY2009 G8s March 2nd and more official details about it will be released this summer, or sooner perhaps.
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