It is a common practice in the auto industry to name a sporty car after a fearsome or powerful animal. Cars like the Mustang, Impala, Cougar, and Shelby Cobra all borrow their names from the animal kingdom.
Along those lines, Keith Goggin decided to give his 1967 Volkswagen Karmann Ghia the nickname “Blue Mamba.” It’s a reference to the black mamba, a venomous snake found throughout central Africa. They are some of the fastest-moving snakes on earth, and also extremely deadly.
It should come as no surprise that when you combine some of the biggest names in hot rodding with a lot of money and a three-year build time, the results are going to be nothing short of amazing.
This 1969 Torino Talladega is not just another resto-modded muscle car with big rims. This car is Babe Ruth hitting three home runs in Game Four of the 1926 World Series. This car is Jimi Hendrix on stage at Woodstock. This car represents a team of builders (led by Troy Trepanier) who have perfected their craft. These guys are at the top of their game and pull off miracles that other builders can only dream of.
I don’t normally post about trucks, but this one is really something special.
This customized 1957 Chevrolet truck belongs to Alan Beers of Owasso, Oklahoma. When I say customized, I don’t mean that the owner bolted on a couple of go-fast parts and a rollpan. I mean that every body panel on this truck has been altered in some way!
Imagine for a moment that the 2013 SEMA show was transformed into a high school cafeteria.
The Mustangs, Camaros, Chevelles and Novas would be the cool kids, flexing their muscles and throwing a football back and forth while the girls swooned over them. The Hyundai Genesis Coupes and the Scion FR-S/Subaru BRZs would be the geeks, wiping off their glasses as they rewire their ECUs. The Jeeps and lifted/baja/prerunner trucks would be the band geeks, a tightly-knit group who knows that all they’ve got is each other.
Then you have the DeTomaso Pantera. While it came with a big V8 engine and was sold in Ford Dealerships, this car doesn’t fit in with the rest of the crowd. It is closer to an exotic car than a muscle car. Its mid-engine layout, low production numbers, and premium price tag place it in a different social class from the other cars. At a show like SEMA, the Pantera is something of a misfit.
There are certain vehicles which, for various reasons, are labelled as “gangster” vehicles. From the 1964 Impala to the Lincoln Continental, these cars have a definite “bad guy” image that people crave.
One car I would never have considered for a mobbed-out gangster mobile is a Studebaker. But, I suppose that’s what makes me different from the guys at Kicker Audio. Their booth at SEMA 2013 featured this evil 1950 Studebaker Champion.
When I think about the cars of the 1960s, I think about the high-performance muscle cars from the Big Three automakers: Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler. But these weren’t the only players in the car game. Today I want to talk about one of the other American car companies: Rambler.
While the Big Three were making ridiculously powerful passenger cars, Rambler was off doing their own thing. They created a little compact car called the American which was focused on value and practicality. It was a compact car that was affordable yet did not look cheap. It had an inline 6 cylinder engine and offered one of the best warranties available at the time.
