One of my own personal criteria that I’ve developed over the years to mentally rank the relative “wow” factor of vehicles is to gauge its first impression punch. What will the impact on the average person be when they see it for the first time?
This works quite well for most new cars, and your average car on the street. If your generic economy car wouldn’t even get noticed if you were honking your horn and flashing your lights, you’re probably driving a Toyota. If passers-by point cruelly and laugh, you have one of the new happy-face Mazdas. If they stop dead in curiosity, probably a new Kia Soul. But I digress.
What about when a car is significantly more unique; either a new exotic, or a custom-built classic? For these cars, I revise my scenario; what would be the response among people who know cars, and have seen a lot of them? The examples I use are the valets at a nice hotel or restaurant, who probably see a half-dozen $100k cars every night, and the traveling crowd at a car show. How would they respond to a particular car?
I don’t think I even need to answer that question with the Diamond T. The builder has “first impressions” down to an art-form. Not only does he have a beautiful hot-rod, but an equally beautiful car-hauler to get it to the show. Created by Steve Darnell, it’s one in a series of pretty amazing creations he’s cobbled together. Clearly, the man knows how to make an entrance.
Special thanks once again to Jim Brennan (aka UDMan) from over at CarDomain for sharing his beautiful high-res photos with us. Go check out his article on the truck and show him a bit of love.
Jeff Glucker
Hmmm…which is greater: Old body on new chassis or old body on old chassis?
On one hand, you're likely to have something with 3x the power, handling and braking with most of the aesthetics you're going for. On the other, you get kudos for rockin' the old tech and a more complete experience. Of course, that experience may include being harrowing downhills and incredibly slow uphills, punctuated by bouts of overheating.
I was acquaintances with a guy who put a '50s Ford pickup body on a '90s Mountaineer chassis. He figured they were basically dimensionally the same, even down to using the Mountaineer dashboard. I though the new dash was a little out of place, but from the outside it was pretty cool.
Old body on old chassis all the way, though it's killing me right now.
There's a prodigal '53 GMC 1-ton with a buy it now of $1150 that I'm just not quite ready for.
If the authenticity ever did become excessive, I could probably be talked into old body, old chassis, new drivetrain.
My dad and I have been debating this. There's a '37 Dodge in our treestrip that has a '53 Buick nailhead and several species of animal living under the hood. He'd like to take the body in its present rusty state and drop it on a compatibly-sized Dodge truck chassis, perhaps a 4×2 Dakota or Durango's. I tend to think the car makes a more interesting rat rod with the Buick power.
Agreed. Fix it up the way it is.
That is incredibly sick. Wow. I sometimes get bored with custom cars because they tend to look alike after a while. I don't know what it is. Do car guys all have the same influences? Maybe. When something that truly stands out arrives, I want to celebrate it.
[…] engineerd pointed out in the previous post about the Diamond T, there is, sadly, a certain point where a lot of these custom cars start to look the same. If you […]
I was also seriously impressed that the builder's "business cards" were poker chips.
This just unspeakably cool. I don't even mind the front wheels sticking way out of the fenderwells.
I liked UDman's article. Check out the website link there, this dude has some freakin' outrageous vehicles.
So… you're saying you didn't like my article which was almost directly stolen from his? You insensitive bastard!
No, Dearthair, you did just fine. I just read your other article concerning the Diamond-T's offspring, and it was very nice, too (pats him on the head). Now, go write something else. I'm gonna go see Mommy over at Fleshbot and when I come back I'll look at what you've done.
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