I suspect we may be a tad harsh in our criticism of this chaps drive ambition and craftsmanship....? It seems logical his influences would probably be relative to the car culture he grew up with...? Given it seems there has been perhaps more disposable income over a longer period in the US than here in the UK, creating a much wider spread of interests in their automotive culture, and given the dimensions of the road networks in the US it seems large and powerful machines were ever the priority...?
The customisation of machines in the US was way ahead of anything here in the UK, in so many areas, to the extent it even became an art form. I remember seeing images of a high heel shoe that could be driven on the road... I guess we are fortunate not to live in a black and white world where the population can express themselves in so many ways..?
Over the time I have been messing around with old m/cycles and cars, I have, no doubt like many here, witnessed a cultural evolution as ever following on from the US with a mix of local culture holding on in there, which I may be as guilty of as any here..(-: I remember well being amazed by some US TV shows when they first became available here, such as American Hot Rod and the craftsmanship of Boyd Coddington and his team given some of the processes they developed to create some mind blowing machinery..... For sure on some of these TV shows there did seem to be a fair bit of filler in places that could easily be frowned upon by artisans of the English wheel, hammer and dolly, but there are such craftsmen to be found all around the world beating wonderful shapes out of metal...?
I have a long term pal who has seemingly been smitten by US truck culture, his skills far exceed my own miserable efforts. As a home self-build nutter, I have run a truck as a daily for years on a purely practical basis, whereas my friend has for some time now been customising a 50`s Ford F100 (?) not enough to convert it from LH to RH drive or fit a Corvette 6litre engine and much modified suspension and drive train/brakes wheels tyres. he then changed his mind on the old cast iron V8, and went for an LS3, and before he had completed that conversion, he again decided on an engine upgrade to a Coyote engine, which it seems he wished to improve further and now has bought a supercharger to fit to it...! This vehicle has been a work in progress on and off for a number of years, and he has had open heart surgery, but still getting on with it as and when in the mood to do so.....
Me...? The whole idea of a truck with that degree of power, time effort and money ploughed into it seems absolutely nuts, when to my mind his skills could be put to far better use, but then my priorities and his differ and as such confirms to some degree that a bit of colour in setting our personal priorities seems an improvement over black and white..?
