24 cars blue sky: What’s Wrong With This Picture? WTF Is It Edition.

Almost every time I go to a car show I see something that reminds me that skill in shaping metal and plastic doesn't necessarily translate into aesthetic taste or talent. Last year at a Woodward Dream Cruise event I saw what at first glance appeared to be sort of a Dodge Viper, but actually was a C4 Corvette with some creative fiberglass work. Then, a few weeks ago at a spring shine-n-show in northwest Detroit I spotted this not-so-cute ute.

Someone put what had to be hundreds of hours into creating this custom Chevy pickup truck. My favorite touch of automotive kitsch here is the spoiler. Multi-element wings on tuner cars are silly, but they could, theoretically create some downforce. Sticking a spoiler right behind the cab of a pickup truck isn't going to spoil anything except one's sense of taste. A proper spoiler creates downforce. This one might force something to come back up. To be honest, though, it's not an utterly terrible looking vehicle, the front end actually has some nice lines and proportions, if you ignore the hood scoop, but this Chevy's been molded, slammed, shaved and gassed almost beyond recognition. Well, not almost, actually. I know my cars pretty well but I had to ask the owner what kind of vehicle gave its life to bring forth this into our world. After he told me, I was still scratching my head. Now that I'm looking at the photos I realize that there are a couple of tells, one or two things that haven't been customized, but I'm not telling. Instead I'm asking the Best & Brightest to identify this wild custom. Since it's wearing a bow-tie it's not much of a hint to say that it started out as a Chevy, so I'll give you the additional information that it did not start out as an El Camino or some other Chevy truck, it's sedan based.

Ronnie Schreiber edits Cars In Depth, a realistic perspective on cars & car culture and the original 3D car site. If you found this post worthwhile, you can dig deeper at Cars In Depth. If the 3D thing freaks you out, don't worry, all the photo and video players in use at the site have mono options. Thanks for reading – RJS