Having
nothing to do with Europas, in my book I am a bit hard on the cable show Overhaulin’.
To those unfamiliar with Overhaulin’, they take a beat-to-shit car that
someone loves, work with their spouse or significant other, abscond with the
car on the ruse it’s been stolen, then resurrect it. Automotive customizer par
excellence Chip Foose is with the show, and there’s no denying that he and his
crew do incredible work. The cars are rebuilt from the ground up, usually with
heavy customization – updated high-output engine, massive wheels and low
profile tires, leather-stitched dashboard, killer sound system, etc. They do
all this in a hugely compressed time frame with a hard end date (“the reveal”).
They then present the car to the owner, who is filmed overcome with tears of
joy.
While I’m
certain that all of the people working on the cars (and on the show), take
pride in what they do, I have problems with it on several levels. First, no
restoration work – indeed, no project management work of any kind – is like
this, ever. You never are part of a project with boundless scope
and an immovable end date where you have absolutely no skin in the game.
Second, a car, particularly an enthusiast car, is a very personal thing, and,
as I say in the book, owning an enthusiast car is very much about the feeling
of control. I wouldn’t want any of my cars taken out of my control and modified
in ways I hadn’t explicitly approved of. Third, they never talk about the
after-care of these cars. I doubt the pre-overhauled shitbox required high
insurance and a locked garage, but the Cinderella version certainly does. And
it’s a one-off. Who maintains it? Who documents, orders, and installs the
necessary parts? I’ve always felt that “Overhaulin’ – Behind the
Alcantra” would be a very interesting show.
So I took
notice when two friends sent me e-mail referring to a recent episode of Overhaulin’
where they do a Europa. One said the treatment they gave it was pretty cool,
and implied that if I watched it, I might soften the opinion expressed in my
book. I’m actually inching closer to perhaps buying a Europa, so with a certain
curiosity and enlightened self-interest, I found and Tivo’d the episode, and
last night, sat down to watch it.
The episode
was a bit unusual in several ways. The guy who’s Europa it was delivers soda to
Jay Leno’s Big Dog Garage where Jay maintains his cars. The guy
volunteers his time there after hours as a wrench. So Jay Leno – the car guy’s
Car Guy – was involved in this episode and had a lot of screen time. The guy
had owned and raced this Europa over a 30-year period but blew up the engine
about six years ago. The car was then parked at the Big Dog Garage, where it
sat. He eventually traded it to someone at the garage for a set of wheels for
his Camaro. So at the time of the episode, the guy no longer owned the car.
The Overhaul
treatment the car received was over the top. A 350 hp supercharged engine
from a Lotus Elise and a Porsche Boxster 6-speed transaxle were installed. The obligatory
massive wheels and tires were stuffed under the wheel wells, requiring the
fiberglass body to be cut and widened around the fenders. A full custom
suspension was designed and installed, requiring the mounting points on the
car’s frame to be changed. The usual retinue of body workers, painters,
interior specialists, all did their thing.
At the end,
with the paint literally still tacky on the car, the guy was called in on the
pretense of a TV segment on Lotus being filmed, his role being an enthusiast
who had once owned and raced a Europa. First they revealed that this
tricked-to-the-max machine was the very Europa that was once his, then Leno and
Foose appeared and gave him the keys. So, in ways, this reveal had three
components: 1) This is the Europa that was yours; 2) Look at what we did to it,
and 3) It’s yours again. His response certainly contained the customary surprise
and gratitude, but seemed to me to be somewhat measured. That is, he was
surprised that this was the same car and grateful for all the work that’d been
done on his behalf, but he didn’t express any over-the-top sentiments like “oh,
this was the best car I’d ever owned it was part of my life for so long I never
should’ve sold it thank you for rectifying this mistake.”
But that’s
not what wrapped this episode up with an unintended bow.
If you read
up on Europas, you’ll find that the generally small size of any British sports
car combined with the Europa’s 42” ground-to-roofline dimension makes them
challenging to fit into unless you’re a little guy (see the banter on http://bringatrailer.com/2013/02/23/1972-lotus-europa-twin-cam/
regarding a Europa I almost bid on several months back). Fortunately, I am
a little guy.
But this guy on Overhaulin? Taller and
probably a good 40 lbs heavier than me. At the end of the episode, he could
barely fit in the car. They literally joked about getting a transmission jack
to help him in.
It made me think. Of course he’s a bit
restrained in his reaction to the car. He sold this car. No. Wait. He
didn’t. He traded this car for a set of wheels for his Camaro. Maybe he
was done with this car. Maybe he thought, yeah, at this point in my life
I’m totally a Camaro guy. Maybe he walked away from the reveal thinking “what I
am I supposed to do with this thing now?”
So, Mr. Leno, Mr. Foose, you are Car Guys
Extraordinaire. If we ever meet, I would be honored to soak in your aura. But,
if you read my book, don’t mistake the misty rose-colored comments I made about
my Triumph GT6+ and my ’63 Rambler Classic 660 for actual actionable lust. I
don’t really want either of them back.
