May 7: Will.i.am's wild rides

William. Will.i.am. William Adams. Whatever. This music star and a member of the famous Black Eyed Peas sure does love his cars. There are all sorts of pics of him cruising around LA in a variety of very expensive rides. He has even had some cars custom built for his driving pleasure.

This one is based on a late '50's Corvette and is a real lesson in restraint. It's been smoothed out, some chrome removed, has bigger rims/tires and I would imagine that it has had its engine breathed on.

So much for good taste. Next..........

Imaginatively named "Iamauto", this creation was supposed to cost at least $700k and was supposedly built from scratch. Probably it would have cost that much, if that were truly the case. There are certain hard bits that give away the original car, although hard to see in this photo, the windshield and back glass identify this beauty(?) as a DeLorean. One has to start somewhere and hopefully the end result will be a thing of beauty. A DeLorean is not much of a starting point and Iamauto is not much of a finishing point. In the eyes of the beholder for sure.

Will.i.am's most recent showpiece is even stranger.........

A West Coast Customs creation which harkens back to the classics of the 1930's. Its lines are actually not too bad, although rather bizarre from some angles. Wonder what lies underneath that baby blue body? Maybe a Corvette or a Ferrari chassis and engine? Again a very expensive ride, pegged to cost at least $900k and again built from scratch. Wait a minute......built from scratch? Well at least an extremely heavily modified something. What could it be, what could it be?

Well folks, here it is under construction.......

No kidding, this ultra expensive ride started out as this 1958 VW Beetle. Apparently the idea of what to do with this old Bug changed several times during the build and was removed from the original body shop, so that West Coast Customs could finish it off. Consider it finished off! Money well wasted, indeed.

I've said it before, tons of money and good taste do not go hand in hand. Will.i.am should stick with off the floor models or at least go back to the designer responsible for the Vette. On the other hand, what is a couple of mill when you have so many of them?

Until next time........