5 replies to this topic

[mab01uk]

"not for the shy" 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/112399730472

 

[sonikk4]

Seriously fugly. They must have been smoking some serious stuff when that was built.

[MrBounce]

Oh boy... Certainly not to my tastes but somebody has put some long (wasted?) hours into that.

The 70s and 80s were great in some aspects. Car customising was not always one of them. My eyes hurt.

[sonikk4]

Just reworded my first post. Nope even in the heyday of customising that is just plain wrong. I grew up in that era and yes some cars were OTT but that is an afront to customising.

 

I know each to their own etc etc, but seriously that looks like a class of 9 year olds were let loose.

[mab01uk]

I agree it is OTT even for the custom car era......

 

I used to go in the 1970's early 80's when the 'Custom Car' era was at its peak and the cruise took place up and down the Kings Road, Chelsea last Saturday of every month..........then Police acting on residents complaints eventually moved /forced it into Battersea Park using road closures and it was sadly never quite the same. Crowds on Battersea Bridge used to cheer on the V8 American Muscle cars to do tyre smoking burn outs when the police weren't looking!





The first Chelsea Cruise May 1975:
"This was the ultimate car event to go to in the 1970s and hundreds of people would religiously attend the cruise every month which ran for almost thirty years!
I don’t think anybody really imagined it would be the success that it was, there were hundreds of ‘custom car’ owners at that time who were desperate to show off their rides but were very limited as far as venues were concerned, especially in London, that is until the Chelsea cruise came along.
Custom Car magazine organized the first cruise with the help of some well known cruisers of the day, originally the event was contained within Battersea Park, however the cruisers soon became restless and decided to start a convoy and their destination was the famous Kings road in Chelsea. Eventually this route would become the cruisers favorite choice to regularly show off their machines, it would also be the best vantage point for the thousands of spectators who lined the whole length of the Kings road to soak up the atmosphere and watch the world’s biggest bumper to bumper rolling car show!
Eventually everybody who lived in London was exposed to the 'Customized Car' phenomenon whether they liked it or not, numerous TV documentaries as well as the national press gave it a lot of exposure and even the British Tourist Board endorsed this great automotive spectacle, much to the annoyance of the local Police!
Imagine trying to get away with the same event today, literally hundreds of Police were deployed to control the huge crowds, Kings road was closed off to all public traffic at 11pm in order to stop the cruisers from re entering the cruise route, by doing this the Police hoped to disperse the mass of spectators more quickly... apparently without the cars there would be nothing to spectate!
Pubs and cafes which lined the route had to lay on extra staff every month to cope with the heaving crowds, all the pubs were packed with onlookers sometimes ten deep on the pavement outside spilling into the roads. Traffic for miles around was brought to a standstill, the gridlock became even worse if Chelsea FC happened to be playing at home on the same afternoon!
It is hard to forget those incredible scenes of thirty years ago, the night air thick with exhaust fumes and the constant sound and rumble of V8 engines echoing down every side street in and around SW3. Definitely great times and for those who attended the Chelsea cruise in the 1970s, it really was truly awesome!"
http://www.nsra.org....read.php?t=3143

[xrocketengineer]

"not for the shy" 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/112399730472

 

I love it!