Auto exhibits are a shell of what they as soon as have been, with means fewer automakers exhibiting on the conference facilities and those that are there not essentially utilizing the chance to disclose one thing new. Porsche doesn’t even go to the Los Angeles Auto Present anymore, which left a giant house open on the present flooring for one more model to take. That model is West Coast Customs, and whereas usually I might’ve briefly walked by means of, seen their terrible builds and left, yesterday I spent about half-hour gazing a automobile that they had on show: The chopped-up Maybach 57S from Kanye West and Jay-Z’s “Otis” music video.
A observe from Ye and Jay’s wonderful 2011 collaborative album “Watch the Throne” that sampled namesake Otis Redding’s “Strive a Little Tenderness,” the music video for “Otis” was directed by Spike Jonze and launched on August 11, 2011. Within the video, Kanye and Jay-Z chop up and modify the Maybach with saws and different energy instruments earlier than drifting it round a transport yard. It’s epic, and it broke the web (particularly the automotive facet of it) when the video first dropped. The track additionally occurs to have probably the greatest automotive bars ever: “They ain’t see me ‘trigger I pulled up in my different Benz, final week I used to be in my different different Benz.”
I’m truthfully shocked that the Maybach continues to be round. The automobile was offered as a part of Phillips de Pury & Co’s New York Up to date Artwork Night public sale the next yr, the place it hammered for $60,000 regardless of its $100,000 to $150,000 estimate (and the automobile having a retail value thrice that determine). At the least all that cash went to charity.
It’s unclear when West Coast Customs acquired the Maybach or what the automobile has been as much as within the decade because the music video dropped, however it seems to be precisely because it did again then. It’s a very wild factor to behold, with so many humorous particulars to absorb just like the hood getting used as a trunk and the trunk getting used as a hood. It actually doesn’t look very secure, however a minimum of there appear to be some chassis reinforcements. I’d rock the hell out of it — if it even nonetheless runs, that’s. If it doesn’t, how laborious may it actually be to make it roadworthy once more?
If you end up in Los Angeles between now and December 1, go to the auto present. Even when all that you just see is the Otis Maybach, it’ll be value it. There are admittedly a pair different cool issues within the WCC sales space, like Paris Hilton’s pink Bentley Continental GT (that she nonetheless owns!), and the primary present itself truly noticed the debuts of a bunch of fascinating new fashions. Nothing is as cool because the Maybach, although.
