If only they made a Ford F-150 convertible. Wait, they do?
If there’s one thing you can bet on with your big American-style pick-up truck, it’s solidity. Ain’t nothin’ gonna compromise that. Well okay, maybe if you chop the roof off, it may end up slightly compromised.
But that’s exactly what Huntington Beach, California-based company Newport Convertible Engineering (NCE) has done with the United States’ biggest-selling truck. It has lopped the top off just in time for ... well, spring in the US.
The company has prised the roofs off a variety of precious metal over the years, including Maybachs, Teslas, Rolls-Royces, Nissan GT-Rs and even — deary me — a Lexus LX570.
So, peeling back a Ford F-150 like a sardine can is probably as utilitarian as they’ve ever got.
The truck in question is a 2017 Ford F-150 SuperCrew Platinum though. Which sounds like it must be a really fancy version of the famous pick-up.
The modification looks ... a little off, if we’re honest. The top also folds back over the wellside tray, meaning you’re not going to be collecting garden mulch and enjoying wind-in-hair motoring all at the same time.
Probably a good thing, though.
Rather than some one-off, NCE have high hopes for their F-150 convertible.
The company claims there is “worldwide demand” for the vehicle and has, apparently, made an official request to Ford Motor Company for, gulp, between 5000 and 120,000 F-150s to chop.
Knievel’s suit sale
Evil Kinevel Motorcycle Leathers. Photo / Supplied
There’s optimism and then there’s blind optimism, y’all.
There are of course the jaw-dropping, death-defying motorcycle stunts Evel Knievel performed.
But if he had been dressed in ordinary motorcycle leathers, would the image of him flying over a line-up of yellow American school buses, on his way to an almost certain stint in a hospital bed, stick in the mind quite like it does?
Possibly not. Because Knievel knew how to put on a show.
And part of that showmanship was his famous star-spangled leather jumpsuit he’d wear on and off his bike.
Matched with a cane (not a simple prop, given the number of broken bones the stuntman would be nursing at any one time), he had the swagger of Shaft mixed with the ice cool of Steve McQueen.
Now someone is going to grab those leathers and that walking stick for their own collection.
Evel’s son Kelly Knievel has put up some of his dad’s memorabilia through Heritage Auctions, which generally specialises in more conventional sports miscellanea, like baseballs, bats and boxing gloves.
The pop culture items were already fetching US$40,000 mid-week though and the online bidding will be closing about the time you read this.
Oh, and incidentally, that diamond-encrusted cane is hollow, for Evel’s … medicinal needs.
A big hand for Kimi
Kimi Karaoke. Photo / Supplied
Formula 1 drivers lending their gold-plated (or cellophane-wrapped if you’re Rio Haryanto) names to business enterprises is hardly a new thing.
It doesn’t have to be remotely motor-orientated either. Sometimes a racer looking to diversify their interests may establish the odd winery, horse stud or golf course.
But a karaoke bar? That could only be a property prospectus signed by Kimi Raikkonen.
It’s true. Well, according to Finnish entertainment magazine Seitseman Paivaa, that’s what the Ferrari driver plans to do this year.
He’s apparently keeping the location of his new pet project top secret, with the only not-very-cryptic clue being that Kimi’s Karaoke (that’s not the name of the place, by the way, but we wish it was) will be established within stumbling distance of his yacht.
We’re not particularly au fait with the general layout of Helsinki, but surely that must rule out about 99.96 per cent of the streets?
Kimi is apparently a big fan of karaoke but whether the Scuderia Ferrari motorhome this season will feature a microphone, amplifier, glossy folder of song titles and an iPod loaded with the hits of Eminem remains to be seen, however.