"Out in the Streetz..." (But She Caught me!) Customized 1994 Chevrolet Suburban!

Checkout that grille! Chrome flames!

Last week while at work, I was leaving a location where I just completed a marketing promotion and happened to pass a nicely customized Chevrolet Suburban parked outside. I kept looking at it and wondering if I might snap a picture. There were some houses and apartments nearby and couldn't be sure if the owner would suddenly show up or pop his or her head out the window and inquire about my merry picture taking. While continuing to walk forward I had a change of heart, and walked backwards to get in position to snap some pictures. I didn't think I could let this one slip me, I might never seen it again! And I liked the black-on-chrome design theme as well as the unique chrome-flame type grille.

       Now, a confirmation of my previous thoughts was about to enter reality. Just as I was snapping my last picture of the truck and was ready to leave, here comes the owner! I was like, "Aww shit! It was a heavy set  African American woman and she was on her phone approaching the vehicle.  I heard a pause in the phone conversation and and an utterance that sounded something like "Ah!" as if she meant, "What you doing?" I couldn't tell if she wanted to curse at me or what. As she got to the vehicle I was like, "I'm an automotive writer, I write about cars", and then I handed her my business card. She looked at it and gave it back to me and was like "I don't know what you will do with this" - referring to the pictures of her vehicle. I was like, "It will be on the website." Then she was like, I'm I gonna get any money for it?" I laughed to myself (lol). I had thought about that before though - the idea of paying people to take pictures of their cars. It's something that I might do in the future. But in the meantime I will be snappin' pictures as discreetly and as fast as possible and paying out nothing!

View the pictures below

Checkout the "all chrome everything" (my terminology) over the main black body. There's chrome over the wheel fenders along the bottom of the door combined with thick solid chrome wheels and the chrome front bumper and headlamp surround.I dig it!

I like the look of the wheels. It has a really solid cast-out-of-chrome appearance.

Checkout this grille! Aint this unique? I've never seen one like this before!

- Gebre Mesquitta

“Out in the Streets…” (1994 Customized Chevrolet Tahoe Sighting)

        What caught my eye with this Chevy Tahoe SUV was the gorgeous wheels! They are of an exceedingly pretty design, and have the appearance of being in motion while resting at a standstill. I can instantly picture the vehicle moving to a pounding bass all in one glance. (hahaha).

As I looked through the camera lens snapping the first shot, I also realized that there was an unusually shaped exhaust pipe at the rear end. So, I moved to the rear side of the vehicle to get a closer look. I’m like, “Wow! This is f#**kin’ cool man!!!” This is what I call out-of-the-box aftermarket automobile customization! Yep, and so my camera went snap-snap-snap!



This exhaust pipe is soooo....unique!...just sooo OUT-OF-THE-DAMN-BOX!



- Gebre Mesquitta

The Chevrolet Volt

For a while General Motors had bragged about releasing a hot new single. It was all over the media. It was stated that it would be hot, market-changing and a resuscitator of the lagging label. It was entitled the “Chevrolet Volt”  and was intended to be a competitor to Toyota’s Prius, a hot Japanese single that was flying off the charts. Can you say GM was jealous? Hell yeah! I think they were jealous as s**t. I would be too, I would be like, “man, f**k this Toyota Prius dominating-the market-s**t. Lets do something about this motherf**k*r!”

            So, yeah, General Motors decided to do something about it. I was rooting for them too – from the get go. I was like, “Yay, go yall!” And they did, they went into the studio with some top engineers and began to work! The fruit of their efforts was the Chevy Volt. It was well engineered, and of superb production-quality. However, though the music production was hot, the vocals could be a lot better. The Chevy Volt is a vehicle more powerful in engineering than in design. I will speak about this important aspect first and discuss the design characteristics later.

            “Ok, let’s go!” The Chevrolet Volt is a hybrid/electric car designed with an operating strategy unusual from that of other hybrids. Its primary driving force is derived from energy stored in a battery. The gasoline engine’s contribution to powering the car is for the most part an indirect one. It turns a generator that powers the electric motors once the battery has been depleted. All together, with this propulsion system, the Chevrolet Volt readily achieves the top end of GM’s estimate for all-electric range – fifty miles on a single charge. Once the electricity in the battery has been depleted, the Volt automatically switches into extended mode “divvying up motive chores” among its gas engine (upfront), its dual electric motors, and a 435 pound Lithium-ion battery

            In purely battery mode, the energy use of the Chevrolet volt is equivalent, in gas terms, to 112 miles per gallon. Wow! That’s a lot right? It sure is! The Volt continues to have pleasing economy with the gas-driven driven generator supplying the electricity – 44 miles per gallon. This mileage beats the E.PA.’s estimate of 35 miles per gallon in the city and 40 miles per gallon on the highway. Now, with the Volt’s 9.3 gallon tank, the car gets 300 miles per tank, in addition to its E.V. (Electric Vehicle) miles. This here is the high point of how the Volt maintains affords its owners everyday practicality as well as all-electric motoring on short trips.

            In one test drive, the Chevrolet Volt logged 120 miles (60 miles in electric vehicle mode and 60 miles in gas-electric mode) and  returned a no-elusion 64 miles per gallon. To aid in your understanding, 64 miles per gallon is an average that accounts for the 18-kilowatt-hours of plug-in electricity that the Volt consumed. This is equivalent to a little more than a half-gallon’s worth of gasoline (using the conversion factor of 33 kilowatt-hours of energy per gallon). The EPA estimates the Volt’s combined gas-electric economy at about 60 miles per gallon and its all-electric operation at the energy equivalent of 93 miles per gallon. Now these are some nice figures indeed! And some very comforting fuel economy in these times of high gas prices. Over here, where I live, Chicago, IL, gas prices are $3.49 a gallon. First it was $3.29, then $3.39, and now it’s $3.49, and I’m quite sure it is on its devious way to $4.00 per gallon! So the Chevrolet Volt’s mileage of 64 miles per gallon is splendid words to the ear. That means I can buy only one gallon of gas per day. For a week I only need to spend about $20! The Chevrolet Volt’s 64 mile per gallon average is nearly 30 percent greater than that of the Toyota Prius – the nation’s highest-mileage hybrid. However, as fuel-efficient as the Volt is, it is pricey L.Uhmm, yeah, I’m really not digging that $41,000 window sticker. In order to justify this sticker price, the Chevrolet Volt would have to be far more attractive in its design - think Tesla. If only the company had put an equal emphasis on design as much as it did with the engineering, then GM would have a hit car! (Drifts off into a day dream while looking at picture of the Volt…murmurs to himself, “Yep, if it was just more splashy, and sexy, and hipL)! Consumers then would be more willing to shell out some cash for this car, like seriously, because it would be green and sexy! Electric cars, hybrid- electrics, etc. must have sex appeal, it is a must. Hereby, I debut the new KISS rule: Keep It Sexy Stupid! “Yeah, because, “that’s the way uh huh uh huh / I like it, I like it!”

            I really believe Chevy missed an opportunity to brand the Volt with a truly eye-catching design. But, however, at least it does look better than the Nissan Leaf, and still it looks more appealing than the boring Toyota Prius. I will admit that the Volt does have a little smidgen of sexiness, chiefly at the front. But that front end could do with sexier styling in greater dosages. It needs to be more fierce, and bold…you know, like a “Now what? Huh? Huh? Now what?” type of look – talking to the competition (hahaha).

            As a result of my displeasure with most of the Chevrolet Volt’s design, I depart by leaving you with some of my sketches of how I envision a remix of the Chevrolet Volt – with an employment of the new KISS ruleJ.

This is the remix! (Gebre Mesquitta)

This is the story behind the remix (Please Chevrolet, listen and learn)

All in all, while lacking in design, the Chevrolet Volt is car of superb, immaculate, and ingenious engineering. We at the SeraniTafari Street Team congratulate Chevrolet for its Volt  model being nominated as Car of the Year by Motor Trend magazine. (For the engineering put into this vehicle, it is well worth it!

 To those at the big automanufacturers who are reading this blog, we love yall; we want to make yall make more money with more innovative and knockout design style...don't hesitate to contact the SeraniTafari Street Team..because we are out here in the streetz!

- Gebre Mesquitta

"Out in the Streets..." Chevrolet Impala Sighting (custom paint job)

        I was taking a nice Sunday bike ride one day, when I spotted this uniquely painted Chevrolet Impala. I admired how the top and bottom half of the car was painted in two different colors. It's an inspiration for me because there are different ways this paint scheme can be turned into a possible non-paint design style. And there is a multitude of probabilities of how this color scheme can be mutated into this visioned non-color scheme style - the combinations and permutations of derivitives of what the first inspiration is! I cant explain any further, because then I will give away the idea. So I will have to leave it at that (hahaha). In the meantime, though, other auto designers, and aspiring auto designers reading this blog, can intepret it as they may. Time will tell if they can near my imagination of what design possibility I vision emnating from this. :)

- Gebre Mesquitta