Pimpmobile
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A pimpmobile is a large luxury vehicle that has been heavily customized in a garish, extravagant style to advertise its owner's wealth and importance.
These vehicles were popular with pimps and drug dealers in the ghettos of large cities of the US, especially New York City, Detroit and Los Angeles, as a symbol of their power in the community. Later the term came to symbolize any large, extravagant automobile used to impress.
They were made popular in blaxploitation films like Superfly, The Mack, and Willie Dynamite as well as mainstream films like Magnum Force, D.C. Cab, Escape From New York, and the James Bond movie Live and Let Die. In later days they also appeared in Austin Powers in Goldmember and Undercover Brother.
The conversions became popular with Americans of all races, and several companies manufactured kits to convert late-model cars to pimpmobiles.
The most popular cars for this customization were Cadillacs and Lincolns, especially the Cadillac Eldorado and Lincoln Continental produced between 1971 and 1978, although lower-luxury models, such as Chryslers and Buicks, were also common. One notable exception is the "Corvorado" used in Live and Let Die, which was a Chevrolet Corvette with Eldorado body panels. Conversion was done by many custom cars shops across the country such as George Barris, E & G Classics and Auto Gard, Inc. as well as many smaller shops.
Probably the most famous pimpmobile fabricator was Les Dunham of Dunham Coachworks in Boonton, NJ. Les built the cars in Superfly, as well as the "Corvorado" and the Cadillac Fleetwood in the James Bond film.
Typically, a pimpmobile conversion included round headlight covers (commonly known as "Superfly" headlights), grille caps (these are still produced by D&G for Cadillac Escalades), a 1941 goddess hood ornament, lake pipes, and thick-padded vinyl tops, wide whitewall tires, custom stereo(loud), custom paint in non-traditional colors like purple or orange, shagg or velour interiors and even crystal chandeliers. In California, custom hydraulic suspensions (as usual with the lowrider) were also popular.
Large luxury sedans have been on a decline since the early 1980s where sport utilities (SUVs) such as the Cadillac Escalade and Lincoln Navigator have been used for pimpmobile conversions. Imports, including Mercedes-Benz, Rolls-Royce (Archbishop Don "Magic" Juan has a Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow in his vehicle collection besides Cadillacs), and Lexus have replaced large cars as later day pimpmobiles.
The TV show Pimp My Ride would usually customize a vehicle other than a Cadillac or Lincoln (for example, Chevrolet Caprice or Ford Crown Victoria). The vehicles created were "pimped" or extravagantly customized, but not always made into classic pimpmobiles.
[edit] Trivia
- The Cadillac Eldorado driven By Youngblood Priest in Superfly was actually owned by KC, a local pimp who allowed them to use the car in exchange for a minor role in the film. He appears in the nightclub scene as a customer (in the opening credit it says "and introducing: KC").
- In the James Bond movie Live and Let Die James is attacked by a car and then radios Felix Leiter to find the owner of a "white pimpmobile". This pimpmobile is a Cadillac Fleetwood.
