Pimpmobile
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A pimpmobile is a term used to describe a large luxury vehicle, usually a 1970s-era Lincoln or Cadillac car, that has been heavily customized in a garish, extravagant style. Customized features such as headlight covers, hood ornaments, stereo systems, unusual paint colors, and shag carpet interiors were used to by car owners to advertise their purported wealth and importance.
These customized vehicles were popular with pimps and drug dealers in the ghettos of large cities of the US in the 1970s and 1980s, especially New York City, Detroit and Los Angeles, as a way of symbolizing their power to their community. By the 1990s and 2000s, the term was used to describe any large, extravagantly customized automobile, such as a customized SUV truck.
[edit] History
Pimpmobiles became part of popular culture when they were depicted in 1970s blaxploitation films such as 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.
[edit] Customization
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. During the transition, pimpmobiles still retain the aftermarket grille conversions (still manufactured by D&G), although aftermarket rims have built inroads (e.g. 22" to 30" rims in the East Coast, or the 15" swangers*, common in the Third Coast e.g. Houston, Texas).
* Swangers (sometimes spelled swangas), commonly known as elbows, suicides, and/or 83s and 84s, were aftermarket spoke rims manufactured by Weld Wheels. These rims have 30 spokes although the manufacturer discontinued the rims in the mid-1980s. Reproductions have been reintroduced by Texan Wire Wheels in late 2006.
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. Pimpmobile has also been brought into pop culture through Futurama, the word is said to be one of Bender's top 10 words.
