Auto reveals are a shell of what they as soon as had been, with manner 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 an additional model to take. That model is West Coast Customs, and whereas usually I’d’ve briefly walked by means of, seen their terrible builds and left, yesterday I spent about half-hour observing a automotive that they had on show: The chopped-up Maybach 57S from Kanye West and Jay-Z’s “Otis” music video.
A monitor from Ye and Jay’s glorious 2011 collaborative album “Watch the Throne” that sampled namesake Otis Redding’s “Attempt 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 delivery yard. It’s epic, and it broke the web (particularly the automotive aspect of it) when the video first dropped. The tune additionally occurs to have among the best 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 actually shocked that the Maybach continues to be round. The automotive was offered as a part of Phillips de Pury & Co’s New York Modern 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 automotive having a retail value 3 times that determine). At the very least all that cash went to charity.
It’s unclear when West Coast Customs acquired the Maybach or what the automotive has been as much as within the decade for the reason that music video dropped, but it surely seems to be precisely because it did again then. It’s a totally wild factor to behold, with so many humorous particulars to soak up just like the hood getting used as a trunk and the trunk getting used as a hood. It actually doesn’t look very protected, however at the least 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 might 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 principle present itself really noticed the debuts of a bunch of fascinating new fashions. Nothing is as cool because the Maybach, although.
