Remember West Coast Customs, the shop that "Pimp My Ride" called home for so many years? WCC may not have the same level of awareness as it did during those halcyon years, but it never shut down — and never stopped building truly wild cars. Now, West Coast Customs is sending five of its custom builds to auction at Mecum next month to support its nonprofit trade school. If you've ever wanted a somewhat absurd car as your daily, this could be the auction for you.
The auction, supporting the West Coat Customs Academy, includes five cars: A flame-print Toyota 4Runner, a Darth Vader Volkswagen Passat, a General Lee Dodge Charger coupe, a race-liveried Camry, and a Polaris Slingshot that's cosplaying the USS Discovery. Y'know, the sort of regular daily drivable vehicles that West Coast Customs is famous for building. Honestly, the Passat at least is probably still usable as a regular grocery-getter.
Some of these cars seem much more reasonable than others. The Passat, built in the wake of Volkswagen's famous Darth Vader ad, is mechanically mostly just a 2012 Volkswagen Passat — so long as you don't need the headlights, which do appear to glow red, or the radio, which is either covered with a Darth Vader chestplate or simply deleted. The Camry appears normal at first glance, aside from its NASCAR-livery wrap, until you notice the centerlock wheels. The interior looks totally stock, though.
The weirder end begins with the Dodge Charger, which has been shortened and converted into a coupe. The build predates the Challenger entirely, so you can sort of see how West Coast Customs got from point A to point B here. Less understandable is the blacked-out rebel flag on the roof, which shows an odd amount of thought put into its inclusion: Enough thought to consider streamlining the colors, but not so much that anyone involved realized that the flag probably wasn't a good look.
The 4Runner, with its air suspension and flame paint, just absolutely rocks. The interior looks dated, sure, but the exterior goes hard and I honestly love it. The Slingshot, though, is the least intelligible of all. I may not have seen every single episode of "Discovery," but I don't recall the ship itself ever looking so... rusty. The shape is right on the nacelles and the saucer, but why this color? Why so orange?
The West Coast Customs cars are going up at Mecum's Spring Classic, coming up in May. All five are being sold with no reserve, so we'll get to truly see how much WCC's work is valued in the aftermarket. If you've ever really wanted to look like you're riding around in a rusty version of one of "Star Trek"'s weirder ships, you know where to look — and you can rest easy knowing that your cash will go towards teaching students to work on cars.
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