Who Cares?

Enough people did. Now, Plymouth's most ordinary A-Body makes the A-list.

- ZOTIM BERNSAU, JOHN MCGANN

"Nobody cares about a 1972 Scamp." Bob Florine and Steve Strope both said that to me, even though we were talking about the incredible hot rod that is disproving their assertion everywhere it shows up.

Every hot rod, from the mildest to the wildest, begins its life as an idea in somebody's imagination. For a lot of hot-rodders, coming up with ideas is easy and driving the finished car is desired-but the in-between step, the actual build, keeps their concept from ever reaching the street. The purchase price of a project car, the cost of elaborate parts, and the fabrication chops required to create the kind of cars you see at shows, on the web, or in magazines, can prevent the average enthusiast from building the hot rod they see in their mind.

Pro builder Steve Strope, owner of Pure Vision Design, builds high-end cars that have earned him a place among the world's best builders. But Steve is one of the loudest proponents of real-world hot rods built by buddies in the garage on an average budget. He showed us how it's done a couple years ago with "Project Long Weekend," his personal 1964 Olds Cutlass. HOT ROD's June 2019 cover story was "Sketchpad Supercars". Steve provided a few ideas for cars that could be built with the same approach he used on his "Project Long Weekend" Olds. One example was a 1972 Plymouth Scamp.