Feb
13
2010
Life’s a Gas
Author: NickBack in September I had a call from Mike Pye at Custom Car, “How do you like 55 Chevys?”. I have always liked Tri-Chevys and jumped at the chance to shoot one. “How do you like Gassers?” was his next question, I could think of a few 55 Gassers and my mind was racing as to which one it might be. “How would you like to shoot a whole group of 55 Gassers!”, well that was it, what a chance for a shoot. I was straight on the phone to Tim Bowman at the Gasser Cave, the only place in the UK that could orchestrate such an event and we arrange to shoot within a couple of weeks before the winter set in.
Before the shoot came around I started to plan how I wanted to shoot the cars. I put together some sketches for group shots and a check list for each car. I fired these over to Mike so he could see if these ideas matched his and we were set.
Before the shoot came around I had been contacted by a model called Knoxville Roxie about shooting with some old cars so it seemed an ideal opportunity to kill two birds with one stone and get her along to the shoot. 10th October rolled around and we set off into deepest Surrey for the Gasser Cave. Just when I was starting to wonder if my sat nav was loosing he plot, we caught sight of Kevin Irvine’s yellow 55 pulled over and checking his map. We let him pull out and followed him through the country lanes for the rest of the route. Nothing like following a Gasser along the road to brighten up your day. After a cup of tea or two we decided to shoot the group shots first so people could leave as their shots were done. All went well apart from breaking my trusty old steps that had seen better days so any high shots were out of the question.
Next it was time for Kevin’s solo shots. This yellow 55 was raced in the 60s in the US and had been sitting for while when Kevin found it and brought it to the UK.
Next we shot Lee Painter’s blue 55, this car was put together by Craig Hopkins before the LA Roadster show where Lee saw it and did the deal to get it back to the UK.
The final car to shoot was Tim (of the Gasser Cave) Bowman’s own shortened wheelbase 55. Tim put this together himself and it really is a sweet ride with a roaring 327.
While we were shooting all the cars Knoxville Roxie underwent many outfit changes so we could get some different shots with each and we also shot in the Gasser Cave where other Tri-Chevy’s were undergoing the magic treatment. Roxie also had a few cigarette breaks.
The shots were dispatched to Custom Car and the news came through that we had the cover, fantastic to see the cool 55s all lined up together. The article ran to another 7 pages inside the magazine.
See all the shots that were sent to Custom Car in the flickr set here.
