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The word on the streetsSeptember 2, 2004 Sport Truck magazine managing editor Joe Pettit says that pavement-hugging trucks is definitely one of the going trends in the sport truck world. "It's the totally custom-lowered look," Pettit says, "that is influenced by the hip-hop culture. The most extreme lowered sport trucks are really just for shows, not for driving around. They'll usually have another truck for actual driving." Pettit says with most niches of current sport truck style, the tires are a big part of the style. "With the SUVs and the off-road look," Pettit says, "the designer tread blocks are absolutely a styling design element in addition to being functional. With a typical lifted look, you're exposing a lot of the components underneath the truck, so look and the size of the tires are part of the look. So are the coil-over shocks with remote reservoirs." BFGoodrich® tires have long been a popular choice for both the bumper-scrapers and the off-road look. The BFGoodrich g-Force T/A®KDW tire line combines urban-chic styling with the hottest sizes up to 24 inches. And the BFGoodrich All-Terrain T/A®KO and Mud-Terrain T/A®KM tires have long set the standards for off-road performance and appearance. In the styling area, Pettit says that a retro-1950s look involving clear coat over primer is popular. "They call it suede," Pettit says. "It's just primer with clear over it, for a rough kind of unconstructed look that was popular in the 1950s." Also, Pettit says, flame striping is coming back as a popular styling element, with a new design component: the blade shape. "Blade flames is what they're calling a 'tribal flame,' which basically adds a blade shape into the flame – which comes out of the world of tattoo art." Pettit adds that in addition to the intensely focused designs, elaborate sound and entertainment systems are tremendously popular with sport truck stylists. "They put [video game players] in them, DVD players," Pettit says, "making their sport trucks into mobile entertainment sites. It's a support ship. Basically, a rolling party." And there are the "diesel guys." "The diesel guys," Pettit says, are making marks at the drag strip, turning what was once considered a hugely unsporting industrial technology into an arena of high-performance. "The diesel drags are big," Pettit says. "That's kicking up all over the place in the sport truck world. We're seeing guys running in the low 11s with diesel trucks." Still, the biggest sector of the sport truck world is the middle, Pettit says, where owners stay away from extremes, and carry out mild customizing improvements without compromising the drivability of their trucks. "We're seeing a lot of BFGoodrich All-Terrain (T/A KO) tires on regular street trucks," Pettit says, "that are lifted but not outrageously so. The back suspensions are getting more sophisticated, so the truck is definitely drivable." "Finally, styles and trends in sport trucks go all over the map," Pettit says, "probably because people are that way, and trucks are the ultimate cross-over vehicle. They're for work, they're for fun. You can set them up however your taste runs." Visit Sport Truck online at www.sporttruck.com |
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