SignWeb | signweb.com

(December 2007) posted on Sat Dec 08, 2007

Excellent upgrades abound, but Gerber pushes the envelope at SGIA

By Darek Johnson

My room at the Orlando Homewood Suites reeked of stale cigarette smoke, but I had asked for it. My Delta flight to the SGIA tradeshow arrived late, and, consequently, I was late for an interview. Further, because I’d traveled in khakis and a T-shirt, my preferred attire, I needed to change into proper corporate clothing, a suit and tie. The Homewood Suites clerk, a sweetheart, said I was too early to check in. I said, “I’ll take any room you’ve got.” Five minutes later, I regretted the decision – the “smoking” room smelled worse than my teen’s sneakers.

On page 14 of AutoWeek magazine’s August edition, you’ll find a black-and-white photo of the ’32 Ford coupe that decorated the Beach Boys’ 1963 best-selling album, “Little Deuce Coupe.” At the time of the album photo, Clarence Catallo’s “Silver Sapphire” deuce, a chopped and sectioned ’32 Ford coupe, featured an oversized Oldsmobile engine, a belt-driven blower topped by three Stromberg 97 carburetors, and a tubular, dropped front axle, tipped with drum brakes. (The latter would be an antediluvian oddity in today’s disk-equipped hot rods.) It also has handleless, front-opening “suicide” doors.

(Kids, if this doesn’t make sense to you, think of Tokyo Drift. See the deuce like you would a tangerine-orange, ’90 Honda CRX SiR, with the B16A engine, Volk racing wheels and other tricks; now see the car’s photo laser printed on Green Day’s “Time of Your Life” CD inset.)

In AutoWeek, Curt Catallo, the Sapphire builder’s son, wrote, “My dad took the car through every incarnation,” meaning, he, as many rodders do, changed the car’s look and purpose regularly. Clarence, nicknamed “Chili,” sold the Sapphire after the album-cover shoot, because he realized the car had become an icon; it couldn’t be changed again. He immediately bought an AA Fuel dragster and began implementing upgrades.

This story illustrates that engineers – and serious car guys are engineers of a sort – believe no task is ever completed. Engineers not only design and build our cars, ships and airplanes, but also design and build digital printers, and, in character, they seldom leave these alone either. It’s the same for the chemists, those who make printers’ inks. This year’s SGIA tradeshow proved, again, that both groups, fixated, can’t stop themselves. The print-machine changes and updates were too many to list.