UFO Spotted In Oakland. Can You Identify It?

Murilee Martin
by Murilee Martin

I was in my old East Bay stomping grounds last weekend, to drive the Scion FR-S (review coming soon) and watch the Oakland A’s beat up the hapless Red Sox. I also spotted one of the greatest motor vehicles in history while driving down High Street on the way to The Island That Rust Forgot. It featured the letters “UFO” across a vaguely tailgate-ish rear body panel. I’ve puzzled out the type of vehicle it’s based on. Can you?

Actually, I cheated a little by looking up the license plate in the California smog check database. It’s a 1973 Chevy Luv pickup with a whole bunch of innovative modifications.

I tried to talk to the driver about it, but she seemed reluctant to chat with anyone in a Hot Lava Orange Scion.

The world needs more customized trucks like this!




Murilee Martin
Murilee Martin

Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.

More by Murilee Martin

Comments
Join the conversation
2 of 41 comments
  • Menloparklimousine Menloparklimousine on Sep 06, 2012

    It very attractive and beautiful car. It is much costly I think and may unaffordable for a middle class family. usually middle class families do not purchase these car, they prefer taxi cabs and limousine taxi cab services for their pleasure. It may affordable to them. so, company should care about the preference and choice of these families, while making new models of cars.

  • Multicam Multicam on Sep 06, 2012

    Looks like something out of Mad Max.

  • MaintenanceCosts RAM! RAM! RAM! ...... the child in the crosswalk that you can't see over the hood of this factory-lifted beast.
  • 3-On-The-Tree Yes all the Older Land Cruiser’s and samurai’s have gone up here as well. I’ve taken both vehicle ps on some pretty rough roads exploring old mine shafts etc. I bought mine right before I deployed back in 08 and got it for $4000 and also bought another that is non running for parts, got a complete engine, drive train. The mice love it unfortunately.
  • Statikboy I see only old Preludes in red. And a concept in white.Pretty sure this is going to end up being simply a Civic coupe. Maybe a slightly shorter wheelbase or wider track than the sedan, but mechanically identical to the Civic in Touring and/or Si trims.
  • SCE to AUX With these items under the pros:[list][*]It's quick, though it seems to take the powertrain a second to get sorted when you go from cruising to tromping on it.[/*][*]The powertrain transitions are mostly smooth, though occasionally harsh.[/*][/list]I'd much rather go electric or pure ICE I hate herky-jerky hybrid drivetrains.The list of cons is pretty damning for a new vehicle. Who is buying these things?
  • Jrhurren Nissan is in a sad state of affairs. Even the Z mentioned, nice though it is, will get passed over 3 times by better vehicles in the category. And that’s pretty much the story of Nissan right now. Zero of their vehicles are competitive in the segment. The only people I know who drive them are company cars that were “take it or leave it”.
Next