I have been shooting for roughly 10 years, 5 or so of them being pretty serious. Up until last fall, I had never had the opportunity to shoot my childhood dream car. Now within the last 12 months, I have had the chance to shoot two.
See last fall’s shoot HERE.
When my best friend, and semi-contributor here (cough cough), Stephen told me he was going to buy a 3rd gen Viper ACR for his fiance, I thought he was bullshitting me. There was no way he was actually going to do it. Then he sent me a link to one. You know how many links to cars I cant afford I’ve sent him? Then came the “I’m going to buy it”. Yeah, ok. Then came the text that really got me questioning all of this.
“Payment sent”.
As the next few days rolled by, I was still hesitant to believe him. Was this some grand joke just to mess with me? He assured me it wasn’t, and finally gave me a date when the car would be delivered. It was still early spring, slightly cold and wet. Without question, I knew I had to be there when one of our childhood dream cars was officially turned over to us.
The first thing you notice is the presence. The car just looks like a weapon. It feels like it has a purpose.
As we pulled it into the driveway, we finally got a chance to really spend some time taking it all in.
The angles of the car are unlike almost any car I have photographed before. It feels different. Purposeful. In a world where every car gets a widebody kit and a giant wing, this feels right.
Everything has a purpose. This isn’t a street car with some carbon bits 3M taped on. Every inch of this car has been built for one purpose only.
Unfortuantely I cant get directly over the car, but there is a specific shot from directly above that I want to get.
The interior is exactly what you would suspect. Tiny pedalbox, early 2000’s Dodge interior (the radio is the same one from my parents minivan), and snug enough to keep you planted when using the car to its potential (or at least what I feel comfortable with).
The experience was a first for me; standing there waiting for the auto transport to show up. We have stood in that driveway for the last 15 years wrenching on cars, but this is without a doubt the most impressive car to have rolled through yet. The day was rainy and cold, so the inaugural drive was short. But I knew that I would have an opportunity to take it out and properly put it through its paces later this summer.
– Andrew
