For customization whiz Beau Boeckmann, the trick isn’t about setting one’s vision faraway in the future nor is it about whipping up creations based on popular, up-to-date inspirations. Actually, for him, it’s exactly the opposite: going back to the roots and creating a niche in grounds airier and less explored.
And this twist—which entails eponymously changing the spelling of a term that once revolutionized the autosphere and tinkering with motorist eye-candies like the 2008 GT Convertible Ford Mustang—paid off, particularly substantiated when Galpin Auto Sports, Boeckmann’s California-based shop, gained prominence courtesy of two seasons worth of exposure in MTV’s Pimp My Ride.
One of Boeckmann’s more famous creations is a tricked-out GT Convertible Mustang dubbed as Scythe. With its edgy structure and sleek finish, this 1960s-inspired purple wonder-on-wheels, which he considers a Kustom Kar, not a custom car, shockingly resembles the Batmobile. It serves as a solid testimony to Boeckmann’s brilliant penchant for finding inspiration in the likes of George Barris, designer of Bruce Wayne’s most famous vehicle, rather than those road-ragers featured in movies billed under the banner of The Fast and the Furious.
The “Galpinized” GT Convertible Mustang may not look as if it’s a Mustang since, as a blogger puts it, Boeckmann’s team “went completely nuts on it.” It boasts of a hand-made composite body, voice control (a talking onboard computer), and, props to drive-by-wire technology, dual retractable steering wheels. Scythe is powered by a twin-supercharged 1,005 horsepower engine.
The super-enhanced 2008 Ford Mustang GT Convertible is just one of Boeckmann’s many Kustom Kars. With a genius like him continuously shaping the face of Kustom Kulture, auto aficionados and the rest of the industry are given a treat to an avant-garde presentation of cars that isn’t just a result of an urge to be pompous and loud but is also deeply rooted on a principle that should always be considered when customizing a car: functionality.





