MM: You do cause a lot of controversy, which is good. Some people say you go to far, some people say you don’t go far enough. How would you respond to those people, taking your influences into account?
STROPE: You know, kind of the safety out to that question is that cars are like music, there are so many different styles. There’s something to make everyone happy. There’s a way for everyone to express themselves, and hopefully someone else comes along for the ride and enjoys it also. Not everybody is into Van Halen, but the people that are really enjoy it. Those people are happy. For the people that don’t like Van Halen, there’s, you know - Aerosmith!
My point being, there’s always something else to fill the gap. So for the people who disagree with the styling cues that I have, that’s okay. My hope is that they have something
that they enjoy, and at the very least I hope that at the very least we can all find a mutual respect. That’s one of the coolest catalysts of this hobby. An 18-year-old and sit here and talk to a 50-year-old. They can talk parts, and they can talk style, and they can talk agree and disagree. In high school, two or three years makes a difference on who you talk to, but in the car world, it a single common denominator. You know - it’s cool.
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Hopefully people will take my background and my different influences to heart. I pride myself in being very well rounded. I read a ton of different automotive magazines. I go to a ton of different automotive museums or shows. I enjoy way more than just American muscle cars. I enjoy a lot of European stuff, whether it be vintage or brand new super exotic cars, I love it. I think it’s phenomenal. I don’t care if I can’t afford it, I will gladly go to a Ferrari dealership. Actually, as a tip by the way, if you want to be creative, if you want to break out of the mold, you can’t stay sterile. You need to go look at things you aren’t familiar with. I get tons of ideas every time I go into a Ferrari dealership. I found a great idea at a Ferrari dealership. They had an old early ‘60s Testarossa 250. It was an actual old race car, and it had a couple things on there that I had never seen before, which were stupidly simplistic. I had just never seen it applied that way before. I was like “hot damn!” But what a great little idea I found. I know it’s not mine. I’m stealing, more power to me. But that’s the cool thing that I like to see, creativity. I respect a well-restored vehicle because I know how much work goes into it. I do respect. But for me, I don’t have enthusiasm toward that. My personality needs to create. Needs to express. So I try to do it in a tasteful manner as I can.
MM: What are you working on these days?
STROPE: Right now, we’ve got a couple of really neat cars in cue. We have a 1970 Charger for a company called Petrol, there is a web site dedicated to the build of the car, petrolcharger.com. A phenomenal web site. It’s a neat piece. It will probably bring a lot of controversy, the paint scheme most definitely will. The fact that we joined a 1970 and 1968 Charger hood will. The fact that I put a ‘68 tail panel instead of a ’70 tail panel will. And the fact that I put a ’71 Charger dash in the car will. But this car, besides the paint scheme, will sneak up on you. There will be things that you’ll actually have to look and go “holy mackerel!” And I like that. I like keeping ‘em looking, and one of the nicest compliments I’ve got is people saying, “I keep coming back to your car at a show. I keep finding more and more!”
Also, in the non-Chrysler world I have a ’69 Nova called a Z-28 Nova, which obviously is a phantom car, it never existed. A very high profile car, also. For 2007, we have a ’69 Charger that we are doing. Here’s my late ‘60s influences again, and European. It’s being done as if a gentleman in Europe who’s into Ferraris had it. We’re going have a really neat intake on the motor. We’re going to have some really neat interior stuff. Think very sparse. Early Ferraris are very barren. Seats are very thin. Very simple stitching. Very mechanical looking pieces and parts all over the car. The car will be for 2007, and we have a ’72 Torino fastback with a big 514 motor that we are doing for Ford Racing.
