I get that question a lot and it’s taken me 20 years to think of an answer that is accurate and short. I’m still working on it, but what I say nowadays is, “a car that combines technical quality with lots of taste and imagination—and if I have to choose between the two, I choose taste and imagination.” I look for details that look cool, and are unexpected. Sometimes it’s something so simple that it’s surprising—like the steering wheel in Eddie Rochelle’s Model A.
Eddie’s chopped and channeled sedan was an award winner at the Goodguys Nashville Nats. One detail that got my attention was the unusual-looking steering wheel. It looked like some kind of one-off handbuilt piece (I thought) until I looked closer and saw that it was a a flat “Pro Grip” wheel from Speedway Motors, flipped over so the little aluminum nubs face the driver. What’s impressive is not the cheap aftermarket steering wheel—but the fact that somebody had the idea to flip it over, turning something ordinary into something unusual and cool.