Prototype Issue
Scion-tology: Conversations with four owners of the world’s first digital cult car
By Peter W. Frey
(page 2 of 2)
Chance, location and his unique sense of style have brought Eddy James, 42, to his semi-official status as “hair stylist to the strippers and porn stars” and devotee of shrink-wrapped Scions. He lives in Sherman Oaks and for 13 years has owned a salon just down Ventura Blvd. from the drag cabaret shows at the late, lamented Queen Mary help account for the clientele (though he also does actresses) and the clientele certainly accounts for the name of his new clothing line, Porno Blonde. How this life-long “car guy” went from driving a fully restored Pontiac Bonneville convertible to what he described as a “miniature milk truck on wheels” is explained by the Scion’s unique ability to function, quite effectively, as personal transportation, artistic statement and rolling billboard.
Are the haircuts you give as wild-looking as the car you drive? No. When boys want to be bad, they customize their cars. When girls want to be bad, they color their hair. That’s where I got the name for my clothing line, because I’d be doing a porn star with that particular shade of blonde they all want, and then all the other girls would see it and want it too.
Is this really what you drive around in every day? How do people react? I not only drive it every day I take it to Bob’s Big Boy on cruise night and everybody just loves it. My friends laughed when I first got it, but once they go for a ride they stop laughing and start shopping. Three of them own Scions now.
Run us through the before and after. I started with a stock, white Scion xB, added a wide body kit and some aftermarket headlights and taillights and put on some cool rims and tires. My friend Brandon did the graphic design, and a company called CGS out in Saugus that does all the RTD busses printed up the decals and applied them with a heat gun.
So we know it’s good transportation, and the artistic expression speaks for itself. How’s your Scion working out as a business tool? New people come in all the time and tell me it’s because they saw the salon name on the car. And now I’m part of a big story in your magazine because of the car, so I’d say it’s working out pretty good.
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