The Impression: An Interview with Chip Foose

You’ve likely seen this car before. When it was completed in 2005, it turned the show car world on its ear. But what you may not have seen is an interview with its builder, the legendary Chip Foose. Museum of American Speed curator Tim Matthews caught up with Mr. Foose recently to talk about the car that is currently on display in the museum…

We certainly can’t say anything better than the man himself said in the video, but we can fill in a few details. Articles published when the car debuted stated that it featured over 4000 handmade components. The LS engine is not only covered on top, hiding the ugly bits, but there’s also a handmade block cover. Yes, you read that right. The body was handmade by the late, great Marcel DeLay and son Luc from a drawing by automotive designer extraordinaire Larry Erickson. Incidentally, the same drawing also inspired Boyd Coddington’s incredible Smoothster a decade before. The fact that all the names mentioned in the above paragraph are widely recognized as hot rod building royalty explains why the Impression was such a game changer.

On a personal note, your author saw this car at the 2007 Grand National Roadster Show, a year after it won the big AMBR trophy and two years after its Ridler win. At the time, I was a punk hot rod kid with little interest in mega-buck show cars, but the Impression stopped me dead in my tracks. I had never seen anything so perfect, and I stood there for a long time, soaking in the details and basking in its glow. Seeing it in the Museum of American Speed a decade and a half later is a wonderful, full circle moment. And it still makes my heart beat a little faster when I see it. The design has held up remarkably well, in the same way that great art always does.