ETC: ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons talks hot rods, cool cars

Filed under: Classics, Etc., Cadillac, Ford, Design/Style

Billy Gibbons is well known for his music, his super-long beard and, since the Eliminator 1933 Ford Coupe debuted on MTV in 1983, hot rods. The man is fanatical about his cars and he sat down with PowerBlock Magazine to talk about rods and rock 'n' roll.

Of the famous Eliminator coupe, Gibbons says he commissioned So-Cal Speed Shop to build the car in 1976. Seven years later, it starred in the band's "Gimme All Your Lovin'" video and then "Legs" and "Sharp Dressed Man."

Gibbons tells the story of another of his rods, CadZZilla. The creation of the lead sled involved a dice game on the Mexican border, former GM designer Larry Erickson, Boyd Coddington and the obligatory cocktail napkin.

The list of Gibbons' hot rods is longer than his facial hair, but there's apparently room in the garage for more. His latest creation, Wiskeyrunner, is another '33 Ford, but when So-Cal finishes with it, the unique rod will look nothing like Eliminator.

Check out the video interviews with Gibbons and awesome photos at PowerBlock Magazine.

ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons talks hot rods, cool cars originally appeared on Autoblog on Sun, 09 Sep 2012 10:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google's Steve Lee talks about the history and future of Project Glass

Details on Google's Project Glass haven't been the easiest thing to come by since the wearable computing effort was announced earlier this year, but Google execs have been getting a bit more talkative and eager to give demonstrations as of late. You can now add product lead Steve Lee to that list, who's given a fairly wide-ranging interview to Fast Company on the project's origins and its future. Not surprisingly, he confirmed that the early prototypes were a fair bit bulkier -- starting a laptop in a backpack -- and that even the current prototypes are still "very early," although they do handle more than just photos (he gives Maps as one example). Lee does see photo-taking as a "key aspect" to the device, though.

He also cast some doubt on initial reports that the devices would be available this year for between $250 and $600, saying that would be "pretty aggressive timing," but he also noted that he "wouldn't be on this project if it was like a five-year endeavor." As for the future, he says that contact lenses with the technology is a natural evolution but a definite "long-term thing," and that a nearer term goal is to "serve everyone and make this is a universal device," adding that they've "prototyped lots of different form factors to accommodate all those folks." All of that comes just from the first part of a two-part interview, though -- the rest is promised later this week.

Google's Steve Lee talks about the history and future of Project Glass originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 30 May 2012 16:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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