Hot rodding got its start in the dry lake beds around Los Angeles in the late 1930s where gearheads would race their stripped-down, souped-up cars. The formula was simple: take a Ford Model T or Model A, take off as much metal as possible, and slap a flat-head V-8 in it. It wasn't long before these hot rodders figured out that going fast was only half the equation and that looking cool was just as important, which gave birth to the custom car-building age.
Pioneers like Vic Edelbrock Sr., Bill Burke, and Karl and Veda Orr not only found a way to make hot rods fast, they injected some style. From there, legends like Kenny Howard A.K.A. Von Dutch and Ed "Big Daddy" Roth took car customization to an art form. Carrying on the tradition, Chip Foose got his start in his dad's Santa Barbara shop, where he was painting cars by age 12. Though the talent was already in his blood, he got a degree in automotive production design and eventually opened up his custom shop, Foose Design.
In a very short time, Foose established himself as a player in the business, making some of the most celebrated custom builds of the modern era. He also grew into a TV personality with the TLC, and later Discovery, show Overhaulin’ as well as other custom car series. The fame is probably nice, but at his core, Chip Foose is a custom car designer and builder with a very distinct style. It's not an enviable task to pick his top builds because they're all gorgeous, but some are a little more outrageous and stand out as the best of the best.
10 1972 Lotus Europa
John Nivens spent years delivering soda to Jay Leno's Big Dog Garage in Burbank, CA. He had a pretty rough 1972 Lotus Europa, but because he was trying to put his kids through college, couldn't afford to restore it. Jay Leno, who is a genuinely good guy, nominated Nivens to Chip Foose's show Overhaulin', so the car was "stolen" and given new life as a custom original.
The '72 Lotus Europa had a fiberglass body to make it lighter and Chip made it less heavy by chopping 4 inches off the front and giving it a GT-40-type dropped hood and side vents. They also came with puny Renault 1.6L inline-fours, so Chip got Lotus to donate a 217 horsepower Elise engine to give it a little more oomph. The total resto-mod included a special green accent on the racing stripes as a nod to the fact that Nivens was a 7-Up deliveryman.
9 0032 Roadster
The '32 Roadster, dubbed the "0032" is possibly the most significant custom build Chip Foose has ever done, and technically he's done it twice. The car was originally built as the yellow "Boydster II" when Chip was the president of Hot Rods by Boyd. It was named America’s Most Beautiful Roadster in 1996, but a collector who eventually owned it thought it could be a little more beautiful.
The collector, Chuck Svatos, brought the roadster to Foose in hopes of getting it restyled in black. Chip did that, came up with a new interior, new wheels, and added a removable top. The result was it once again won America's Most Beautiful Roadster in 2000. Years later the collector traded the 0032 to Foose in exchange for a custom job on a 3-window '32 Ford. Chip, in turn, sold the car to the Petersen Automotive Museum and used the money to buy a building that became Foose Design HQ.
8 Mach Foose
The 1971 Mach 1 SportsRoof fastback was one of the more eye-catching Mustang body styles, but Chip Foose found a way to make it cooler. He took a '71 body and dropped it on a 2010 Mustang GT, extending the wheelbase by three inches. He swapped out the rear quarter panels with those from a '70 Mustang, giving it more width and allowing for wider wheels. He fabricated a new grill and rear fascia to give that Foose look.
Under the hood is a 400 horsepower Ford 5.0L V-8 Coyote engine, which is actually more powerful than the 335 horsepower 428 Super Cobra Jet that was optional on the '71 Mach 1. Foose finished off his take on the pony car with one-off custom billet Shelby Racing-inspired wheels, and Mach 1 style racing stripes and graphics, making for one slick-looking ride.
7 1974 Jaguar E-Type
To answer the question if it's possible to "Foose" up a '74 E-Type while still retaining that classic Jaguar style, Chip built this "gentleman's roadster." A customer wanted something elegant and powerful, but with a signature Foose style, so Chip spent two and half years stretching the hood, extending the rocker panels, and fabricating new body accents until it was just right.
The biggest knock on Jaguars is that they are mechanically fickle, which is a nice way to say they are unreliable. Chip addressed this by scraping the Jag's V-12 and dropping in a 525 horsepower 6.2-liter LS3 Chevy V-8, pairing it with a GM 4L60-E four-speed automatic transmission. The interior was done in pure luxury, with leather seats, analog gages, and a wood-rimmed steering wheel as a throwback to classic Jags. The car turned out so nice, it got a 2019 SEMA show reveal.
6 1956 Chevy Bel Air
WyoTech was/is a for-profit school that offered career training in a variety of vocations, including automotive repair and design. Former Myth Buster and the world's fastest woman, the late great Jessie Combs, is a noted alumnus, but many of the campuses were shut down for essentially ripping off the students. Before they got 86'd, Chip Foose teamed up with over 30 WyoTech students to build a seriously cool '56 Chevy Bel Air.
On one of the more memorable episodes of Overhaulin', this Chevy, which was "stolen" from the guy who heads a foundation to secure cars for WyoTech, and turned from a four-door sedan into a two-door speedster. According to Barrett-Jackson, which eventually sold the car at auction, the dropped convertible Bel Air is, "one of the most significant Overhaulin' projects ever completed" and even Chip considers it one of his favorite builds, calling it the "A-Team's finest hour."
5 Terracuda
Generally speaking, a watch is an accessory, but here's a case where a car became an accessory to a watch. Darren Metropoulos walked into Foose Design and asked Chip if he could make a car that matched the golds and browns of his Breitling watch. Naturally, Chip accepted the challenge and started building a custom muscle car out of a 1970 Plymouth Barracuda.
Terracuda is the finest Mopar muscle car to come out of the shop - Chip Foose
He started by building a custom frame and then tweaked and stretched the body into what is now known as "Terracuda." A custom hood was built and a proper Mopar 6.4L Hemi V-8 was dropped under it. Clearly not meant as a family car, it was converted to a two-seater and the entire interior was done in Italian leather.
4 P-32
Hot rodding really took off after WWII service members came home and started applying their skills of working military craft to race cars. Chip Foose conceived the P-32 as the car a combat pilot would build if he missed his old fighter plane. Starting with a '32 Ford and a Brookville reproduction body, Foose lowered it and built a custom nose piece, reminiscent of a propeller cap.
Instead of any sort of exhaust system, the flathead Lincoln V-12 belches out through exposed manifold tips just like a Curtiss P-40 Warhawk. The aviation theme is literally driven home with the seats which come from a real Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress. In addition to being a nod to classic military aircraft, the P-32 is also an homage to rat rods. The bomber rod must be special to Foose because it's part of his permanent collection.
3 1956 Ford F-100
Of all the Chip Foose builds, Chip didn't build the 1956 Ford F-100, but he did design it. This was a truck that Chip bought when he was 13 and spent years fixing it up before it became his daily driver in high school. He drew up some designs of how he wanted to customize it, but his busy schedule always put it on the back burner.
In a 2005 episode of Overhaulin' Foose Sr. "stole" the car and a team of builders used Chip's original designs as a template to turn it into the ride he'd dreamed about since he was a kid. That truck got chopped, dropped, widened, and fitted with a 451 Roush NASCAR racing motor. Chip saw the '56 F-100 for the first time when it was unveiled at the 2005 SEMA, and it brought him to tears. The custom Ford truck is once again a Chip Foose daily driver.
2 Lil' Foose Coupe
Remember that collector, Chuck Svatos, who traded the 0032 to Chip Foose in exchange for a custom job on a 3-window '32 Ford? Well, this is that custom job. The car was originally primer black with flames and made a few appearances on the Fox sitcom Titus. Chip did extensive fabrication on the fenders, hood, cowl, roll pan, and chopped the top.
After finishing it black and giving a custom leather interior, the former TV star car was now a fully-fendered '32 Ford, named the "Lil' Foose Coup." What makes this build stand out is that it's a little off-brand for Foose, being more of a traditional hot rod than he usually does. At the same time, this beautiful custom coupe still has the feel of a Chip Foose ride.
1 Hemisfear
When Chip Foose was a senior at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, he participated in a Chrysler-sponsored project to design a vehicle for a niche market. What he came up with was a 1:5 scale model now known as the Hemisfear roadster, which was featured in Hot Rod magazine and served as an inspiration for the Plymouth Prowler. Once out of college, Chip started building a full-size frame but never had enough time or money to complete the project.
In 2005, Chip signed a die-cast toy deal with RC2 Corp, which included money to build the Hemisphere. Though the roadster is uniquely Foose, it does have a nod to the legendary exhibition drag car, Hemi Under Glass, as the Hemisfear has a 6.4-liter Hemi engine in the back, which can be seen through the rear window. Chip made a total of five of these awesome vehicles and considers them to be the most consequential things he's ever designed and built.