Junkyard Gem: 2002 Chevrolet Monte Carlos SS, Disney Gucci Edition
Remember the customized ’94 Chevy Caprice, with its shaved door handles and screaming teal-and-flames paint job, that we admired in a Colorado car graveyard a couple of months back? Just a few rows over from that car was another custom Chevrolet, this one with elaborate airbrush artwork celebrating Disney animated characters and the Gucci fashion house. That’s what we’ve got for today’s Junkyard Gem.
The Chevrolet Monte Carlo was born as a 1970 model, a sporty midsize coupe that (along with its Pontiac Grand Prix sibling) sparked the 1970s personal luxury coupe boom. It went through six generations before being discontinued after 2007; today’s 2002 SS is from that final Monte Carlo generation.
Our reviewer felt that the 2002 Monte Carlo was “the car for NASCAR fans,” with a slick aerodynamic design whose individual elements didn’t quite fit together. There were only two trim levels of the ’02 Monte available: LS and SS.
The SS got a 3.8-liter Buick V6 rated at 200 horsepower and 225 pound-feet. For the 2004-2005 model years, a supercharged version of this engine was available in the SS, with a 5.3-liter LS V8 engine going in the 2006-2007 cars (and in their Pontiac Grand Prix GXP brethren). The final year for a manual transmission in the Monte Carlo was 1979, so this car has the mandatory four-speed automatic.
21st-century GM W-Body cars are a dime a dozen in American boneyards right now, so let’s get to what makes this one stand out: the custom paint job! The right half of the car is pink, while the left half is purple.
Gucci logos are everywhere on this car. There have been legitimate Gucci-branded cars, of course, including the AMC Gucci X Hornet Sportabout and Fiat 500 Gucci Edition. More common in the everyday driving world are the unauthorized uses of famous fashion-house logos; I’ve seen everything from a Louis Vuitton Mercedes-Benz S-Class to a Caprice with a Gucci headliner during my junkyard travels.
Perhaps the 2011 hit, “Gucci Gucci,” created by a musician who drove a Buick Reatta at the time and attended the same high school as Jim Morrison, Mrs. Fields, and yours truly, was an inspiration for this car’s Gucci theme.
Most of the airbrush artwork celebrates Disney animated characters.
Jessica Rabbit, Mickey Mouse, Pluto, the gang’s all here.
It’s a shame to see all this work end up in the junkyard.
Want to be like the Earnhardts? Drive the Monte Carlo.
