Teh Car Blogz

What more can you say?

For those not familiar with LaForza, this Wiki Article will help.  Clif notes: the LaForza was a luxury SUV marketed in extremely limited numbers.  Basically, it was an Italian-built SUV made from a military platform designed by Tom Tjaarda, which was lined with leather and a bangin’ stereo, then shipped over to the states and fitted with a fuel-injected 302ci Ford Windsor V8.  It was intended as a competitor for the Land Rover, etc but never really caught on.

I caught up with a LaForza owner, Brownie Futrell, while driving down the highway in North Raleigh.  After chasing him down into a shopping center on Capital Blvd (what else am I supposed to do?) I got the scoop on this exceedingly rare car and the story behind it’s interesting paint scheme.

The vehicle was bought in 1991 with only a handful of miles on it, and it served daily-driver(!) duty for a few years.  That was until the eastern shore of NC was hit with a hurricane in the mid-ninties, and the car was submerged up to the roof. It was totalled out and sat for a few years, before the decision was made to turn it into a hunting/beater vehicle(!)  That explains the camoflage-vinyl wrap that’s been applied to the exterior.

So, this one’s not immaculate (obviously) but it’s stil a LaForza, so it’s still worthy of admiration.  Brownie plans on restoring the LaForza to it’s original condition in the near future, which I’m all in favor of.  Considering that this is the first LaForza i’ve ever seen, it’s good that there are people out there maintaining them!

Take a look at that interior: Leather, wood, and lots of tiny Italian switches that most likely didn’t like being underwater.  Still, it’s classy after all these years!

So here’s to you, Mr. Futrell: Good luck with that LaForza!

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 12th, 2008 at 5:38 pm and is filed under Spotted. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.