Let's say you find yourself with a cool quarter mil to drop on a car. You could do what everyone does and get a Ferrari 458, or a Lamborghini Gallardo, or a Bentley Continental GT. Fine cars, one and all, but, really, nothing terribly special. Drive one of those and you're just another rich guy in an exotic. You don't want that.
You want a Icon Thriftmaster. Wait a sec — a pickup? Seriously? Yes. Trust us on this.
The Thriftmaster doesn't look like much at first glance, just one of countless Chevy pickups sold in the late 1940s and early '50s that's been thoughtfully restored. But this is Icon, the company led by the mad genius Jonathan Ward, who's made quite a name for himself building meticulously crafted off-roaders that sell for the same price as a top-spec Porsche. His clients are discerning enthusiasts, including guys like Jony Ive.
This isn't another resto-mod in which a backyard grease monkey throws an engine and some updated suspension bits into a classic ride and calls it a day. The Thriftmaster is a thorough reimagining of the iconic Chevrolet 3100 series pickup that GM cranked out by the boatload from 1947 until 1953. It's brilliantly designed, meticulously crafted and worth every one of the 220,000 dollars you'll shell out to put one in your garage.
Ward is building just five Thriftmasters, and we were lucky enough to get behind the wheel of one at his shop in L.A. We've driven a lot of cars, and this is the first pickup we've added to our lottery garage.
Ward, whose thoroughly updated Toyota FJ, Jeep CJ-B and Ford Bronco are drop-dead gorgeous and thoroughly bad-ass, always loved the classic lines and clean design of the 3100 series, and thought it was a perfect candidate for updating.
Some barnyard basketcase wouldn't do for this project, so Ward scored an original 3100 and all the body panels he'd need to build five more. He laser scanned the original to ensure everything was perfectly positioned, and used that as a blueprint for the build. Body panels from GM's vintage parts program were meticulously prepped, then sprayed in a stunning, yet understated, matte dark gray.
The truck may be thoroughly updated, but Ward wanted it to look like it came right out of the factory. All the exterior parts look original, but they've been tastefully and subtly redesigned. The grille, headlamp surrounds, badges, and bumpers are milled from billet aluminum. The door handles look like they came off your grandmother's Fridgedaire. All of the lighting uses LEDs, and the turn signals are tastefully integrated into the mirrors. They didn't use backup lights in the 1950s, but you've gotta have them these days, so Ward integrated them into the lip of the bed. Speaking of the bed, it's made of ash wood, layered with aluminum, coated in a marine finish, and topped off with a gas cap from the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG Black Series. Because, awesome.
Then it was time to start working on the good stuff underneath. The truth is, as gorgeous as an original 3100 series is to look at, they're an absolute dog behind the wheel.
"I restored a half dozen of these," Ward says. "And they all sucked to drive."
The problem is the 3100 is, well, a truck, and GM never intended it to be anything but a utilitarian vehicle made for hauling stuff. Comfort and handling were never a concern. So Icon tapped the chassis gurus at Art Morrison to make the Thriftmaster ride as nicely as it looks. Everything's bolted to an all-new frame with thoroughly modern independent front and four-link rear suspension. It's a vast improvement over the 60-year-old solid axles and leaf springs of the original. The Thriftmaster rolls on fat wheels that look like the ones Chevy fitted back in the day, but of course they aren't actually the ones Chevy fitted back in the day. Ward, being Ward, had each wheel milled from a single block of aluminum.
We'll pause here to let you consider just how insane, and magnificent, that is.
And then there's the engine.
It's straight out of the GM parts catalog, a 5.3-liter small-block good for 315 horsepower in stock form. But this is Ward we're talking about, well enough alone is never enough. The engine's force-fed air through an intercooled supercharger, bringing the power output to 440 horsepower. Just for the sake of comparison, the 2014 Corvette puts down 460.
Climbing inside the Thriftmaster is like climbing into a time machine. Everything looks like the original, but of course none of it is original. The dash started as a sketch on the back of a napkin — cliche, but true — and Ward refined the design with CAD, then had it milled from aluminum. It's got integrated vents and a magnetized panel that pops open to reveal a Kenwood touchscreen that controls climate, navigation, remote start, electric window controls, even a full web browser. Of course, you need internet access to browse the web, and Icon's gotcha covered -- the Thriftmaster is a mobile hotspot. Why? Why the hell not?
The seats are lined in black bison hide, the floor is lined with the same carpeting Rolls-Royce uses. But the coolest touch may be the window controls. Rather than slap a switch on the door and ruin the retro aesthetics, Ward used the factory-installed cranks. Depress them one inch and the tinted windows drop. Pull them up, and they close back. Details.
What makes it even more incredible is how it drives once you've got your hands wrapped around that huge, retro steering wheel.
"We wanted to push the envelope in a sports car direction," Ward tells us. It shows.
The steering is tight and communicative. The brakes hold up to repeated thrashing. And the supercharged engine? Oh my. With nothing in the bed and a half a tank of fuel, the back end breaks free every time you stomp on the gas. It's crazy, and we did it repeatedly. We just couldn't help ourselves. It's just too much damn fun, particularly coming out of corners, where the quick steering makes it sooooo easy to catch the back end even as you keep the pedal to the floor.
But dial things back, and the Thriftmaster is a benign boulevard cruiser. The ride is a bit rough, but there isn't a squeak, rattle, or rough edge to be found. Something this old shouldn't be this refined. But at this price, you expect refinement, along with exclusivity. And on that score, the Thriftmaster wins. Yes, 220 grand is a stupid amount of money to spend on a truck, but then the Thriftmaster is a stupid amount of truck for the money.
