What can we say about this last year? The year 2007 turned out to be amazing for all things Mini Truckin'. As we've been gearing up for our 20th anniversary in 2008, it would have been easy to let 2007 be just another year, but that's not how we roll. We wanted to bring you another action-packed year, so we made sure every single issue was chock-full of the coolest minis from all around the world. As the magazine has grown, so has the staff. You might recognize a few new names, as well as many of the same cats who have been supporting us for years. I want to give a special thanks to our dedicated staff as they continue to bring us the best of what's out there. This year we brought you something new and different with every issue. From old-skool trucks that have never graced a cover before, such as Lukasz's Chevy Luv and Scott's Datsun NL320, to awesome group shots of the DIB Shop cover and the Texas Special, which featured the Ekstensive Tacoma and Blown Blazer, it's been an amazing year.
And as our 5th Annual Year End Awards will attest to, minitruckers don't sleep. This year's trophies were built by www.airbagit.com and feature one-off steering wheels as the specialty awards, simply to give the winners a memento of our appreciation and congratulations on their achievements. A big congrats to each who is mentioned, as you truly made our year memorable.
Mike Alexander - MT Editor
December '07 Cover Truck
Joel Sadenwasser's '99 Toyota Tacoma
D-Lowest
Xtreme Lowz
The West Coast, particularly California, holds a special place in the custom automotive industry as the innovators for many trends, styles, and pieces of automotive history. This is also the case in the minitruck arena, as California introduced air suspension to the world and many other innovations. The same holds true for the paint scene, where trucks, such as Last Look, pushed the limits of customization. For me, Joel's Tacoma, which was painted by talented airbrush artist Danny Albert of Albert Design Studio, put the West Coast back on the map! With hundreds of hours of airbrushing, featuring the best California themes from the hip-hop, tattoo, and underground scenes, Danny captured an amazing paintjob that could have easily gone terribly wrong. Some trucks are overdone and they look it. This truck could have gone South, if the styles hadn't melded just right. Danny made something that was extremely difficult, appear an easy build. Everything flows and works together, from the front to the back, and nothing looks out of place. In fact, the crazy body mods like the chop-top and molded panels are almost unnoticeable, due to the elegance of the paintjob. It's a Perfect 10 in my book. Congratulations to Joel, Danny, J.D., the Extreme Audio crew, and everyone who helped to produce such a beautiful piece of art. For more information on this badass ride, with behind-the-scenes photos from the studio shoot, check out www.minitruckinweb.com.
Ernie Macias - MT Feature Editor
September '07 Cover Truck
Scott Rupp's '64 Datsun NL320
What Is It?
Negative Camber
Talk about a tough choice. For me, I had to look at it one of two ways to make a decision. First, I looked at which truck I would cruise. Or if I was going to build a minitruck, which one would it look like? This led me to Scott Rupp's "What is It?" which graced our cover in September of 2007. To me, this truck had it all: cleanliness, a unique style, and even better, it's super rare. I've always wanted to build one of these very unique Datsuns, because the sleek lines and unibody are a real plus. With dark-blue paint and that dark-brown interior, this truck really nailed it for me. And this was why I chose it for Truck of the Year.
Joel's D-Lowest came in a close second, because being a West Coast truck it really deserved some major props in my book. Putting the West Coast back on top, at the end of the year, was a real plus for Joel's truck.
Chris Pasley - MT Art Director
December '07 Cover Truck
Joel Sadenwasser's '99 Toyota Tacoma
D-Lowest
Xtreme Lowz
There are a lot of sick trucks out there every year. But, for some reason, when I was asked to choose, I could only picture one Tacoma in my head. I tried to think back over the past year of any other truck that had popped into my head to compare it to, but nothing came to me. Joel "Gromit" Swassenburger (or however you spell it) Tacoma is by far the Number One spot in my book for 2007. This truck truly speaks for itself.