It may have taken two and a half years, but vehicle customization facility Galpin Auto Sports finally celebrated its official grand opening on Saturday night. “When we first opened up our doors, we were shooting [MTV’s] Pimp My Ride, so we never got a chance to do our big grand opening,” said Galpin Auto Sports president Beau Boeckman. “We were working seven days a week, 12 to 16 hours a day for nine months at a time, so that didn’t really leave a lot of time for an opening.”
When it came time to find the evening’s entertainment, however, the facility’s connection to the show, coupled with its celebrity clientele, proved useful. Pimp My Ride host Xzibit performed for close to 1,200 clients, sponsors, and vendors, on a stage set up in the Van Nuys-based shop’s 20,000-square-foot showroom—as did Camp Freddy, Macy Gray, Slash, and Ozzy Osbourne.
Of course, cars were also an integral part of the event, which featured the world debut of custom car builder Ed Roth’s recently restored Orbitron, as well as the Galpin Auto Sports-designed Scythe car, which offers high-tech features like voice-recognition technology and a virtual personal assistant.
Customized cars that had appeared on Pimp My Ride sat in the parking lot and in a garage area for guests to inspect. Those who wanted to actually get behind the wheel had to settle for a spin around the track in a less flashy mini race car, or for a racing arcade game.
