Reverend Gadget

PUTTING THE RETRO INTO ELECTRIC VEHICLES

TEXT AMANDA ROBERTS

VISUAL VIKTORIA RAYKOVA

I have done so many disparate things. My whole thing is that I love tools. Every thing that I go into… its like, ‘Oh! There’s new tools to buy!’ I love having all the tools for everything.

GADGET

Reverend Gadget oozes cool. Taking in his tousled hair, bandito mustache, and deep voice, I immediately felt like a dweeb in my button-up and backpack. A loyal Burning Man attendee and native Angeleno, he lets me know his eclectic group of friends had taken off just before I arrived.

Stepping into his space in South Los Angeles is more like entering an artist’s studio than an auto mechanic’s shop, with warm light bathing the tall ceilings and loft in a sort of ethereal glow. The living area, complete with several pianos, dancing pole, and a karaoke machine, tell me that it’s a lively place to hang (and if you think this is a place your Nana might like because there is a “Reverend” there, you might want to think again).

This is only a part of his story, though. More than half of the large warehouse space is dedicated to Left Coast Electric Vehicles — a self-run company where he proudly transforms gas guzzlers into electric chariots, ready to harken a new age in which alternative energy is as fashionable as it is plentiful.

If you head here expecting to see space-age shuttle cars, you will be sorely disappointed. Gadget’s cars have style. Wandering through the shop feels more like jumping back in time, as if the past had been engineered by Elon Musk. His cars are the kind you might jump into for a date to a drive-in movie, except you wouldn’t have to worry about carbon monoxide poisoning if you want to keep the windows up.

What you will see is an array of classics — Porches, Ford trucks, and Chryslers, mostly from the ‘40s, ‘50s, and ‘60s, all in various stages of transformation. (The only newly built vehicles you will find are wild-looking art cars from recent Burning Man trips.) A gorgeous 1947 Ford is currently sitting hollowed out and waiting for its electric upgrade — the interior redesign will be complete with turn signal activated monitors and a pop-out picnic table where the engine once was. When asked about the advent of self-driving cars, he doesn’t seem too concerned. “My clients are all people who love their cars…” Gadget muses, “I think driverless cars are great, but the people who collect cars are conscientious drivers.”

Gadget is too groovy to be boastful, but you will catch a glimpse of his brilliance when he starts to talk tech. The numbers alone are enough to convince even the staunchest oil-blooded American that electric cars are not only practical, but powerful. Speed is far from an issue for these cars, and Gadget’s batteries will last hundreds of miles on a single charge, not to mention the fact that maintenance is practically non-existent when compared to the standard fossil-fueled vehicle.

His desire to create beauty paired with his technical genius elevates Gadget’s work to a level previously unseen. Through a carefully cultivated blend of creativity mixed with logic, he blows the old modernist theory “form follows function” out of the water. Shortchanging design to optimize utility, or vice versa, doesn’t seem to even be a passing thought for him, as he is equal parts creatively and scientifically minded. A true renaissance man, Gadget not only built his first car at age sixteen, but also designed sets for a Debbie Harry video and created furniture that is now displayed in MoMA. Gadget describes himself as someone with a short attention span, but the way I see it, he is simply not interested in letting go of imagination in exchange for productivity.

The line throughout Gadget’s work is his understanding of the need for environmental preservation. He remembers moving to Brentwood as a kid, before it was fleshed out with business centers and houses, and questioning why developers needed to flatten entire mountains to do so. He has been voicing his concerns about climate change loudly for years — he speaks on national panels regularly and has gone toe-to-toe with big oil and gas. You can also see him starring in a handful of documentaries and television shows, including Who Killed The Electric Car in 2006 and Revenge Of The Electric Car in 2011.

At the end of the day, Reverend Gadget brings some much-needed flair to the world of alternative energy. As an clean energy advocate, he hopes that melding diligence with innovation will inspire the masses to reconsider how we get around.