10-4 Magazine May 2023

Special Feature: By Xavier Stefaniak Like all enthusiasts of beautiful trucks around the world, the goal is to stand out, convey an attitude of respect and cleanliness, and therefore the goods transported. Lukas Von Warburg, a Swiss resident, has understood this well and has enlisted the help of the most prominent shops on the old continent to give life to one of the most striking and colorful combinations of recent years. Lukas Von Warburg is a passionate long-distance driver. Once employed, he is now the owner of his own trucking company called VoWa Transport, and he has a small but refined fleet. The company headquarters are located in Gelfingen, Switzerland. He himself drives an older, well-maintained Scania, with a trailer in his client’s colors. This new refrigerated truck is entrusted to its dedicated driver, Adrian Eiholzer. For him, it was more about the pleasure of first dreaming up something, and then making it happen. And the results are impressive. The foundation is a Scania R650 with a two-tire bogie axle. Neither the large “S” cab nor the most powerful engine of the popular Swedish brand of truck were chosen, but this model variant, with its low cab and extraordinary axle configuration, still demonstrates an old school sense of classic European style. Delivered at the beginning of 2019, the truck was immediately transported to the Dutch tuning specialists at Steve’s Place, a truckstyling shop in the Netherlands. They already had an idea of the general appearance they were going to give the still-black tractor when it arrived. Going to work immediately, the shop gave the truck a handmade sheet metal dress that elegantly concealed the chassis. The fuel tanks were also hidden behind a smooth wall, and if you take a closer look, you’ll see that the cabin doors lack handles, the gold rims are engraved with Prince symbols, and the straight exhaust pipes have been polished and sandblasted with “Purple Rain” text on them. The truck also features a custom visor, a personalized front nameplate, and a custom wrap-around bumper. Next, it was the trailer’s turn to be passed into the expert hands of the Dutch customizers. It was made by Schmitz Cargobull and is an almost tailor-made construction. Like the tractor, the lower parts of the trailer are advantageously hidden. The pallet boxes and the system attached to the crutches are now invisible (or almost invisible). With the main body elements adjusted and installed, they went to work on the truck’s cabin. Looking inside, you immediately see a profusion of purple Alcantara (a common synthetic textile material that is soft and suede-like) with gold stitching, and shiny purple paint on all the plastic parts. A set of lights with a variety of color and intensity options was installed. Finally, accompanying the happy driver during deliveries, a stereo system with multiple speakers was installed that pump out nearly 2,000 watts of sound. Now, let’s talk about the amazing paint on this rig! The fantastic airbrush work is done in the theme of the famous Minneapolis Kid – American superstar musician and producer Prince (born Prince Rogers Nelson). The work was done by the Dutch couple Marcel and Willeke Timmer, who create airbrushed works of art that are worth seeing, under the name MW Designs. They had the monumental task of painting the different motifs, portraits, arabesques, and words of the artist on the almost 165 feet of linear space of the combination. 66 10-4 Magazine / May 2023 PURPLE RAIN