Car customizing, which used to consist of hood-rich homies rolling on custom wheels and copping the latest Alpine system, has evolved into an extravagant world.

That world, captured on MTV’s Pimp My Ride, earned massive ratings for the cable channel within weeks of its February debut (beating out the popular Newlyweds and even Comedy Central’s Chappelle’s Show).

The premise is best described as an urban mix of This Old House and While Were You Out: regular folks get their busted-up domestic cars flipped into after-market dreams and ride off into the sunset. “It’s not about getting a brand new car, it’s taking this bucket and being able to completely transform it,” says Pimp Executive Producer Rick Hurvitz, who created the show with partner/Executive Producer Bruce Beresford-Redman last year. “It’s more fun to put $20,000 into a $4,000 car than to buy a $20,400 car. The extent and the lengths that people will go within the car culture is just outrageous. Every time you think you’ve seen it all someone takes it a step higher.”

In Pimp’s case, the muscle behind taking things a step higher from one episode to the next comes from the get-fresh crew over at L.A.-based West Coast Customs. The six-year-old super shop is leading the car league in creating miracle whips, having hooked joints up for major playas including Shaquille O’Neal, Tracy McGrady, and Steve Harvey. “We’re excited that people like it so much and (the business) grew to what it is but of course on the end it’s scary, too,” WCC owner Ryan Friedlinghaus says of the overwhelming response Pimp has attracted. “Now that we built this name up and everybody’s talking about us, everybody wants us to build their cars too, so it’s kind of hard to seperate. We already have our clientele, but now more and more people wanna get with us.”

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