If there’s one thing I’m always a sucker for, it’s a grand idea that’s simultaneously a terrible idea. Especially if its carefully executed, like this one is. What you see up there is a 1979 Toyota pickup truck outfitted with a Chastain Rumble Rider package. I have no idea who the target market for this thing would have been.
I mean, other than that very relaxed-looking blonde lady in there.


The Chastain Rumble Rider package seems to have consisted of those rear window louvers, fender flares, running boards, a rear bumper that incorporated internal storage (for I suppose non-fragile stuff), and, most significantly, those languidly reclined in-bed seats:
In a lot of ways, this reminds me of a luxurious version of those in-bed seats the Subaru BRAT has in its bed to get around the Chicken Tax:
The Chastain in-bed setup, with its butter-cream-colored upholstery, lounge-like seats, and long, wood-inlaid side armrest consoles. It sort of reminds me of a motorboat interior?
I just wonder about the size of the intersection between the sort of people who desire such luxurious accommodations and the sort of people who are just fine riding in the bed of a pickup truck. I don’t suspect that the intersection of this hypothetical Venn diagram contains all that many people.
But for those that do exist, I really can’t think of anything better. Laying back in one of those seats, a nice glass of Woodford Reserve, all while bouncing down a dusty gravel road somewhere. Enjoying heady lungfuls of exhaust as you ramble down the road, your drink sloshing all over your hand and pants! What could be better?
I think a most people think lots of things could be better, so hardly any of these Chastain kits were sold, but there were a lot of models of this thing sold:
The model kits seem to have some more exciting elements, like that fairing between the cab (they call it a “quarterback” roof) and bed, but otherwise it’s pretty much the same deal we see up there with the fancy lady.
I’m pretty sure the number of model kits of these trucks vastly outsold the real-truck kits, unsurprisingly. I wonder if there’s any way to make something like this work in context of modern safety standards? Maybe not?
Be fun to try, though!
If I had just seen this ad online, I would’ve immediately assumed Photoshop/AI special. But since torch has an endless supply of old magazines, I think it might be real.
Nice! Does that blonde “come” w/ toys…oh, I mean Toyota? We could have a “truck load of fun” in that “long”bed. “So roll w/ it” Yes, please
Any front-end collision would ginsu the pretty lady’s head into distinct slabs of Spam as they pass through those louvers, Play-doh style..
That looks like my wife, Morgan Fairchild! Yeah, that’s the ticket!
You know what this would be great for? Drive-in theaters.
That poor woman. Look what the wind did to her hair!
Wow! High lux, indeed!
As a Gen-X kid, I remember riding in the back of a pickup truck on public roads. No seats, just sittin’ there. And we were a very suburban family, not some cowboys or anything.
If the seats are removable this is actually a really nice idea. I could see this being used for sporting events where you don’t want to bring a bunch of lawn furniture that won’t be very comfortable. That or a beach/resort vehicle where people who are wet that need to be moved but you don’t want on the cloth seats can sit and dry in the sun in the meantime. Aaaaaand now I’m sad thinking about how people used to have enough disposable income to afford things like this instead of needing something that could do everything because they can’t afford a second car or the storage space needed for accessories.
Assuming those seats are waterproof, they would probably be good for a hot tub car.
I think I’ve already written about my ’72 Dodge Power Wagon, and the black bucket seats (’67 GTO) I had set in the bed.
They were just tucked in loose behind the cab, so a spirited beer run had the two guys in the back looking like Weebels on a hard turn.
I don’t know why I was never pulled over, but didn’t even draw a hard look from “The Fuzz.”
Oh wait, I know why: 1974, that’s why.
I think I would love the idea of the “Toolbox Rear Bumper” right up until I got rear-ended and 10mm sockets shoot out like shrapnel from a grenade.
worst way to lose your 10mms
Cops are like “Found the thief!!”
Friend of mine has an old box truck he got at a government auction (he’s converting it into a food truck) that has toolbox bumpers. He thought they were a great idea till he finally managed to open one up. They had long stopped being waterproof, and he found that they were mostly just full of moldy paper and the unidentifiable rusty lumps of some tools.
Are modern pickup truck beds even long enough or anything like this?
I can smell that ad just by looking at it. Smells like cologne samples in a fresh out of the wrapper Playboy magazine.
Made me laugh! But I suspect the “Dept. CD-3” indicates this was the third ad Chastain ran in Car & Driver (or is there another “CD” magazine with car ads?).
There was the magazine that fueled the ’70s – Cocaine & Dewars, published weekly until the drugs ‘n’ drinkin’ moral panics of the Reagan era kicked into high gear
Perfect accessory to fully enjoy the new Riviera.
Luxury technicals are sure to be all the rage in the New Riviera.
Thousands of years fighting merely for the lack of comfy chairs.
An astute understanding of the situation. Do you work at USAID?
Humor to cope with a world gone MAD. What, Me Worry?
Wasn’t that the Ottoman Empire?
(not only was that borrowed from Seinfeld but it’s oddly geographically- and semi-culturally accurate…)
I strive to be semi-cultured.
New Riviera: It’s that 50-Cal state of mind.
“state of mind” is beyond reproach.
After you enrich yourself as supreme leader.
Surround yourself with praising Yes men, end up Fool Monty.
OK, I’mma let you finish, and I’ll hold off on the motorboating innuendo for a bit, but was there some point in time where “Chastain” was a household name outside of an underappreciated actress or HOF women’s soccer star?
I’d like to considered myself a Cultured Man, but I’m not “rear window louvers and truckbed couch” levels of cultured.
Had the luxury version of a brat. Had to rewire the door speakers because the front channel of a aftermarket headunit hated 3 speakers on it. It really hated the front brush guard and was happy that it lost wieght when the garage wall had it. Ricers wet dream when the muffler fell off from rust. Barely had a working carb, it just peed gas where it was metered by the lake of gas in the intake manifold. Really liked when running warm as the hp was temp dependent.
Though the keyless entry was useful when I locked the only keys in it.
BTW 1985 was notable for having all the options on brats. So think more like peak luxury that subaru had then, not the bare minimum “farmers friend” subaru was known for
The best COLD START graphic yet!
Good catch, no pressure on Torch but I’m starting to expect a new graphic every day, as part of a series…
Oh good! I’ll stick with this one, then. Until someone else complains, I suppose.
Now are we doing “cool but within normal operating range start”? I think not.
Peg that needle left dangit.
I just noticed that. I’ll fix it!
Or you could just say it’s somewhere hot like Phoenix or Death Valley. For several years a couple decades ago I lived in an especially hot part of California where summertime temps could hit 115 degrees Fahrenheit. I DD’d a 1969 VW bus which I still have (sans air conditioning, ha, but fortunately it’s indeed true what they say about it being the humidity and not the heat so those high but arid temps weren’t as bad as the less hot but far more humid summers where I live now) and I installed an oil temperature gauge where the calibration started at 100 degrees F. It was always amusing to start the bus up for the first time late in the day and have the oil temperature gauge’s needle immediately move to ambient temperature whenever it was over 100 degrees even before the engine had turned over.
Not wanting to make your life more complicated (but proposing to do so anyway), how about the oil temp needle reflects how early/late you manage to get the Cold Start article together?
Some days it might be an absolute stinker of a frigid start, others more lukewarm…
The SHADOW Louver is going to be great in front end collisions. /s
For some reason, ELP’s “Brain Salad Surgery” comes to mind…
PROG ROCK ftw!!!!
Did you know Steppenwolf dipped briefly into prog rock?
For Ladies Only was the album. Maybe not their best, but an interesting snapshot of the times in between Uriah Heep and King Crimson songs.
RIP Keith. And Greg.
I could see a contemporary version of this for the Cybertruck. Can’t you just picture the Nookie Monster himself, Link Wray cranking on the stereo, interrupted by Mr. Microphone bursts of “Hey good lookin’ I’ll be back to knock you up later!”
That’s some pimp my ride, put an aquarium in the back of a Honda Accord, level customizing right there, but with a warranty! I approve!
I’m seeing this parked along Fraternity Row on some warm, sunny campus on game day, ready to head out to the stadium and show off before all the plebeian tailgaters.
My first thought was tailgating at football games. Would also work for fishing and bird hunting.
Also Drive in movies!
I want that truck with none of the addons,just a long bed truck with low sides not jacked up.Way more usable.
I had a Toyota long bed truck just like the one in the picture, but yellow. Perfect for hauling full sheets of cabinet-grade plywood INSIDE the bed. Was a great truck. Sold it and a week later got a call from the DMV asking me if I still owned it as it was found wrecked. Nope, I have the Release of Liability form to prove it.
At the dealer, I’ll tick no option boxes/
(No option boxes!)/
We’ll get to work soon as I drop the pen/
I want a truck with small price and a looooooooong truck bed
In high school, a friend had a ’78 Datsun pickup with a camper shell. The back wall of the cab was cut out and sealed to the bed and topper. Then the ENTIRE interior was padded and slathered in sculpted shag carpet.
It.
Was.
GLORIOUS.
That does sound glorious. Unfortunately, I suspect one quick shine of a black light would convince you not to go in without a hazmat suit.
As a parent, I cannot imagine letting my teenager drive a rolling boudoir around town.
My mom sold our conversion van with a full down couch bed in the back for a two-door hatchback months before I got my drivers license. I was so sad that my friends and I turned her car sideways in the driveway. it only took 3 of us to slide the little tercel sideways.
Hahaha, you had PLANS for that couch. I think the ideal car for a teen has 1 seat. This doesn’t exist but I’m sure I could craft an aftermarket solution.
This was the mid 1980s. The perfect 1 seat car was a 2 dr mini pickup and it hauled stuff to the college dorm and cost less than a car. I got my grandparent’s 1969 Galaxie 500 with a HUGE vinyl back seat that worked well.
When I got my license our primary vehicle was a conversion van with a rear seat that converted to a bed.
However, because I was a socially awkward computer geek, nothing of note ever happened back there. 🙂