Specialty File
It's been awhile since Cigarette boats, those sleek offshore powerboats of TV's Miami Vice fame, were cool. They fell out of fashion about the same time as pony-tails and amyl nitrate benders. In the intervening decade and a half, the Cigarette Racing Team watched fecklessly as its "Cigarette" trademark slipped into generic use, in the manner of such noble trademarks as Vaseline and Kleenex. Now any overlong, overpowered speedboat is likely to be referred to as a cigarette boat.
Recently, Cigarette-under new management-began a campaign to reclaim its brand identity and its coolness quotient. Enter vehicle customizers AI Design of Tuckahoe, New York, commissioned last fall to produce the "Cigarette OnShore," a roadgoing companion to the ritzy speedboats.
The basis for the OnShore is GM's own redoubtable boat, the Chevy Suburban LT with four-wheel drive, which at first blush seems to have little in common with the wave-pounding half-million-dollar racers Cigarette creates. Wouldn't, say, an Aston Martin make for a better matched set? "The idea is to offer Cigarette customers a tow vehicle that is complementary to the boats," says Todd Brown, 36, vice-president of AI Design. (You can even get a matchy-matchy boat trailer, which is fabulous!)
Founded 10 years ago by 33-year-old electronics whiz Matthew Figliola, AI Design has quietly matured from being a high-end audio installer (AI stands for "Audio Intellect") to a one-stop customizer of supercars in the mold of the houses of Stillen and RENNTech. AI does all its own fabrication and installation, from carbon-fiber trim to Wilton carpets. "I've seen the best work that European tuners can do," says the Type A+ Figliola. "I do better."
Confidence notwithstanding, the OnShore is the company's first-pardon the expression-full-boat tune. At the heart of the OnShore is a Whipple supercharger with twin screws (get it?) running about seven pounds of boost into the Vortec 5.3-liter V-8. Combined with a custom header-to-stinger exhaust fabricated of stainless steel by Gale Banks Engineering, the power-plant puts out roughly 485 horsepower and 500 pound-feet of torque, says AI.
Brown and Figliola estimate the OnShore's pace to 60 mph at about seven seconds and its top speed near 130 mph, which will definitely get you a ticket in a no-wake zone. During a brief drive from New York City to the company's hospital-clean garage in the northern suburbs, the OnShore gathered Cigarette OnShore gathered speed like a Swiss avalanche, just hitting its stride around 100 mph. It was reminiscent of the old Mercedes S-class V-12s with its feeling of enormous weight seemingly given a day pass from the constraints of inertia.
Keeping all that mojo in check is the job of the Brembo brakes: up front, four-piston calipers identical to those on the Ferrari F50, biting down on 14-inch, cross-drilled, directionally vaned, cadmium-plated rotors; in back, the same, only with 13-inch rotors. The package offers more swept area than all the floors in the Pentagon. All this high-end hardware is visible through the spokes of the On-Shore's Colorado Custom "5 Star" aluminum wheels, 8.0-by-20-inchers up front and 10.0-by-20-inchers in the rear. The wheel offsets are such that the outside edge of the tires (Toyo Proxes S/T, 265/50ZR-20s in front, 295/45ZR-20s in back) is just flush with the fender flares.
Rounding out the performance mods are upgraded anti-roll bars front and rear (1.25-inch solid steel) with firmer urethane bushings. The stock 2000 Suburban's Autoride adaptive damping option and the load-leveling Premium Smooth Ride option are both included.
Aesthetically, the OnShore has more in common with an Alpina Biturbo than any-thing GM makes. Once stripped of all badging, the OnShore gets a menacing monochromatic makeover and is fitted with a custom billet grille insert, xenon headlights, and a slick swoop of paint leading back to the Cigarette Racing Team badges on the rear flanks.
Inside, the truck has been gutted, reupholstered, and rewired with enough infotainment gear to start your own Sharper Image store. The hub of the electronics is a retractable Alpine CVA 1005 stereo/nav/DVD control unit that also displays a rear-camera view when the vehicle is put in reverse. Flush-mounted LCD video screens are mounted in the front headrests, and the DVD player and the Sega Dreamcast are hidden in the center console and rear armrest, respectively. Remote controls and wireless headphones abound.
Cockpit appointments include a custom center console slathered in nickel-plated carbon fiber, into which a cell phone and a heavy-breathing 10-inch subwoofer have been installed. For a nautical touch, three genuine Cigarette boat gauges-voltage, boost, and fuel pressure-smile out from the lower console. The IP is decked out with matching white-faced dials and illuminated with cherry backlighting. The handle on the lower console is a tiny dock cleat. Neat.
And that, dear friends, is how you build a $165,000 Suburban. If you are still feeling financially randy, AI can install some of its signature accessories, which include satellite TV, ship-to-shore radio, integrated radar jammers, and a Valentine One radar detector with the threat display hidden in the rearview mirror. Or if money is tight, you can opt for the OnShore crew-cab dualie version (based on a tandem-wheel Chevy Silverado) that will sell for only $155,000.
Either way, you will get a vehicle more than equal to the perils found in the world's yacht-club parking lots.
