There was way too much good stuff going on at this year's Spring Break Tuner Bash. We were so busy trying to toss the hotties some cheap plastic beads in exchange for some cheap plastic thrills that we nearly missed all the four-wheeled machines in the joint. Chuck Puttman's GS, Julia Phan's S15 conversion, and the All Star cars were just a few highlights of the show. But one car in particular stood out from all the rest. And like that one sultry spring breaker who doesn't yearn for the attention her daddy didn't give her (not that there's anything wrong with that), this one car wasn't even entered in the show. But then, this car's owner is different from most of the other showy showoff types out there.
Bly Gravlee is a man of discriminating tastes. His turbocharged S2000 is clean, solid, tight, and curvy in all the right places. He has gone to painstaking lengths to select the right blend of parts that make up the whole of this finely tuned machine.
Yes, Bly Gravlee is indeed a man of discriminating tastes. He is also wise beyond his years, for you see Bly Gravlee is a senior at Vestavia Hills High School in Birmingham, Alabama, which he refers to as the "Salty Ham." His fixation with cured luncheon meats not withstanding, what really struck us as odd was the Bly guy's age-19. At this age we were still discovering ourselves while waging a battle against some explosive acne outbreaks (not much has changed now). Most 19-year-olds we know today couldn't come within a country mile of building a car this sick (and most 19-year-olds we want to know will either dismiss us with a humiliating chuckle or give us a refreshing spritz of pepper spray to the face). A 19-year-old buys a faux body kit from Buddy Klub or Vellsyde, installs it himself without painting it because, well, that costs extra. He then completes the entire project with a liberal application of "Powered by Vinyl" graphics. A 19-year-old does not build a car like this. But then, Bly Gravlee is no ordinary 19-year-old.
"I've been playing with vehicles since I was a lil' tyke, but when my brother bought his first import I began looking into the culture of imports," Bly told us. "That's the reason you can say I bought an import of my own. Other than that, I just like to have fun and take long walks on the beach. (Oops, I didn't mean to say that, I was just playing)." (Don't worry, Bly, we promise not to print that last part.-JN)
"This is the first import car I have worked on [since he already owned a 600 rwhp Mustang]," said, Bly. "I take my time on each one of them to create something with the best quality. I look at Super Street to see the dos and don'ts of the vehicles published in the magazine. (The staff cars alone can fill the don'ts column.-JN) Everything on the vehicle is chosen carefully so it doesn't look out of place-everything has a purpose. I color-matched what I could, and the carbon fiber in the system enclosure [stacked with the finest in Eclipse gear] is the same as the roof to make sure nothing stands out more than anything else. Each aspect is equally attractive."
Speaking of the roof, it's an authentic Mugen piece, which Bly claims is only one of 17 in the world. That seems right because we rarely see these hardtops, but then again, we don't get out much. Bly says the carbon-fiber roof is easier to remove than the factory soft top, which was tossed in order to facilitate the placement of the two NX bottles on the package shelf behind the Sparco Roadster seats. Bly's choice in body kits is for real-not one See-West bit in sight. For the bumpers and side skirts it's all about the C-West, baby! Bly even polished the pedestals on the VeilSide GT-Wing to match the 19-inch Axis Se7ens.