Below left: In early 2015 the Zombie was still sporting the naked sleeper look, but ever since being part of the Historic Car Races at PIR (see Races and Events section of 2014) and after receiving hate mail over the un-stickered look, Plasma Boy couldn't get the BRE Datsun thing out of his mind. Below center: The famous #46 BRE Datsun 510. Below right: The idea for the new look began with Plasmaboy using Photoshop - cutting, manipulating, resizing and pasting the stripes from an image of a BRE Datsun 510 onto the naked image of the Zombie to visualize the idea.

Going from concept to actually making it happen required the expertise of the good folks at PVS In-store Graphics. Below left: In the design stages we tried different colors for the racing stripes and ended up choosing 'Tomato Red' and 'Sky Blue'. Below left-to-right: PVS tech Kevin Allen translated Plasma Boy's ideas onto the screen and made all the calculations so that the printed vinyl pieces would be the correct size on the actual car.

The BRE 510s had a couple variations of paint scheme - either red on top or blue on top, with the top hood color folding over the fenders and becoming the top portion of the racing stripes. The Photoshopped Zombie below with a blue hood looked odd, as having just the hood colored didn't look right, and coloring the roof and trunk lid would be too much - the car is after all 'White Zombie', not blue or red Zombie. It needed to have just the right balance.

Plasma Boy came up with the idea of electrical bolts on the hood that would then fold over into the racing stripes morphing electricity with classic racing adrenalin. Below: Using original artwork files provided by longtime friend, fantastic cartoon artist and supporter Chip Gribben, Kevin took the yellow electric bolt from the Plasma Boy Racing logo and created new blue bolts for the hood:

It was great fun working at PVS with the guys, and especially interesting to see how the digital images on the work station computers were sent to the shop area where large format vinyl printers spit out all the pieces. Once the various decals were cut and trimmed, the next step would be application to the car:

PVS In-store Graphics does full vinyl wraps on everything from cars to buses, so the White Zombie project was a piece of cake. The guys are all fans of the Zombie, and it was fun working with them as they really wanted to put their touches on the car. Being part of the whole process and watching the transformation was a great experience:

Adopting the racing scheme used on the BRE Datsun 510 to the Datsun 1200 actually required some thought and bit of research. The placement and angle of the racing stripes for 510 didn't translate well to the smaller 1200. Using the same angle and top placement of the stripes from the 510 had them cutting across the middle of the 1200's smaller door instead of at the leading portion of the door as it does with the 510 (lower left photo), plus the angle of the stripes just didn't look right. With the stripes in the middle of the door, there was no room for the Plasma Boy Racing logo that was to be positioned similar to the racing numbers on the doors of BRE 510 sedans. Legend had it, that Pete Brock (BRE stands for Brock Racing Enterprises) mirrored the windshield's A pillar degree angle for the racing stripe, and the prepress computer programs verified that. When digitally copying and pasting the 510 racing stripes to the image of the Zombie, the angle was awkward because the degree angle of the 1200 windshield A pillar is different than that of a 510. We measured the 1200's A pillar angle, then tilted the racing stripes to mimic it. Instead of starting the top portion of the stripes where the A plillar meets the cowl as it is on the 510, we pushed that point forward to where the rear corner of the hood meets the cowl. That made it all fall into place where it looked right, and opened up the door for the Plasma Boy Racing logo. Below center & right: Additionally, in place of the midstripe 'BRE Datsun' we inserted 'White Zombie' in silhouetted font (center photo courtesy of Ralph Ogata).

Previous to the 2014 naked look, the Zombie had always sported a menacing Godzilla on its hood - a nod to the mighty .7 megawatt 'Zilla' motor controller and the monster attitude of White Zombie. Below: We experimented with a couple of variations, then Kevin decided he needed to be belching what he is calling a 'FlameBolt' shown in the killer photo shot by Ralph Ogata.

The PVS In-store Graphics gang did a terrific job!

Ralph Ogata's images capture the new spirit of White Zombie so well!

One week after the new 70s style racing look was done to the car, we displayed the Zombie inside the auto shop, then put on a few tire smoking runs in the parking lot - note all the cameras catching the scene.

The race track is located in central Oregon's stark arid high desert country.

Photo courtesy of Maria Dixon

Marko Mongillo with his super cool '68 Datsun minitruck EV, Robert Thornton with his 'Wedgie' CommutaCar and Plasma Boy with White Zombie put on their own EV car show within this fun car show hosted by the Northwest Vintage Thunderbird Cub.

Below: Wedgie was updated by Plasma Boy Racing with a compact lithium battery pack 1/4 the size and weight of the original lead acid golf car battery pack, but still giving 35-40 miles of range. Marko's Datsun truck has a 30 kWh pack, so we used a modded PFC20 as a DC-DC transfer to fill up Wedgie's small pack for its 25 mile return trip from Oregon City back to Portland - how cool is that?

White Zombie returned to this electric car show emblazoned in full decal mode after last year's more tepid naked look.

On a foggy crisp day, the trio of Marko's Datsun minitruck EV, Robert's super rad 'Wedgie' CommutaCar and White Zombie invaded this otherwise gasoline-fueled car show near the banks of the Willamette River in Oregon City.

From Summer through early Fall, every Wednesday night there is an ET drag racing & car show EVent at Portland Iternational Raceway put on by Beaches Bar & Grill. Though we did not race the Zombie in the 1/8 mile drags that was the backdrop of this over-the-top car show, we did have it on display among the 750 cool cars and hotrods that showed up!

The last public showing of White Zombie in 2015, was appropriately at the 'World of Speed' museum.