The one thing people notice first about Rich
Inferrera is his truck. It’s yellow.
" This is more of a summer vehicle, " said
Inferrera, standing in the middle of the shop he
owns on Dexter Avenue, Rich’s Car Tunes. During
these chilly months, he said he prefers to drive
his slightly less flashy blue Saab.
With one arm hanging out the window of his
canary colored Ford pick-up, Inferrera flipped a
switch on his tricked-out dashboard to
hydraulically lift the hood, revealing a modified
351-cubic-inch, super-charged engine.
" This is the fastest pick-up I’ve ever driven,
you don’t believe you’re in a pick-up, " he said
of his 450-horsepower baby. " You wouldn’t believe
the way it handles. "
The truck, which Inferrera has dubbed, simply,
Big Yellow, recently picked up two top awards at
the 28th Annual World of Wheels auto show in
Boston’s Bayside Exposition Center earlier this
month. He said he entered the show " just for
kicks – to hang around and spread our name around,
" and had no earnest intention of winning the Best
New Truck and Best Truck/Van Interior awards at
the show.
" The World of Wheels is a car show and not an
audio show. It would really be important to me to
take first place if it were an audio show, " he
said, adding that nonetheless, " these awards mean
the world to me. "
Big Yellow began its life as Inferrera's father’s
1990 Ford pick-up. Inferrera fils said he
borrowed it three years ago and never got around
to giving it back. In the interim, he pumped
upwards of $100,000 into it, turning the engine
into a 450-horsepower monster and the dashboard
into a yellow fiberglass piece of art with chrome
switches and purple interior lights. It has been a
group effort, he said, with members of his staff
lending a hand here and there.
" It makes me feel good when people check it
out, " said Fernando Ventura, a Rich’s Car Tunes’
employee who Inferrera credits with putting the
finishing touches on the dash.
" My dad looked at it [recently] and said
‘Jesus Christ!’ " said Inferrera. " He’s been the
best, most supportive father I could ever ask for.
I owe all my success to my father and mother. "
It sounds like support is exactly what
Inferrera, a self-described garage tinkerer, needed
growing up. He said he got his first car, a
Renault, at the age of 12. His second car, which
he acquired a year later, was a 1937 Plymouth. At
16, he scored a vintage 1957 Chevrolet, which he
still owns.
Big Yellow was sitting in his shop recently,
getting new cables installed into the video
monitors. The DVD cued up for viewing in the cab
of his truck was, naturally, last year’s vehicular
flick, " The Fast and the Furious. " (Yes, you
read that correctly, there are multiple video
screens and a DVD player in the car).
Born and raised in Watertown, Inferrera dropped
out of the Franklin Institute after one year to
pursue what he calls today " my destiny. "
Inferrera, 49, opened Rich’s Car Tunes not long
after leaving college. Now he is recognized as an
industry leader — appearing on the cover of trade
publications ranging from Auto Sound &
Security Magazine to Mobile Electronics. There are
signed photos of happy customers like Aerosmith
guitarist Joe Perry on the wall of the front
hallway (Perry wrote that " my truck never sounded
so good! " ).
And for the last fifteen years Rich’s Car Tunes
has also taught classes at the " Rich Inferrera
Team of Professionals " electronics installation
school, known as Ritop.
" The school’s making a stink, " said Ritop’s
director, Joe Boston, which is apparently his real
name. With a nigh-on 100 percent job placement
rate, he said the full-time eight-week program "
is attracting students from Indonesia, Japan and
Brazil. "
Inferrera said that after three years of
tinkering, he is just about done fiddling with Big
Yellow. Cleaning up at the World of Wheels show,
he said, was nice for his ego, but he was careful
to share credit with everyone in his shop. He
stressed that he is proud of his team. And
clearly, he was proud of his truck.
" I looked around at the show and there were
some radical pick-ups there, " he said, slapping
Big Yellow’s driver-side door. " This took best of
show. "
Brian Braiker can be reached at bbraiker@cnc.com
