Bringing a large SUV to the pavement is not an easy task. The task gets even more difficult when you want to cruise it around on are large diameter wheels. Dennis 'Doug-E-Fresh' Whinnery from Brea, California owns this 1997 Chevrolet Tahoe LT with a simple, clean look and smooth riding suspension thanks to a little ingenuity.

   That ingenuity resulted in a frame-laying SUV that still rides comfortably on the constantly under-construction Southern California roads. The Tahoe rides on four Firestone 2600 lb. airbags that are filled by four Firestone 337 compressors and eleven gallons of air storage. The front suspension is where the crew at CVN Motorsports had to get inventive and take an idea from another genre of automotive fabrication. It was treated to an engine cage that was fabricated in order to get full turning radius and a smooth ride. Then the rear was modified with a step-notch, an Air Ride Technologies 4-link with panhard bar, and wheels tubs to accommodate the 22 x 9.5 Tezzen Virus wheels wrapped in 265-35-22 Hankook Ventus tires. The stock fuel tank was then removed and replaced with a 18-gallon fuel cell.

   Cleaning up the body of Dennis' Tahoe was an easier task but still required some attention to detail and changes to the vehicles stock appearance by Metal Art. The stock taillights were replaced with 1993 Cadillac taillights. The rest of the rear end was also modified including shaving the rear door handle and molding in a roll pan. The antenna was also shaved along with installing a smooth wiper cowl, color matched mirrors, and color matching the door handles. The truck was repainted the factory silver using DuPont silver paint mixed with ice violet pearl by Merzees Paint and Body. A Street Scene chrome speed grill was installed along with diamond cut headlights, turn signal lights and corner lights. The finish off the front, a chrome bowtie and smoothie front bumper were also added. The factory roof rack was unbolted and billet caps were installed.

   Once the SUV was done with it's major body and suspension changes the interior was ready to be re-installed but not before a few more upgrades were added. The factory leather seats were taken apart at the seams. In-seat massagers were installed for a comforting back massage while rolling and black center inserts were added for a more custom look. The gauges are Nu Image platinum series surrounded by a billet gauge bezel. Other billet pieces were added including a light switch bezel, lighter, pedals, air conditioning and heating controls, shifter and door jamb vents. A full carbon fiber interior kit was added including a half wrap leather and carbon fiber Cadillac Escalade style steering wheel. Kustom Rydes Unlimited installed the Audio/Video system which utilizes a Kenwood KVT-911 touch-screen, flip-up, in-dash DVD monitor. The headrests for the front seats were sliced into and two Kenwood LZ-800W 7-inch touch screen headrest monitors reside in them for the second row passengers to watch movies or use the Playstation 2 that was installed. the factory speakers were removed for better sounding, higher wattage Kenwood replacements powered by a Kicker 600.4 amplifier. For the low notes, there are two Kicker 1200.1 amplifiers running the four Kicker L7 subwoofers all in a custom fiberglass enclosure that has been built over the wheel tubs and is paintede to match the exterior of the Tahoe.

   The factory 5.7-liter Vortec V8 motor is sufficient power to keep dennis going strong but a few things were changed to leave no part of Dennis' Tahoe un-modified. A Flowmaster exhaust, K&N cold air intake, high output alternator, and dual Optima yellow top batteries keep things running and rolling