Building the Wildcat Welcome Wagon

Hello everyone, and thanks for turning into another Miggy-flavored post...just a quick re-cap, I was selected to represent Villanova as one of 16 alumni participants in this year's Biggest Big East Fan contest...the gracious people at Volvo are sponsoring the competition and putting up a sweet, sweet Volvo S60 to the winner. (And here’s the video to prove it)

So along with the voting that started at mybigeastvolvo.com (cough, VOTE FOR ME, cough), we are in the middle of the blogging portion of the competition (this being the 4^th of 8 challenge posts). Let's add on the fact the contestants will be sent to their alma mater for one weekend using the S60 to attend a game (I'll be heading to Nova Jan 28 vs Marquette, you’ll want to get ready to that weekend, just saying…) Again, I ask, why wouldn't one accept?

Challenge Topic #4: Create the Ultimate (Your School) Volvo S60--How would you customize a Volvo S60 to show your school spirit?

(Channeling my engineering degree and my inner Xhbit from Pimp My Ride for this one…)

So as stated in my last post, we’re nicknaming this Volvo S60 the Wildcat Welcome Wagon…and now it’s time to design it:

The base: First off, sorting through all the different details offered for the S60 by Volvo…for that, ended up playing around on the Volvo website using the Build Your Volvo feature.

And we ended up with a Volvo S60 T6 AWD Caspian Blue Metallic…

A few features that I picked out to make this Wildcat look almost as good as Jay Wright…almost, hahaha

-Sports Appearance Package…I mean this shouldn’t be a stretch, this is supposed to be a sports blog, right? (plus I gotta have the twin tailpipes)

-Technology Package…Collision warning & pedestrian detection: because it’s not cool to bump fellow tailgaters, seriously, even if they root for the other team, we’re staying classy here

-rear seat entertainment…in case this isn’t cool enough, I’ll show my plans for using it later in the post

For the blue and white we will fight: After picking up the S60 from the dealership, it’s time to deck it out with whatever we can use from Villanova’s Bookstore…

-License plate frame: Probably the most obvious piece to pick out

-Decal: Not really a bumper sticker guy, but I’d settle for a decal to put up on the back window

-Will D. Cat bobble-head doll: Instead of something hanging on the rear view mirror, rather have Will sitting on the dashboard leading the way

-Keychain: To not mistake the keys to the Wildcat Welcome Wagon with another Volvo’s keys

-Driving gloves: Since it goes with the sports appearance package…

-Travel mug: Quenching a thirst of victory…and of hot cocoa

-Patchwork quilt: Even lining the trunk, cause this is the Wildcat Welcome Wagon, of course

-Tent: Classic tailgating tool

-Grill tools: I mean we have our grill master in Mike Muckian, he’s not really customizable, but life goes on (we kid Mike, but here’s some tools to work with)

-Grill topper: leaving the Villanova brand even on our burgers…

-Hot dog grill topper: …and even our hot dogs

Now time for a commercial break…follow Volvo on Facebook and Twitter so you could find stories like this:

Now let the mayhem ensue: So here’s stuff that I wouldn’t dare trying to build myself, but since we’re going off the Pimp My Ride theme…we going with the more practical/realistic ideas first down to the downright crazy yet feasible in another time

-Paint job: Everyone is probably thinking a generic racing stripe…ehh, I rather try to pull off something a bit more subtle, because I don’t need something drastic to yell “look at me”, I’m pretty sure the S60 already demands our attention…but I still want to show off pride in Nova Nation (please excuse my newbie skills in photoshop, I’m an engineer, not a graphic designer, haha):

Basically, it’s supposed to be subtle light blue and white accents looking as if they are coming out of the front wheels…the dots are a tad bigger then what I would actually plan to put, but the picture is just to show the concept


+Nova ignition sounds...basically when I turn on engine, either a "whoosh go" or "let's go nova" or a wildcat roar would sound off after hearing the engine start…if hearing an engine roar and then a crowd roar doesn’t give you chills, I don’t know what will

-X-Box 360: Ok, the X-box isn’t a far-fetched idea…however, if installing a wireless router along with the 360 can work, we can watch the games using espn3…just saying…

-”Wall Street” ticker: Just to add to the rear-seat entertainment, installing tickers below the head rests, where the TVs are installed, would show off all the latest Villanova news/scores/etc, which would make this car more fun than most man caves

+solar panel: my engineering self had to mention this…wouldn’t install one giant panel placed across the roof of the car, but rather two small solar strips along the rim of the roof…my reasoning from this is that with the rest of the ridiculous items listed in this part, I rather start offsetting some of the energy demand for them, so that the car battery could be used for more important uses, even the collision detection system

I mean it’d be cool to rather have this secondary power come from hamsters rowing, but we are trying to still be a tad realistic here...

So that’s my list…as usual, feel free to speak up...and spread the word like no other...feel free to comment, like it, re-tweet it, just support the cause, thanks

Follow me on twitter @miggyflavored, and GO NOVA! (V for Villanova, V for Victory, V for Volvo)

(As always, many thanks to Volvo, the agency setting up the competition for giving me opportunity to represent Villanova in this competition, and to Eamon O'Meara for the best blog in the world to work with)