With each new release, Abacus Mimistrobell (CEO of AM Pro) seems to slipstream into the creation of these vehicles. One of the latest releases is the 1964 AM Pro Impala which amassed over 220 hours of garage floor work and is arguably one of the most talked about cars in SL. Standing with 688 prims, it's certainly no lightweight, but upon closer inspection you see just where these prims went, and more importantly why they went there.

I managed to grab a very busy Abacus Mimistrobell to discuss his business and his passion for racing in SL.

Trinity Dechou: Did you have any 3D modeling experience before you joined SL?
Abacus Mimistrobell: Nope none actually went to school for ecommerce business.

Trinity Dechou: Have you experience in RL of cars and if so how has it helped you in SL?
Abacus Mimistrobell: Well since I was eight years old up until I was about 18 I worked in my fathers automotive shop where we specialized in technical diagnostic equipment and tuning high performance cars.

Trinity Dechou: The cars you make in SL are RL cars, can you tell me how you get the information
Abacus Mimistrobell: In order to build the ones I have I get as many pics as I can of the RL models and for all the little tidbits I cant see I assume based on my automotive history, so more or less build with no blue prints just assumed dimensions, based off images.

Trinity Dechou: You are heavily involved in racing in SL; can you tell me a bit about that?
Abacus Mimistrobell: Since the time I was only a few months in SL I noticed there were some racing leagues beginning to form and decided to join a team. After going through a 3 month season I had already begun to build my automotive company so generally going into the next season, it was a no brainier to get myself my own team.

Trinity Dechou: Where do you usually race?
Abacus Mimistrobell: I race in a league called RaceSL, which is in my personal experience SL's premier race league. We do rotating seasons of moto style races ... to formula one style races to make for a more individual team event type of racing. The formula one-style races work, as a manufactures series in the way that each team is given certain specifications and guidelines in building their own F1 model which are then retrofitted with the same scripts. It has been a passion of mine since I got into it as it give me an escape form building all the time and at the same time allows me to sink my teeth into all aspects of SL's ever expanding auto industry. We have 4 dedicated sims that host our tracks, which are all track, no buildings or laggy shops with vendors. The series also allows me to pay drivers and gain greater talent, which in turn allows me to seek sponsors that I wish to promote. I personally have been working with the creator Les white to figure out new ways to make the series that much more rich in its context by adding depth of business.

Trinity Dechou: You recently opened your sim, so business is going well? Did you expect it too?
Abacus Mimistrobell: Business is definitely better hen it ever has been but I have also been preparing for a very large new release of vehicles that have yet to be announced … but always with the dawn of new releases comes the prospect of new market growth and saturation. With that come new customers, so I am always looking ahead for expansion. The production side of these kinds of vehicles with the kinds of marketing initiatives I pursue are definitely a huge undertaking so it boils down to quality over quantity for my company.


Trinity Dechou: Do you have any building contributors?
Abacus Mimistrobell: In the past my cars were solely "built and produced” by myself ... I have always hired out the work of scripting animating and particles to other more seasoned professionals for the fact that I know to produce the best possible product I can’t always assume myself the best in every category but recently I have come to enlist the skills of 2 extremely talented sculptors in order to expand the range of cars possible to my line as most forms of cars and bikes are not possible with prims alone. Even in doing this I have still stayed true to myself and not made only sculpted cars but a combination of sculpt and high prim that I truly believe still defines my creations as supremely detailed. With that said, my passion for the building and business sides of this endeavor have not much faltered ... I still do at least 50% of the building myself… now that I’ve become more proficient in texturing I also do more of that and a few other things ... even though the production and back end of the business side of things will always be undertaken by myself. So its a lot of work to produce exactly what I want but at the end of the day I’m very proud of the work my "team" accomplishes and the fact that they have piece of mind knowing that every thing they help me do they receive full accreditation on… as well as knowing my customers are always taken care of personally.

Trinity Dechou: Any clues as to future releases?
Abacus Mimistrobell: As to future releases there are many! I’ve yet to officially release which ones I’m doing b/c as I’ve learned so far that until its about to hit the show room floor keep your mouth shut especially if things about it are up in the air. For example, the build of my last car the 1964 AM Pro Impala was done in only about a week so as a teaser I put it in my showroom so people would see it. Well, my scripter Les White and I went off on a bit of a tangent to make it so totally rich with content including 120 hours of scripting 20 hours of build revising and another 80 hours of custom animating done by bits and bobs designer Yawneeb Grommet … that the car took 4 months to release. So long story short I was getting around 5 -10 IM's a day about the release of this car for about 3 straight months.


AM Pro Rides: http://slurl.com/secondlife/AM%20PRO/53/128/41
Flickr Group: http://www.flickr.com/groups/786265@N25/
XstreetSL: http://www.xstreetsl.com/modules.php?name=Marketplace&MerchantID=57165

Pics 1-3 all used with Abacus Mimistrobell's kind permission.
Last Pic taken by Trinity Dechou