PORT TOWNSEND — A 600-horsepower electric postal van may propel Glen Cove businessman Roderick Wilde into stardom as the subject of a Discovery Channel reality television show.
A film crew has been following Wilde, a self-described electric car nut, for the past three weeks to make a pilot episode called “Sucking Amps.”
Most of the action has taken place in Wilde’s Glen Cove EV Parts shop where the van, christened with the moniker “Gone Postal,” is being rebuilt.
The cameras haven’t shied away from capturing Wilde in action on the town and even in a yoga class.
“It’s just a show about this whacked-out amp head, you know?” Wilde says in describing the show.
Wilde, whose “Wild Man” nickname isn’t just a play on his last name, has had momentary fame before.
A couple months ago, he flaunted an electric bar stool around town that came in second place at a salt flats race in Utah. Unlike its tavern kin, this stool travels at highway speeds.
An introduction to Wilde’s shop, EV Parts, a distributor of parts for electric cars, usually includes a spin on his modified golf cart. That’s literally a spin — he’s pumped the cart up to 40 or 50 horsepower and isn’t afraid to pull some doughnuts in the gravel parking lot.
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