Juiced

I love looking at vintage coverage from all areas of the hobby because it is a great way to see what styles were here to stay and continue to stand the test of time and which were 'of the era'. I hesitate to use the word fad because it has a lot of negative connotations and some styles tend to boomerang and come full circle in the end anyway.

The inability to be in more than one place at a time is starting to become a problem, I had a great time at last years Truck And Tuner Expo and would have liked to attend again this year but I had never been to Grand Bend prior to Sunday so I ended up there instead. However the Nine O Five guys have always been very supportive of the site so there was absolutely no way I was going to let the show go by without some guest coverage and as luck would have it my friend Jon O was close enough to Niagara to head out for a couple of hours.

In the 'Four On The Floor?' Theme Tuesday I posted a Nissan 300C lowrider hittin a three at a gas station followed by Datun 200L with interesting rear window vinyl also paused on three. Then later I dedicated an entire Tuesday to strictly non traditional lowriders. After doing those posts I didn't think I would come across another, different, Nissan on wires but here we are.

About a week ago Will from Stance East (who is known to rock SIE shirts in the club) asked on the facebook page if low riders ever tip over after I posted a pic of an Impala hoping. I messaged him later saying the farthest I have ever seen one get is parked up on it's bumper or dragging bumper in a three wheel. However, it would appear that if you three wheel a square body s-10 blazer there isn't really anything stopping you from going ass over tea kettle while bending them corners.

Last week in jest I made the following comment when posting that clean Fiesta: "when was the last time you saw a car with hydraulic suspension that didn’t have wires?" After reading that a few people on the fan page urged me to look a little harder into the land of hydraulic (or Hydropneumatic) suspension to broaden my horizons. So I did. While I had guessed a few people outside of the traditional lowrider community were dabbling in the land of juice I was surprised to see how widespread the use of hydraulics is over a variety of platforms.

This Mk5 Fiesta is one of is one of the more unique builds I have come across this month and part of this is because we don't get this flavor of Fiesta in North America. However, the rest of the reasons I like this car have nothing to do with this cars availability to me and everything to do with the owners choice in modifications. For example when was the last time you saw a car with hydraulic suspension that didn't have wires?

Tucson native Will Watrous has once again graced Stance Is Everything with an awesome set of photos from the West Coast Nationals. It's been a little bit since I had heard from Will so it was good to see that he's still riding low and hitting up events in his Ranger. The WCN coverage he sent over this year looks just as good, if not better than last year, so if I ever do somehow get a travel budget WCN is an event I must attend.

One of the hardest things I have ever tried to do is explain to friends and co workers who are not really into cars is why exactly I, and people like me, enjoy seeing a low vehicle leave a trail of sparks in it's wake while traveling at high speed. Of course to a lot of rational people this act is counter productive and downright dangerous and that's probably why I like it. Life is short right?

After googling Truxarossa for last weeks WTF Friday I came across an old school mini truck thread on streetsource.com and was hooked instantly. I was no where near driving age when a lot of these trucks were out killing the streets and gracing covers but I do have hazy memories of similar style trucks still being around the time when I began to start noticing automobiles a lot more.

About a month and a half ago I was spending a lot of time lurking the Kit Central forums digging up a little more info on an article my auto teacher took to Carlisle for his replica Diablo build. While I was there I came across this Trans Am Italia. This kit made the Pontiac Trans Am look less like a Pontiac and more like a Testerossa. I've seen a few kits with this effect (widebody e30, Truxarossa) but never this one. It looks pretty dated now but was probably a head turner in it's day.

Bryan from Infamous Auto Art recently sent in some shots he took at Scrape By The Lake and Jitter bug 2010. Bryan's been out shooting local shows for the past year or so and I've posted up a few of his shots here previous. It's always a treat to another persons artistic take on an event you have gone to. Nothing beats clean cars, and local talent, I love our scene.

Last year I went to Scrape By The Lake for the first time and had a blast. Scrape is one of the most unique car shows in all of Ontario and while it's mainly a low rider show there are classes and cars for everyone's tastes. This year they invited me back with media pass based on my coverage from last year which I was able to get inside the hop pit and get close to the action. Part 1 of the coverage contains pictures of the traditional Low Lows and bikes along with the hop contest photos.