Last night while checking up on a few builds on the Stance Works forums I came across this quote by Mr. Burroughs:
Silver, Gold, or polished. Those are the gentleman’s wheel color choices.
My wheels are none of those colors so I am not sure I agree, but cars like this Z4M I later found on maxbimmer certainly support his claim.
So what do you think are silver, polished, and gold the only true gentlemen’s wheel choices?
Most of the coverage I have seen from those who visit California (San Francisco and LA area) seems to be centralized around a visit to the Fatlace store in SF, a Hella Flush event, a stop at Rotiform, and sometimes time/weather permitting a stop at one other event.
Though it isn’t all that far from the strip, and an awesome place to visit as a gear head, very few ever talk about let alone cover the Peteresn Automotive Museum, at least on the sites I frequent.
Heck, prior to arriving in Los Angeles and looking online for something inexpensive to do while there I didn’t even know the place existed.
While it is a given that the Petersen Museum is a great stop for a car nerd what is perhaps the best thing about this particular automotive museum is that it’s approachable for those with much less of an interest in cars along with young children.
The people who set up the displays and exhibits at Petersen do such a great job that even if you don’t care what the text below the exhibit says you could lose yourself in the attention to detail in the scene laid out before you.
If you are reading this and you find yourself in the Los Angeles area make a point to head out to the Petersen Automotive Museum you won’t be disappointed.
I wasn’t and I took a ton of photos as seen below.
These vehicles are generally newer than most in the museum but caught my eye and attention for one reason or another.
Learning more about how automobiles changed over time (and society with it) was one of the more interesting things at the Museum.
While I didn’t take any photos of them the traditional coach inspired cars – with enclosed passenger quarters open drivers quarters – were quite interesting, and kind of disrespectful to the guy driving you around.
Movie cars as a whole are always pretty interesting, some are complete hack jobs meant to be destroyed in one take, and others are mechanical marvels often also meant to be destroyed in one take.
While I was in this section I had my first encounter with an employee of Petersen who ran my automotive knowledge through the ringer. I could keep up alright with the movie cars but eventually his questions made a chump out of me.
I know now my semi retirement career goal however.
I knew that Hot Wheels was a pretty big deal but it never occurred to me just how in depth the world of Cars really is, some of these ‘toys’ are worth more than my 1:1 vehicle and they actually hold unveilings of new releases with tiny curtains being lifted and everything.
It’s a great time to be a kid, or kid at heart.
This Exhibit is currently running at Petersen until the end of 2012.
The Italians are responsible for some of the best looking automobiles ever created.
There are some who say that the only Hot Rods are 30s Ford Hot rods, I’m not one of them but saying I thoroughly enjoyed this room would be an understatement.
I still have quite a few photos from the Petersen Museum kicking around so don’t be surprised if you see a couple more on the fanpage sooner rather than later.
Saw a thread on jdmrides.ca yesterday that had the following quote:
Jdm or not. I wouldn’t want something that old and ugly. Might look cool slammed on some low offset rims….
That was about all the encouragement I needed to pull together a Cressida Theme Tuesday.
I never really considered these ugly to start with though.
Cressida wagons next week?
A couple of weeks ago I had a chance to meet up with two skyline owners for a photo shoot, nothing serious or anything like that but another good chance for me to play around with my new camera.
By the time we all hooked up and the cars were cleaned it was getting dark which killed a lot of the photos but I was able to save a few.
Prior to shooting these cars side by side I never really noticed how significant the size difference between these generations was, the R35 is well deserving of it’s Godzilla moniker and the one above has significantly more bite than it left the factory with.
Paul’s R32 is no joke though and recently put down 695hp in a dyno shootout.
Craziest thing is as impressive as that number is Paul wasn’t the fastest car at that shootout… hoping to catch up with the car that was later in the year… though with a Mazda 3 it will probably take me to September to do so.
Probably shoot these two Skylines again before the season is out as well.
It’s no secret that in the quest to go as low and wide as possible some people have been known to cross the line between voids warranties and downright dangerous.
Not long ago one particularily inept attempt appeared on Jalopnik and more recently people have been up in arms over a particular silver Celica from Japan.
While it is easy to assume that only lowered car owners go to such dangerous extremes to get the look they want, lifted vehicle owners are just as ready to blur the line between questionable and downright dangerous.
The question I ask today is when it comes to the most extreme of extreme examples from both camps who is actually safer? Or are they all just rolling games of Russian Roulette?
The aforementioned Civic that didn’t actually end up all that low but scared a whole pile of people in the process.
I am sure all of you have seen this Celica 1000 times over by now but if not here it is. Japan has always been pretty crazy when it comes to extreme modifications so I don’t see a lot of people following this cars path.
I hope not at least.
The best source of information on this car can be found over on Nori Yaro.
At first this Chevy looks like your typical show ready mall crawler but the closer you look the more you see that things are not quite up to snuff in the fabrication department.
Finally the end of this little comparison game is perhaps the worst built vehicle of this entire post. While this Suburban did end up pretty high but that is about all there is going for it.
The rest is downright scary.
So if you had to drive one of these on a long road trip which would it be?
This is my last full day in California, Los Angeles to be specific, and this evening I will be going to Bob’s Big Boy in Burbank to hopefully have a good burger and see some cars.
That is of course if the weather holds out, if you are in the area or attend this meet look for the guy in the Stance Is Everything Shirt.
None today as the internet connection at the Holiday Inn LAX has flashed me back to the days of 7mbps evidently.
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.
This is a 75 Cedric that was originally built in the late 90s by Eddy Rattley (also known as RatDat). When finished for the first time it was Blue but then it was painted Gold later for another feature in 1999.
Then like a lot of cover/feature cars it vanished for a little bit before it was picked up by someone new and given a new lease on life.
Funny enough this car wasn’t originally built as a hopper it was built to dance. I would love to see some videos of it flexin’ as I think that would be pretty cool.
This car looks pretty good as it sits if you are into traditional lowriders and if you are not just imagine it with a different set of wheels…
Hopefully the new owner continues to show it off.
Photo Credit: AshleyKent
Spotted on: Suck Squeeze Bang Blow
Another entry in the ‘low s2000s with wide tires and Enkei wheels’, aka Fat And Flush,category.
s2000 owners just seem to gravitate towards Enkei wheels, be it the RPF-1 or the NT-01 which is the wheel of choice today.
Like the RPF-1 the NT-01 is strong, relatively light, relatively inexpensive, and looks quite great 9″ and wider.
An aggressive tire setup as oppose to an aggressive wheel setup is never a bad thing with an s2000 and neither is a hardtop.
Sadly I wasn’t able to find specs for this one but I’m sure one of you know…
Photo Credit: GeeRoq
Reading all of the Long Beach Formula Drift coverage really makes me wish I flew into LAX and went from LA to SF instead of the other way around, but I had free board for a few nights in SF so…
Instead of drowning my sorrows in a local San Francisco Morrow Bay pub I pulled together some drifting gifs to make myself feel better.
Finishing the SF to LA cruise tomorrow, hopefully I can come across more cool cars in Los Angeles.
Be sure to check up on the California Car Spotting gallery on facebook, doing my best to update it daily.
The last time I was in Pennsylvania I saw a car so poorly modified that I nearly wrote off the entire state when it came to cars. I know that sounds extreme but that car was quite bad.
On the complete opposite side of the coin Eric’s Rabbit is quite good and in my eyes does an excellent job of redeeming, and representing for, the entire state.
After one look at the photos Eric sent in I knew this car was worth sharing, and with the Volkswagen community often taking the blame for some of the more extreme trends in the scene right now Eric’s car serves as a reminder that you don’t need to go over the top in order to stand out.
Eric skipped over bright paint, rusted body parts, excessive vinyl, and other modifications that walk the line between original and cliche and instead went for a much more subtle exterior treatment.
A Votex lip kit has been installed and to keep the visual flow consistent and undisrupted all the way around the vehicle Eric also painted the rub strips and shaved the rear wiper.
The ground kissing stance you have no doubt already noticed on this car is care of a Air Lift XL / Bag Yard bomber setup that is managed with Accuair’s e-level air management system.
When installing the system in the hatch Eric went that extra mile by lining the floor with hardwood and neatly laying out the skinny 5 gallon air tank, dual Viar compressors, and Accuair exo mount ontop of it.
Completing the package is an aluminum hard-line set-up that is a bit of a change from the more commonly seen brass hard-line configuration.
Going through all the trouble of fine tuning an air ride system to not end up with something that was sitting on the floor and tucking significantly all said and done wasn’t what Eric was after, so he chose wheels that didn’t fight for real estate with the fenders every time he aired out.
The 18 x 8.5 et 36 Privat Kup kicks he ultimately settled on look right at home in their new residence deep inside the rolled fenders.
Like all great cars Eric didn’t put this one together completly on his own and would like to thank his girlfriend for introducing him to the Volkswagen scene, and his father for helping out with the wrench work over the years.
I would like to thank Eric for sending his ride in and photographers Eric Shell and Matt Lianco for contributing the photos for this feature.
As a former BMW owner I’ve hung around BMW message boards for quite some time and seen many a BMW re-imagined as a straight line terror.
I’ve seen 2002 gassers, Isetta Monsters, and plenty of snail fed slick tire equipped e30s, but this e21 I spotted on The Amazo Effect just so happens to be an American milled BMW I’ve never seen before.
Built by Swede Martin Lundblad in 1998 the car came about when he began to develop a liking for American vehicles (the Chevy Nova in particular).
While the lure of American power was strong Martin couldn’t bring himself to get rid of his first car and loyal daily driver so he did the next best thing.
He cut it up.
The firewall was recessed, the trans tunnel moved up, and the rear was tubed all while a tube frame worked it’s way underneath the car.
The factory motor hit the curb and a small block 350 was put under the hood (something I tried to encourage other maxbimmer members to do quite a bit).
He also took care and precaution to keep the car as factory looking as possible given the modifications done.
This is by no means the only drag e21 around it’s one of the cleaner ones I’ve seen.
Wonder where it is at today?
Still I think this 5er might be the cleanest Chevy powered BMW ever.
I’m in California, San Francisco to be exact, which means that sadly I will be missing Forumla Drift but I am going around the city on bike today, and tomorrow I am going to check out Alcatraz which should be alright.
I’m still not 100% sold on that new TV show but this Bullitt tribute was pretty cool.
I am hopping from wifi to wifi but I am hoping to do a Cali car spotting gallery on the fanpage over the next few days provided I see some cool rides.
Maybe while I am here I can spot one of these two rides I posted in 2010?
I’ve already seen several El Caminos and non rusted out Civics which has been trip.
