Cruel Intentions: Brendan Hinds’ Audi S5
We’ve all been there at some time or another. It might be when you picked up a new car off the lot and soaked in that new car smell; or perhaps it was that first quick trip to the grocery store where you were able to speed into the lot, unconcerned about speedbumps, pot-holes, or approach angles. More often than not, the promise is made when one finally finds that car they’ve been searching for, convincing themselves that it’ll do just fine to ride out as the car gods intended: OEM, factory fresh, standard…stock. Brendan Hinds made that promise when he picked up his 2010 S5. His intentions were to leave the car alone, content with those gorgeous curves and aggressive fascia. Well, you see how that turned out.
The tale is ubiquitous in this scene. Brendan admits, “No unique story here. I’ve always been into modifying cars, all the way back to my 1995 GTI VR6. I bought the S5 with the intention of not modifying it, just enjoying the way it was. Maybe it needed some wheels…and that was the beginning of the end. [The build] spiral’d out of control from there as I am sure people who modify cars can relate.” There is always that one mod that launches us into the mindset; that place where we can spend six hours browsing for parts with a hundred bucks in our bank account. For this S5, it was those sinister 20×10 Vossen CV3′s. And who could blame him? Those wheels just cry out for a proper drop, which Drew at Dorbritz Designs was happy to put together.
Perhaps the most perplexing aspect of the tuner’s pledge to cease fire is why it even exists in the first place. Does a painter promise to put down the brush at the completion of his latest masterpiece? Or does the professional athlete join a community rec league to lay low for awhile after a championship season? If this is our passion, why do we struggle so hard to start over?
At the heart of this issue lies the fact that our canvas is a fully functional aspect of our livelihood, with countless hours of design preceding it’s arrival into our hands. The Audi S5 is hardly a blank sheet of paper. This is a vehicle that breaks necks sitting on a dealer’s lot. Whatever one adds to this car is either icing, or piss.
There’s no easy answer other than the old adage, “if you have to ask, you don’t understand”. Every single one of us knows why we do it, but none of us can explain it, even to another like-minded enthusiast. There will always exist the struggle of temperance and passion. Our head will establish these cruel intentions for an easy-todrive, out-o-f-mind, comfortable way to get from point-A to point-B just as our heart reaches into the back pocket for a set of coilovers. It is what it is, and it always will be.
Editor: Andy Carter