Daniel Rosen is a self-admitted Porsche man. His previous project, a Fatlace featured 997 slammed on Forged wheels, was a great example of what's possible within the "stance" world with enough vision, hard work, and liquid capital. Seeing a true performance machine with the imposing presence that 12" wide concave wheels command brings out a kind of childish glee, harkening back to the early days of fantasy hot wheels and book fair posters with a robot unicorn driving a Countach in some epic lightning storm. Nevertheless, as you would imagine, stancing supercars isn't cheap. Daniel Rosen admits, "... I have been driving Porsches for the last few years and decided to spend my money more wisely (bought a house) so I picked up the GS, and the build snowballed from there . . . it is still is a huge savings over my last cars." This Lexus GS350 AWD is Daniel's budget car; his budget beater. Read More
The VIP designation gets thrown around pretty loosely nowadays. From the JDM kei cars and vans, to the rising popularity of Thai Accord's and Camry's, VIP fashion seems to have spread to any car that can get low enough and sport a set of curtains. To further confuse the matter, many of the more traditional platform builds in Japan are starting to sport brighter colors and wilder body kits, deviating from the defining style the gives them their inspiration. While that diversity is important and healthy for the scene in general, it's rewarding to see a big black sedan in classic bippu style. The great twist, however, is that Jame's Wald LS460 doesn't come from Japan or southern California, but the desert state of Nevada. Read More
The internet has completely reinvented the way we as auto enthusiasts approach modified cars. Whereas there were previously maybe a dozen or so national magazines that showcased maybe 8-10 cars a month, it's entirely possible to be exposed to that many full features in a single day now. And that's not even including the builds that one can follow on the forums, or the random shots dumped on Tumblr, Flickr, and Facebook. Cars rise to popularity in a matter of hours, and often are forgotten with the click of a mouse. Trends that once may have lasted years phase out in a matter of months. Everything is moving faster; changing and evolving right before our eyes. Cars are bought, wheels are mounted, photos are taken, car is sold: whatever it takes for 15 minutes of e-fame. Full builds are almost a relic of the past; a dusty old practice from a time when exposure was a rare commodity, and only the best of the best got big attention. After all, if all it takes to get a feature is a drop and a rare set of wheels, why spend tens of thousands of dollars customizing your car? Mark Naylor can tell you why.
You've got to feel for Civic owners at a big show like last weekend's Import Alliance. No matter how much blood, sweat, and tears have been poured into the car, there is inevitably going to be some other example that's gone bigger, badder, lower, wider, cleaner, faster, more JDM, more stanced, more you-fill-in-the-blank. The guy with the brand new GT-R, however, pulls right into a front row space with little more than a new set of wheels and a mild drop. Not that this comes as a surprise to anyone, or that it's a reason to cry foul: when one chooses the poster-child for the entire import scene, it's going to take some serious brainstorming to stand out (in a positive way) from the endless Honda sea. Shock value won't cut it. Different for the sake of different gets a wave and chuckle, but is quickly forgotten by even the keenest observer. In the little time that I spent talking with Adam Phan about his Civic, I realized that he understood that concept. His philosophy for the car wasn't to turn the scene upside-down, or launch some new trend; rather, he just set out to build a Civic that would make him happy and turn a few heads in the process. Read More