I guess the rear wing fad has been replaced by this

Wow, there's even a term for making a car look silly. Guess that's what happens when you live in Pennsyltucky where the trends take forever to arrive.

There's a distinction between the autocross Rabbit y'all posted (engineered for a purpose, appearance be damned) and a kid maximizing the fender rubbing for nothing more than visual effect. The one I showed in my first post isn't really as extreme as the ones I've seen on the road in my daily travels. If it's for autocrossing, or even for some weird style show the car makes occasional appearances at I don't care. I am puzzled and frankly annoyed by the ones on some mouth-breather's daily driver when he's traveling down the interstate, bouncing on his bump stops, shreds of sidewall flying off his car at 10 under the speed of everyone else. He's not only a cartoon but a hazard. These things were an anomaly until the last month or two and I've suddenly been seeing more of them, almost exclusively VWs.

The car in my avatar has wider wheels, but they actually fit, and have proper flares to cover them.

David S. Wallens wrote: Don't forget, our forefathers rigged their exhausts to shoot flames, stuck Lincoln grilles on Fords, added dummy spotlights, and affixed fake lake pipes.

Hey, I'm all about the fake lake pipes. I even made one for the datsun replica.

(Would rather use a header kit to build an actual lake header, but was able to do this on a challenge budget.)

ddavidv wrote: Wow, there's even a term for making a car look silly. Guess that's what happens when you live in Pennsyltucky where the trends take forever to arrive. There's a distinction between the autocross Rabbit y'all posted (engineered for a purpose, appearance be damned) and a kid maximizing the fender rubbing for nothing more than visual effect. The one I showed in my first post isn't really as extreme as the ones I've seen on the road in my daily travels. If it's for autocrossing, or even for some weird style show the car makes occasional appearances at I don't care. I am puzzled and frankly annoyed by the ones on some mouth-breather's daily driver when he's traveling down the interstate, bouncing on his bump stops, shreds of sidewall flying off his car at 10 under the speed of everyone else. He's not only a cartoon but a hazard. These things were an anomaly until the last month or two and I've suddenly been seeing more of them, almost exclusively VWs. The car in my avatar has wider wheels, but they actually fit, and have proper flares to cover them.

making a car look "silly" is nothing new.. i know you've seen what street machines looked like in the 70's and 80's.. gutless Chevelles or Chargers and what not with the rear end held way up in the air with air shocks or spring shackles (or both) to make room for some L60 or N50 rear tires mounted on either Cragar SS or Keystone Klassic wheels- and the occasional Ansen style slots-sticking way out past the wheelwells, with the big square old school "mail box" hood scoop bolted to the hood with no hole cut to feed the 2 barrel carburetor...

In reply to novaderrik:

Funny. I saw a '69 Road Runner the other day that fit that description perfectly. Bright orange, too. From the age of the driver, I'm guessing he built the car 20 years ago. Nothing wrong with it other than it seemed to off, tuning wise (stank to high heaven...).

As far as stance cars go... I see a bunch around here. Whatever.

That red E30 you had was gorgeous!

"ridiculous fitment" is nothing new and the street machine trend above is exactly what i've been talking about, just couldn't get a good example ha

and as for the Isuzu on hydraulics, don't be throwing minitrucks in this argument, that's just not something you want to do that is sweet by the way and that was the big thing back then, static drops with 15 inch daytons or billets lol at least minitrucks though seem to pull it off better. I'm the GRM Minitrucker

Brett_Murphy wrote: I don't mind people doing whatever it is they want with their cars. I *won't* buy a car that's been made Hellaflush, there is just too much work involved getting it to a normal state again.

Look at that E30, change the suspension and wheels..........that's really so hard? You would have done it anyway.

But I guess if it gives everyone something to complain about.

Meh.

Yummy.

David S. Wallens wrote: Welcome to being an old, crusty, you-know-what, guys. Your ID cards are in the mail. Don't forget, our forefathers rigged their exhausts to shoot flames, stuck Lincoln grilles on Fords, added dummy spotlights, and affixed fake lake pipes. I'm sure their parents didn't get it, either.

This. When I was young I did some things to cars that I now think are ugly and may even have been misguided. But when you are young and want to personalize your vehicle, you do what you can, based on your ability and finances. And we should be glad they do, because this hobby wouldn't be what it is without people having that need.
But according to my understanding of what the OP is saying, if I build my Mustang to look like say a GT350R race car, but don't race it, then I'm put in the same category of the Hellaflush guys? Because that's all they're doing in reality. If it wasn't for race cars that have little tire clearance (like the autocross cars in the pics), the look wouldn't be appealing to them. They're just copying it the best they can, and while I wouldn't do it and wouldn't want to drive their cars, I have no problem with it and don't understand why anyone else does either. The world would be a really boring place if we all thought the same about everything. Why knock what someone else likes?

novaderrik wrote:

ddavidv wrote: Wow, there's even a term for making a car look silly. Guess that's what happens when you live in Pennsyltucky where the trends take forever to arrive. There's a distinction between the autocross Rabbit y'all posted (engineered for a purpose, appearance be damned) and a kid maximizing the fender rubbing for nothing more than visual effect. The one I showed in my first post isn't really as extreme as the ones I've seen on the road in my daily travels. If it's for autocrossing, or even for some weird style show the car makes occasional appearances at I don't care. I am puzzled and frankly annoyed by the ones on some mouth-breather's daily driver when he's traveling down the interstate, bouncing on his bump stops, shreds of sidewall flying off his car at 10 under the speed of everyone else. He's not only a cartoon but a hazard. These things were an anomaly until the last month or two and I've suddenly been seeing more of them, almost exclusively VWs. The car in my avatar has wider wheels, but they actually fit, and have proper flares to cover them.

making a car look "silly" is nothing new.. i know you've seen what street machines looked like in the 70's and 80's.. gutless Chevelles or Chargers and what not with the rear end held way up in the air with air shocks or spring shackles (or both) to make room for some L60 or N50 rear tires mounted on either Cragar SS or Keystone Klassic wheels- and the occasional Ansen style slots-sticking way out past the wheelwells, with the big square old school "mail box" hood scoop bolted to the hood with no hole cut to feed the 2 barrel carburetor...

Wait, that doesn't look silly at all!

my Impulse is 4x100 and uses low offset wheels, so I frequently look on VW, E30 & Miata boards for used sets. I swear there must be some sort of collective brain damage among many of those people.

wtf is the point of rolling and pulling your sheetmetal to fit 8, 9 or even 10 inch wide wheels and then using a 195 width tire? the whole thing is beyond moronic.

fashion never function

z31maniac wrote:

Brett_Murphy wrote: I don't mind people doing whatever it is they want with their cars. I *won't* buy a car that's been made Hellaflush, there is just too much work involved getting it to a normal state again.

Look at that E30, change the suspension and wheels..........that's really so hard? You would have done it anyway. But I guess if it gives everyone something to complain about. Meh.

Are you on R3v?

But regardless, that's exactly it. My car went from

To

No suspension change or anything, purely wheels and tires. Now, I do agree in some cases about certain issues when buying a "stanced" car, as apposed to another type of modified car. With a car that low, you always need to watch out for worn down frame rails, exhaust, subframes, cross members etc. To each their own. Though honestly, if anything, the "stance" scene is dwindling, not just gaining momentum. When I say that, you need to remember that the style itself isn't a fad, the hype and amount of cars you see, however, is a fad. Just my $0.02

If its done so they actually fit without damaging the car or tires I don't mind it, I think the mangled fenders on most of them look stupid, and if I can hear the tires rubbing on the fenders as the car goes by the other direction a couple lanes away then I think that's a bit beyond what should be on the street.

Travis_K wrote: If its done so they actually fit without damaging the car or tires I don't mind it, I think the mangled fenders on most of them look stupid, and if I can hear the tires rubbing on the fenders as the car goes by the other direction a couple lanes away then I think that's a bit beyond what should be on the street.

Definitely, there's nothing I hate more than seeing somebody destroy their fenders just to fir 15x12 -50 wheels with 185/50's.

z31maniac wrote: Look at that E30, change the suspension and wheels..........that's really so hard? You would have done it anyway. But I guess if it gives everyone something to complain about. Meh.

I don't buy cars from up north, either.

Read what I wrote: do whatever you want to your car. It's yours, and I don't care. I won't judge you right up until the point where I consider making it mine, in which case I'm going to skip a hellaflush car in favor of a stock car .I want to buy a fairly stock car and do what I want to it, or buy a well documented and sorted car from somebody. I don't want to fix somebody else's project or custom and make it the way I want it, I don't have time for that any more.

In addition, people in this area seem to charge a $1500-$2000 premium for those wheels, tires and hellaflush look, even if the car otherwise is a rolling basket case.

I think I wrote a whole post about this in the Craigslist section. I don't care about your wheels and tires, unless they are what I want on the car in the first place.

You said you wouldn't buy one because of what it would take to fix it.

Like I said, suspension/wheels/tires.....you would have changed that anyway.

bravenrace wrote: But according to my understanding of what the OP is saying, if I build my Mustang to look like say a GT350R race car, but don't race it, then I'm put in the same category of the Hellaflush guys?

Your understanding is totally wrong. We're talking about a totally impractical and possibly unsafe wheel/tire combo, not painting a Mustang to look like something it isn't.

I totally remember cars like that Chevelle from my high school days, and I made just as much fun of those. The difference there is, they handled so poorly to begin with that changing them to the dragster stance didn't hurt them all that much. But I drove silly little European cars during that time anyway.

Kids will be kids, and they will do dumb things to get attention under the guise of personalization. I get it. This particular (dying?) trend is just new to me where I live and it can't go away soon enough.

Am I the only one waiting for "rolling coal" diesel fad to die out? It makes me long for the days of rattle box stereos.

Also, have you guys heard about this "rock and roll" music the kids are listening to these days?

Grouchy old farts are grouchy and old

NickF40 wrote: That red E30 you had was gorgeous! "ridiculous fitment" is nothing new and the street machine trend above is exactly what i've been talking about, just couldn't get a good example ha and as for the Isuzu on hydraulics, don't be throwing minitrucks in this argument, that's just not something you want to do that is sweet by the way and that was the big thing back then, static drops with 15 inch daytons or billets lol at least minitrucks though seem to pull it off better. I'm the GRM Minitrucker

Dude, I had a '92 Hardbody with cranked torsions and Pinto shocks up front, and a redrilled spring mount with the middle leaf pulled in the back on air shocks. Chromed 14" steel wheels, some Tire Kingdom brand tires with a white stripe mounted out. That thing was the E36 M3.

Then I took it the other way after I parked it for a while and started looking like an abandoned vehicle. I put the springs back in and set the front suspension back to slightly over stock. I had 28" tires on it. It had no bed for a while, just a set of APC clear tail lights zip tied to the bumper. Had a guy rear end me over that, so I took the bed that I crunched up in some drifting shenanigans from the lowered days and cut the damaged part off the back with a sawzall. I generally beat on that thing, giving it a very ZAV look.

I kept up with the looks of the truck because I thought it looked cool. Having it on the ground was fun when I liked to detail it every other day. Having it lifted a bit was fun because I could beat on it and it would add to the B-list zombie movie extra vehicle look.

I know all about mini trucks and keeping up appearances for the sake of just looking the part.

I think some of the stanced cars look awesome as long as they don't go over the top.

4cylndrfury wrote: Grouchy old farts are grouchy and old

Or curmudgeonly.

ddavidv wrote:

bravenrace wrote: But according to my understanding of what the OP is saying, if I build my Mustang to look like say a GT350R race car, but don't race it, then I'm put in the same category of the Hellaflush guys?

Your understanding is totally wrong. We're talking about a totally impractical and possibly unsafe wheel/tire combo, not painting a Mustang to look like something it isn't. I totally remember cars like that Chevelle from my high school days, and I made just as much fun of those. The difference there is, they handled so poorly to begin with that changing them to the dragster stance didn't hurt them all that much. But I drove silly little European cars during that time anyway. Kids will be kids, and they will do dumb things to get attention under the guise of personalization. I get it. This particular (dying?) trend is just new to me where I live and it can't go away soon enough.

exactly.... I do not make fun (much) of mods that are safe. Hellaflush can look good and still be practical.. same with donks.. it's when you get to the extremes that things get silly and unsafe.. and usually once you reach the extremes.. everyone takes a step back and the the fad fades

ddavidv wrote:

bravenrace wrote: But according to my understanding of what the OP is saying, if I build my Mustang to look like say a GT350R race car, but don't race it, then I'm put in the same category of the Hellaflush guys?

Your understanding is totally wrong. We're talking about a totally impractical and possibly unsafe wheel/tire combo, not painting a Mustang to look like something it isn't. I totally remember cars like that Chevelle from my high school days, and I made just as much fun of those. The difference there is, they handled so poorly to begin with that changing them to the dragster stance didn't hurt them all that much. But I drove silly little European cars during that time anyway. Kids will be kids, and they will do dumb things to get attention under the guise of personalization. I get it. This particular (dying?) trend is just new to me where I live and it can't go away soon enough.

You're right, I did misunderstand. You're just a closed minded old fart that has a problem with kids. Thing is, kids have always been kids, and always will be, so maybe you should get used to it?
Any car can be dangerous. My kids like to drive their CRX on the road with race tires on it, because they like the wheels they are mounted to. The tires and wheels look great on the car, I agree, but I'm sure you know what standing water does with race tires. A car doesn't have to have a strange tire/wheel combo to be dangerous. BTW, I grew up driving muscle cars (and we thought Mini's were gay). We built straight axle cars that were lifted in the front and the back, and handled worse than a VW bus. Yeah, it was stupid, but at the time it was cool and we lived through it. Not the first time people have done fun things in spite of safety. And I can tell you, since I owed one, that the Chevelle in the picture handled infinitely better on standard tires than it did on the tires in the picture, making it considerably less safe.
On the other hand, I don't really know how the tires and wheels on the Rabbit are nearly as unsafe.
I'm not trying to argue with you. I don't like the trend either. But it's pretty harmless compared to the effect things like reality TV, Facebook, the internet, video games, etc.. are having on kids. At least these kids are doing something else and are involved in the automotive hobby. I don't build dangerous cars anymore, but I'm very much in the hobby. They may do the same in the future. Slamming these kids because of what they do doesn't help anyone. Go find one of these kids and show them a better way instead of just complaining about it here.

In reply to fast_eddie_72:

You know, that kinda looks like a miniature regal t-type......

I'm not the biggest fan of wheels/tires wider than the bodywork, but, in my book, as long as they have proper tire fitment to the wheel width, I have no gripe.....

Also, +1 for hellaflush being ghey.....

logdog wrote: Am I the only one waiting for "rolling coal" diesel fad to die out? It makes me long for the days of rattle box stereos.

You and me both........then again, 2 of the 4 cars I own currently will "roll coal" in the form of unburnt gasoline lifting off WOT.......even funnier when it ignites