The Low Ride Culture - Essay Example

The Low Ride Culture Genre of Item: The low ride culture has been gaining momentum for the past few decades. However, with the increase in the number of young people affording cars, low ride culture has become an acceptable part of life in many parts of the world. The trend of having cars that have a very small ground clearance compared to the manufacturer’s specifications seems to be the cool thing among many motorists (Tatum 3-5). Although low rides are generally cool to many people, low ride culture go beyond small ground clearance to something that can be best classified as “crawling cars.” The overwhelming amount of money and time spent converting cars into low rides only signifies the depth of low ride culture. Informant Information: My older brother who graduated a few years ago was one of the lucky few to get a well-paying job. With his car enthusiasm, he used all the savings from his job to buy a second hand Toyota wish. Although everyone in the family had seen this one coming, no one had anticipated the entry into the low ride culture. My brother loves his car with passion. It seems his live revolves around the car and cannot let anyone or anything interfere with his car. I often ask him why he would spend more money on his Toyota to make sure his ride is the lowest and the coolest low rider among his growing group of low ride enthusiasts. His answers has been that low ride is a self-satisfying culture. According to him, a low ride does not have to take you from point A to point B with convenience, however, the fact that it crawls; there is gratification, respect, and appraisal from those who understand the low ride culture. Text of the Item: Low ride culture seemingly began taking root in 1950’s. However, few young people owned cars as compared to today. Low ride culture started as a means of aesthetics to classy cars (Tatum 3-8). Many car manufacturers, in their efforts to lower the center of gravity, lowered the center of gravity of new releases compared to their predecessors. In the process, people perceived low rides as cool and the endeavors to modify car suspensions took root. New workshops offering suspension modification mushroomed significantly across many towns (Patton Web). However, there was a catch into how low a car would go according to the law. Most manufacturers and governing laws would not legally allow car to have any part of its body to be below the rims of the tires. This simply meant that ground clearance would be determined by the profile of the tire. However, as time went by, tire manufacturers began the race to manufacturing low profile tires (Tatum 3-8). The implication was that it was now “legally” possible to have an almost crawling car as long as the tire profile is low. Today, low riders are fitted with hydraulic adjustable suspension systems making it possible to adjust the ground clearance with a touch of a button. Context of the Item: I have been spending countless hours with my brother trying to understand the low ride culture. I often accompany him every Saturday and Sunday afternoons to a nearby street where he goes to participate in what they call “wish low ride show.” He is one of the organizers of this group where they go to show-case their pimped Toyota wish low rides. He says he has not won many awards since his car is not as pimped as other cars. However, he managed to fit the lowest profile tires he could get on the market and therefore, his car can go as low as two inches off the ground because his new low profiles are only two inch high. He has also managed to fit a hydraulic suspension system making it possible to use his car during the competition and his usual businesses as well. Before fixing the new hydraulic system, he would fit a different suspension system just for the low ride competition. Interestingly, the low rides look cool during the competition. Although any car can participate in low ride competitions, my brother only participates on Toyota wish low ride competitions because he is a die-hard fan of Toyota wish. While some of the competitors come with older Toyota wish models, others have even taken the efforts and courage to convert the 2013 model into a low ride. My brother says that it sometimes costs more to pimp a low ride than it costs to purchase the same car from the manufacturer. However, the efforts are rewarding to low ride culture since it only gets bewildering with time. Informant Interpretation: My brother practically lives at the epicenter of low ride culture. All the friends that he has own low rides. According to him, low rides provide a sense of stability, pride, responsibility, and completeness in life. However, he strongly disagrees that low ride culture represents irresponsible and gang-like characters. Many of the low ride enthusiasts are seemingly seen as responsible since they are able to take care of other aspects of life before spending money on their low rides. According to my brother, it is rare to find a low ride enthusiast with a financially constrained family. In fact, this culture encourages the members to be hard working as they look for extra money to pimp their rides. Although many people across the world have stereotyped low ride culture as fads, my brother strongly believes that the culture brings out a satisfying lifestyle across among people of all ages (McQuilkin 21-24). He has adopted the philosophy of “living to the fullest” and does not really care what other people think about low ride culture. He says that he is not leaving the culture any time soon. He is however, very careful with his modifications to avoid issues with the law. Collector’s Interpretation: Having examined the culture of the low rides from my brother’s perspective, I have combined my findings with what I have found on the available literature. The low ride culture seems to take even deeper roots as more young people join into the culture (Patton Web). I have found that the culture indeed represents a responsible group in search for gratification in life. I have attended several of the low ride competitions with my brother and I have only seen an organized group. However, I have become wary about the amount of money that the low ride enthusiasts spend on their low ride culture. Considering my brother has spent approximately 10,000 USD on importing and fitting a new set Dunlop low profile tires and a remotely controlled suspension system, this is way above any family spends in months. This kind of money is arguably enough to take a student through a decent college. More significantly, most of the people in low ride culture spent an appreciable time on their low rides at the expense of their families. My brother in particular spends the whole weekend on low ride championships and contests and hardly makes time for having meals with the rest of family members. Besides his friends on low ride competitions, he does not have more friends across other facets of life. Nevertheless, the research has given me the opportunity to get into the epicenter of this interesting culture and analyze it from this unique dimension. Works Cited McQuilkin, Kyle S. A Primer on the Aesthetics, Fabrication, and Culture of Lowrider Bicycles inWest Texas: Participant Observation through the Lens of a White, Middle-ClassMale, Artist/Educator. Dissertation Patton, Phil. Lowriding: This Culture Is About More Than Cars. New York Times. December 4, 2012. Web October 14, 2013. < http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/04/lowriding-this-culture-is-about-more-than-cars/> Tatum, Charles M. Lowriders in Chicano Culture: From Low to Slow to Show. Santa Barbara, Calif: Greenwood, 2011. Print. Read More