I find prejudice interesting. I dont mean specificly racial prejudice, thats a whole other blog! lets be real, I've no illusions of solving world hunger or somehow ending all strife via an Automotive Blog.
Let me start over with an example. My Uncle, he is an amazing guy, you'd be hard pressed to find someone smarter or more objective and analytical. He couldn't have been born more of a natural engineer if the he'd come into this world wearing a white lab coat, holding a slide rule. He's just that kind of guy. That said it should be no suprise he likes ze Germans. Yup, he's a BMW guy.
Now days he is an empty nester and was thinking about getting back into the car hobbie. What better way to help him make up his mind than to take him to the Grand National Roadster Show. Let him walk around the best of the best and see what catches his attention? The GNRS is a pilgrimige of sorts for me. I get to reconnect with a lot of guys I only see once or twice a year, see whats going on in the industry and for a few days just soak in the paint and chrome. I happened to be walking amongst the lowrider section of the GNRS when my uncle caught up to me. There I stood, slack jawed and drooling, staring at El Ray. If you havent seen the video yet or are unfamilliar with the car. Its phenominal. truely a bench mark for the Lowriding community. My Uncle though, he kind of smirked and I could tell he wasnt really seeing the masterpiece in front of him. He had recognized it as a lowrider and dismissed its genius entirely. Don't be to hard on him we all do it in some way. We allow ourselves to develop a rigid definition to what we think is cool blinding us to what else is out there.
As he was starting to walk away, completely dismissing the wild custom LowRider in front of him I put my hand on his shoulder. "C'mere damnit!" I said "Now close your eyes, dont look at the lowrider. Look at the paint, look at the engineering it took to pull this off. This car is unbelievable and your gonna miss it! Now, open your eyes as an engineer and tell me what you see."
The change was immiediate, reconsidering the car anew. I watched him eyes narrowed taking things in. watched him move around crooking his head to see differant aspects of the car. he started to smile. To point out details in the suspenion following the paint under the car across the chassis. Shaking his head and smiling at the sheer insanity of painting and detailing a "car" to this level, It was really cool to see the dismissal turn into bewildermant and then respect.
While LowRiders still just arent his scene, his willingness to stop and give them a chance was damned impressive. Though starting with El Ray, how could he not be impressed? We went back through the whole section together and he started really checking out the cars and suddenly he was telling stories of his cruising days as a kid in LA and I could tell there was a love remebered there and it was cool to witness it coming back. Guys this is what The Lowered is all about, The lesson here, one I've worked hard to teach myself is when you se something that you would normally dismiss. Stop close your eyes take that breath and look for the good, chances are you will find something. You might even find inspiration you can take back to your own project and do something differant, better than it was before.
James
The Lowered HMFIC