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Show HORIZONS Cruise They can’t say every S 2 gang-Danger Standard-Examiner low nder That's just a story,” Packard said “That's why wehave the logo.” From 1£ The Pink Flamingo is friendly terntory. The owner, Naser Awadh, has his own “67 Pontiac that he has restored to a loving extreme, so he speaks fluent car He'd better be able to, just so he can understand his customers. The patter around the lot is straight out of a 1950s James Dean movie — names ofcarburetors, wheels, tires, fenders, engine sizes and body types fly this way and that Awadh loves it. He doesn’t know why people hassle these kids. They're just regular kids with a dif- ferent hobby, he said, one that he happens to share. “They never do any harm,” he said, showing off the thiple carburetor he is putting on his own car. Not everyone appreciates them, of course. Like the people who live across the street and who complain about the noise. Of course, it is only a four-lane street, with a solid board fence on the other side surrounding the homes. Noserious barrier to the kind of sound these cars can make. When the tunes get too loud, Johnson said, they hear from the resi- dents, and Johnson mimicked the yell of “Turn it DOWN!” The action on the lot started early this particular night, with Savage there first, soon to be joined by Kevin Packard driving a Mazda Johnson said. “We want people to know if someone's a member of his club.” No drunk drivers are allowed, heinsisted, and no breaking major traffic laws. As for minor laws, well, that’s where the “We're possible,” not going fun comes in trying to be as legal as Packard said, “but we're to let them completely control us.” So, he said, if their cars sometimes skirt the letter of the law, well, that’s part of the game. But, Packard said: “It would be nice if we could get a little more respect from people.” The membersof this groupdon’t fit all of the stereotypes. Johnson and Packard are both 21 and have full-time jobs. Savage is 26, with a wife and child and a full-time job, although he doesn’t mind that his job is at an auto parts store. Full-time jobs, or rich parents, are a requirement for this hobby. Johnson lifted the hood on his truck, a former Utah Power and Light service truck he has improved only slightly — new front end and grill, gold battery terminals, new suspension, new dash, newtruck bed shell, new paint job that looks factory-fresh but that he intends to replace next year. He walked around and showed the suspension — his torsion arms in front have been cranked down wagon, all of it cherry red, the back cover all closed over so it looks like an extremelyflashy hearse. and the rear springs axle re-configured. The suspension arms ‘Lasting Impressions’ too lowfor the law’s pleasure, he admitted, but this car just doesn’t look as lowas others do, so it gets left alone. The one element common toall of the cars is a “Lasting Impressions” logo on each back window, customized bya local print shop. Beyond that, nothing matches. None of what theydo to their vehicles is for any particular reason. The wide skirts, the skinny tires, the wide tires, the “ghost” paint jobs — you do it just to do it, just because you want to, theysaid, not even to impress the other guy. Although, if what you do blows the socks off the other guy, so much the better. “Once you've been bitten, you can't stop,” said Packard. “Every time I buy a stock car, the first thing I do is start thinking, ‘What can I do to make it look better?’ ” “There are no rules,” Johnson said. “It’s not how low or how sharp it is, how far your rims stick out. It’s what you want.” Johnson and Packard saythey're the nominal leaders of the club but are quick to say it’s far looser than the term “leader” implies. “Me and Mike, we’ve been in different clubs before,” Packard said, “and it’s always been best friends, and everyone at everybody's throat,” arguing over who gets to lead, who owes dues and so on. “So we just got together,” Johnson said. “Yah,” said Packard, “We're just best friends, so we're together anyway.” So the club, they said, is really just people who know each other and hang around together, holding his front tires on are about an inch from the ground — way Corey Workman, 17, drove up in a nearly new Toyota pickup, the black canvas coverstretched over the bed vibrating to a steadybeat. His stereo speakers are mounted in the truck bed, and there’s so much bass that you can’t hear any other tones of the music. Just as well, as it turns out. He said you haveto be 18 to buythis particular CD, a rap music artist, Law How to become a low-rider Out on the ’Vard, Deweytalked a little bit about whyhe, at 26, is sull doing this. With long hair and a car he’s spent, by his estimation, a thousand hours and untold dollars on, he fits right in. His wife There are a couple of ways to makea car a low-rider. To lower a truck, the easiest methodis to put the doesn’t mind, he said, but she doesn’t go cruising with him either. axle of the vehicle under the springs instead of over them, “I get asked that a lot: ‘Whydid I dunno. The best answeris just to personalize it, just to make a personal statement about yourself.” as is normally the case. The springs will still work, but the body ofthe car is lowered by said, sounding quite offended. In In a lane of traffic, stopped for a red light after driving a block orso, about five inches. Some people put lift blocks between the axle and springs to make addition to the noise tickets, he got he tapped the wheel impatiently, it go even lower. license plate instead of a white one. And he’s onlyhad this truck a muttering, “C’mon, do something,” under his breath to Johnson, the truck in front and the pace-setter. Finally, Johnson does, veeringall That only works if your car has leaf springs and an axle, as most trucks do. For cars with coil springs, you either week. the wayover to theleft side of the Doin’ the cruisin’ lane, being careful not to go over the laneline. That's the signal for Savage to go to the right sideof the “I got a noise ordinance violation by two cops on bikes,” he pulled over twice on one night for having a blue light bulb over his The sky slowly darkened, the odd star started to twinkle, and the time came, atlast, to go cruising. Cruising is essential, they said, their owners. The law savs, for example, that the bottom of the wheel rm. “If it isn’t one inch above the mm, we're going to spot it,” he said. There’s a good reason for that rule, he said. If a car is too low, “they’re going down the road and there’s something they don’t see, they'll lose steering because they'll high-center it, and then they’re at the mercy of whatever. They endanger themselves and others.” Cruise a low-rider down the interstate and hit one of those “road front end. tires, he said, “and the pucker fac- hydraulics or compressedair. Hydraulics, what the car ownerscall “juice,” involves taking the shock absorbers out and installing hydraulic rams, which are those things you see making the bucket of a backhoe go up and down. A pump andfluid reservoir there. Up and down the street, people look, or they don’t. Someone in a sports car with purple neonlights mounted underneath cruises by, drawing admiring glances. The various stereos boom, andthe line gets to the muffler shoplot, turns around and heads back down the are put in the car trunk, and an electrical switch pumps fluid to the rams at will. Flip the switch, the ram extends, and the front or rear of the car jumps up. Compressed air works the other way. Then, theyget to Village Inn, stop a few minutes to compare paint jobs, or stereos, or wheels, or same way, with air-filled shock absorbers and an air compressor doing what hydraulics do, only more just to admire the waitresses on break admiringtheir cars. Then, it’s back out on the street to do it all over again. strips of tire peeled off of truck tor’s going to go way past 10.” Rules prohibiting the tire from extending beyond the fender, too, have a safety purpose. Protecting the tires with fenders prevents rocks from getting flipped up by the tire, smashing windshields. Frandsen said he doesn’t understand why serious low-riders want to uncover their tires, usually by extending them with spacers or spe- cial wheels. “If I put that much money into those cars, I wouldn’t want a rock flipping up and scratching the paint job.” The subtle stuff is more difficult for police to spot, he said, but they look for it: altered suspension systems, moved brakelines, things like that. Altering the suspension to lower the car, he said, doesn’t necessarily make the car more unstable, but it does leave you open to lawsuit in slowly. it: altered suspension systems, moved brake lines, thingslike that. cannot be less than one inch above adjust the arm to lower the To make a car go up and down, there are two methods: spot, but they look for the lowest part of a car, anywhere, to the left, and so on downtheline. Then, Johnson will shift over and Called the “Checkerboard,” the idea is to stay in one lane so you don’t attract attention ofthe police. It’s legal, Johnson swears, but after one run, another driver worries out loud about that police car back Why? you have. Utah Highway Patrolman Burke Frandsen said the law is trying to keep low-rider cars from killing samelane, and the car behind to go everyone else will, too. it’s too crowded anymore. Maneuvers, hesaid, are important: the Checkerboard, the Snake, and an unnamed maneuver where, when comingto a red light, everyone cuts their wheels sharply left or right, stopping at odd angles in the lane. couple inches off the spring difficult for police to From 1E alligators” the troopers call the you show off your machine. Other clubs do the same. Washington Boulevard and organized car shows are the two places they let the world see their babiesin all their beauty. Johnson laid out the ground rules: Turnarounds are the Village Inn parking lot (about 34th Street) and the Master Muffler parking lot (about 21st street). Stay in line; buya shorter spring or cut a The subtle stuff is more The front end is easier. For cars with torsion arms, you because it is on the street where A bad image But, theyinsist, they’re just “It freaks people out,” Johnson said. penetrate the din makeit clear he’s not kidding. 7-Eleven at 36th Street, he said, but trying to pursue a hobby. and an unnamed one where, when coming to a redlight, everyone cuts their wheels sharply left or right, stopping at odd angles. and the few words that manage to don’t cross lanelines. The turnaroundusedto be the hassled by the cops. This group cf low-riding cruisers make up ‘Lasting Impressions.’ Driving maneuvers are important: the Checkerboard, the Snake, you do it? What did you do it for?’ nothing more. Theyresent the bad image they say people with carslike theirs have gotten. Sure, they hang around together. Sure, theycruise the Boulevard. Sure, theyget JAY DROWNS/Standard-Examiner an accident. People sometimes move brake lines during modifications, he said, which can make them more vulnerable to damageor sear. “We've even had people who cut their brake lines and used hoses to extend them,” he said, meaning they use a rubber hose to extend a metal brake line. Brake lines are metal to withstand the extreme pressure of brake fluid when you stop, he said, and a rubber hose won’t work. Hydraulic and compressed air systems to raise and lower the car, he said, aren’t illegal as far as he knows. Neither are thoselittle tires they use, as long as they meet spec- ifications for the weight of the car, but he cautioned that thosetires do make the car handle differently and could hydroplane on water more easily. Frandsen said he’s sympathetic with hobbyists who want to enjoy their cars; he just wants them to be safe. He knows their feelings, though, because he did the same thing when he was a kid 20 years ago. “When I was young, raising the back end up was neat,” he said. “That was the era of muscle cars. Minewasfast, but I had to proveit was faster, and I did until my traffic tickets caught up with my insurance payments and the school of economics taught me to go slower.” Barela | From 1E it for $500 from a guy outside a pawn shop on Ogden’s 25th Street. The guy wanted money and she even had someone with her to drive it home and she said, ‘Here's $700, but it was in pretty rough shape, so his dad offered $500. then said he'd be inside the store if the seller changed his $4,500. Sell me the car.’ mind The guy changed his mind and the car was theirs. When Barela turned 16, his father offered it to him and, of course, he took it. Ever since, Barela has been making it his own — painting it an electric blue, lowering it as much as he could, putting in that steering wheel, doing a lot of body work and little stuff you don’t see. For example, he is removing all of the exterior mirrors and buttons and knobs. A hidden electric button now opens the trunk. In all, he figures, he’s got about $5,000 into it, not counting the labor, not coun- ting the sheer loveofit all. “And I had it all cleaned out for her and everything, and I thought about it, and | got in it, and I started the engine, and | drove it around, and I got back, and I said to her, ‘How mad you gonna beat meit | one, he said. can buy a newcar, put some flashy gear on it and hit the streets. What tell you I don’t want to sell it?” Not mad enough, apparently. The car turns heads, he said, and he the street respect is something that took some work, something that shows effort. “These old cars, they take work,” he likes that. As he was talking, several cars said. “I respect people with an older car, a “49, something like that. I respect someone like that because it takes a lot of work.” loaded with people slowed down as they passed by, faces gawking — and his car was just parked at the curb. Even standing still, it's a sight. He had just put his new tires on it — real tiny ones, with “buffed out” 2-inch-wide whitewalls, 13-inch rims and tires that only stick out about 4 inches wider than the rims. It really does look like a fugitive from a lawn mower convention. How muchlove? “This lady came to me last year and said ‘I'll give you $4,500 for it,’ ” he said, “and It's supposed to dothat, he said, and his brother, Anthony, whose garage Barela of- I thought ‘Well, I'm only losing about a thousand, and I can start over on some- ten uses to work on it, agreed. thing new,’ so I said to her ‘OK,’ and she pressing girls. went to get the money. “My father saw me and he said, ‘No way, you won't sell that car,’ and I said, “When we were single, we drove down to the diner,” said Anthony. “Somegirls came by, we dropped it, and we had a con- ‘Sure I will.’ So, she came back with the versation,” Barry From 1E approximately 15 minutes to figure out that row 19 was the one between row 18 and row 20 — altempted to stow a wicker basket that, to judge from its size and weight, contained an elk, | can personally vouch for the weight because, at one point in their struggle, the couple (this 1s true) dropped the basket on my Barela is more specific. “This here, this got me married” — which is something few other people’s hobbies can boast of. Hehas little to say about new cars on the road that have been converted — any- This car has a particular purpose: im- head, after which they glared at me. I think they thought I was trying to harm their elk. These Americans would definitely benefit from better science train-* ing. similar to what I received in Mrs, West's cighth-grade science class at Harold C, Crittenden Junior High School in Armonk, N.Y | vividly remember Mrs, West standing at the blackboard, drawing a diagram to illustrate the electron, which is a tiny particle of electricity found in extension cords, while the entire class stared with rapt attention at Tom Parker, who was lis he respects and what hesaid the people on And, he said, even his wife likes the car, although he admits she likes it a lot more when she’s with him and he’s not out getting a lot of attention from passing women. Not all attention, of course, is good attention, hydraulics,” and so I do.” What about that suspension system? Well. it's done with hydraulics, the same technology used to make the claw on a backhoe work. Barela has welded a couple of hydraulic arms where the shock absorb- ers up front used to be. They're connected to a pump andfluid reservoir in the trunk, with hydraulic fluid pumped to them at the flip of a switch. The system is battery-powered and very fast — in less than a second, Barela can lift the front of the car from the ground toa foot high. If he hooks a couple of extra batteries to the system, he can makeit hop off the ground. The car is a long way from being done, of course. There's always something new 10 put on and there’s never enough money to do everything you want, So this is one Actually, he said, the cops don't hassle of those hobbies that’s never finished. Which is fine. His next goal is an updated hydraulic system that will lift one wheel off the ground while the other three stay down. him much anymore, “They used to, but I tell you, there's a cop in Ogden, he pulls me over every ime just to do my hydraulics for him,” he said. A car on three wheels? And you may ask: “Why?” Haven't you been paying attention? Next Sunday: fo/ks who restore and police. Cars that hop aren't the safest things on the road and Barela can make his hop tening to a concealed earphone attached to a transistor radio tuned to a critical World Series gamebetween the Yankees and the Pirates Mrs, West, diagraming away would tell us an important fact about electrons, such as that they mate for life, and Tom would sig. nal that. say. Bobby Richardson had singled, and the classroom would erupt with muffled cheers and Mrs. West would turn around startled, thinking, whoa, these young people are INTO electricity Tragically, : Funny tires and strange suspension systems have been known to attract the “He says, ‘Hey, Manuel. let me see those many Americans did not receive this caliber of science training, which is why they did so poorly in the survey, According to the Times story, one of the ques tions that most people answered in correctly was “Which of these 1s the nearest living relative of the dinosaur, Ty rannosaurus rex” (a) A chicken: (b) A crocodile: (c) A lizard, (d) An ele phant The correct answer of course, is TOM SZALAY/Standard-Examiner Manuel Barela’s '64 Chevy Impala has Jesus on its back window. customize ther Chevy and GMC trucks for the annual West Coast Truckin’ Nationals in Ovd l History Bul the point is we need to improve our scientific literacy, and the place to start is with our young people. | think we should havea to determine program wherein our top scientific bones of dinosaurs that fortunately, died in a standing position at the American Museum of Natural scienusts have been able that Tyrannosaurus rex used to stride through the pre historic jungle, ts massive weight causing the Earth to tremble with each step, until it located its pre and then, with a horrifying roar audible for miles (COCK-A-DOO DLE-DOOOO"), it would lunge according to The New York Times downward and administer the awe some Peck of Death to a kernel of prehistoric corn weighing upwards iss of Sen, Howell Heflin No. seriousls, A chicken. the correct answer Yes, By studying the tooo pounds minds go into the public schools and lecture to the students, and if the students fool around, our top scientific minds should whack them on the head with slide rules Speaking of which, | want to stress that my mental faculties were in no way affected by the elk-basket blow to my head head head head head hey look there are BIG spi ders on the airplane wing |