I’m sure you must have heard them. The Citi Golfs and Honda Civics screech down your road scaring your pets and leaving burnt tyre marks in the streets. Or perhaps you have been driving on the highway and an outdated, beat-up car shoots past at 160km/hr with the bass so loud that it is felt by every car it passes.
It is difficult to understand why this car culture is important in our society. These cars are often modified by specialized mechanics to make them specific to the driver’s wants. Common aesthetic modifications include lowering the car to be closer to the ground, changing the wheel designs and colours, altering the thickness of the tyres, and adding pieces to the body that have been imported or specifically built for that car. Common internal modifications include installing a turbo, better pistons for more power, and chip-tuning to make the car significantly faster. This jargon might confuse most readers, but to some, it is like music to their ears.
Why is this important?
Owning something so big, that you have worked hard to earn, brings along a certain kind of pride. When you finally get something you’ve been working hard to attain, all you want is to cherish it and spend as much time as possible making it better. For “car” guys and girls, this means faster, louder, prettier builds – this is where most of their money goes and also most of their time and effort. When you see that person roaring past you in a clean-looking Opel Corsa; they are driving something that they not only worked hard to earn but also brings them joy
Everybody has their own thing that they use to blow off steam. Could be gym, yoga, reading, or even painting. For some, this is just doing burnouts with their friends on a Saturday afternoon and spending the rest of the time fixing their cars. While these people work on their car or drive their car it is their time for an escape from the world.
Why is the stigma attached?
Most of the time car people get a bad rep for speeding, illegal racing, and for simply being loud. Furthermore, there are some dangerous sides to the car scene, almost every night there are drag races at different locations. The good news is that often there is nobody else on the road, and the only people who are endangered are the drivers themselves. However, it becomes a problem when alcohol is involved or spectators get too close to the racers and accidents happen.
Is this only in Cape Town?
Not at all. This idea of dropping your car and transforming it into the best version of itself (while keeping it original to your style) is a huge culture that runs deep through South African communities. South Africa is one of the main countries with this car culture. The other top countries include Japan, the USA and some parts of Europe. There are others but these are the most popular ones. Every country has a different style because there are different degrees of accessing car parts. Japan and Japanese cars usually get built into a style called ‘JDM’ which stands for Japanese Domestic Market. It’s the Hondas and Nissans with wide body’s and tilted, thick wheels often accompanied by a collection of anime girl stickers. American Muscle cars are your old Chevrolets and Fords with immaculate interior and exterior conditions dropped low with wide arches showing off really cool rims. European cars are your VW’s and BMWs that are slammed to the ground with modified lights and big exhausts.
Is there hate in the car community?
As with almost every niche community, there is conflict depending on how you do things. If people don’t appreciate or like the build you’ve created they will mock it. There is also often a rivalry between different styles like JDM and European-style cars. There is no need for people to be nasty but people want to feel like they’ve made the right decision with their car choice and will often put others down in competition.
There is so much more to the car community that this article could not possibly summarize. If you are interested in cars here are some links you might enjoy!
Youtube: Donut Media. Donut media talks about everything anyone could ever want to know about cars and they make it hilarious while still being extremely informative.
International car brands such as Senpai Squad and Ozoku Crew are the big car accessory brands out there. The South African versions of these are Ikigai and Low Chance. These car brands focus on accessories like stickers, air fresheners, keyrings, clothing and anything you could think of that can decorate a car.
This article was a crash course in everything that is vital to know about car culture, you are now ready to go out and conquer the car scene. Drive safe!
Nat