I’m WAY over the stage of hating on the Hellaflush movement and just hating on people in the car scene in general. But just give me a few seconds to tell you why your movement is looked down upon and why any car enthusiast would shake their head if they saw this car driving down the street:
1. “STANCE”: Aesthetics aside, the whole stance of the car is stupid. I haven’t seen this car in person and I don’t have x-ray vision, so I could only assume that the suspension geometry is totally destroyed. There is way too much chamber in the rear, and if I looked in the fender wells, I know for sure that those tires are rubbing. The argument is that not everybody tracks their car therefore they don’t need good suspension geometry, but I argue otherwise. At the very least, this car will ride much rougher, exhibit more bumpsteer than stock, wear the tires (especially the rear) unevenly, and overall destroying it’s function as a street car.
2. “THE WHEELS”: Look, I understand that you want to be like a rapper and fit huge over-sized wheels on your ride but when you sacrifice safety to look like a douchebag, that’s when other people will start commenting. Tire stretching can be beneficial for drifting, but it is stupid and dangerous for a street car. Besides making it easier for you to put dings on your expensive wheels, stretching your tires also greatly increases the chances of your tires slipping off the beads and sending your car out of control. A stretched tire setup like this will also make the overall ride of the car rougher which brings me back to my previous point that this car is less of a street-car than it was stock.
3. “The ‘Roll Cage’”: The reason why I put “roll cage” in quotes is because the one in this 350z serves as nothing but a cosmetic piece. As you can see, the front arms of the cage are bent so that they don’t go through the dash. While this prevents you from having to cut away at your dashboard, it also renders the cage that much less useful. Upon impact, these pre-bent arms will have much less strength than a straight arm that you will find in all professional race cars. He also wanted to show off the fancy blue color of the cage so he completely neglected to add padding to the cage. Even in a low speed accident, driving your head straight into a metal bar can cause serious injuries or fatality. Not only is this car less functional than it was when it was stock, now it is also a danger to its passengers.
BONUS, “The Accessories”: You can’t get more ricer-trash than to put motor-cycle sized rear-view mirrors on your street car. I already went over why this car is obviously not for any high speed driving, therefore the owner would not benefit from the decreased drag of smaller mirrors. It’s just common sense, smaller mirrors means you see less of your blind-spots. In a car that already has huge blind spots, putting smaller mirrors in is just stupid. And finally, that vanity plate… A police officer can easily see the same things I’ve mentioned in my previous points. He also knows that besides the car looking stupid, all these mods are also illegal and having that vanity plate just gives him another reason to bust out the fix-it tickets. It’s also pretty shitty to disrespect our public servants and driving around advertising your disrespect makes you kind of a douchebag.
The car scene has really exploded in the United States this past decade. It’s just a little sad that doing this kind of thing to your car has become a huge subculture. Before you decide to molest your car, please think of your own safety, the safety of others on the road and the safety of your passengers. And if you decide that you still want to be a part of this culture, then please don’t bitch when people put you in the same category as the Honda Ricer-trash of the 2000’s.
