Cal Look.
Cal Look is weird to me. Cal Looks are weird though and are one of the cars that I kind of grew up around, and by grew up, hung out with some of them at shows. This is Charles Overton of the BK Cruisers. Really awesome guy and I refer to him as "Paint God". Cal Looks from the BK guys are something else. Some say that they take out second mortgages to pay for these cars. They are clean and decked out. Usually the more accesories the better. Chrome is every where to an extent but it usually require good fresh paint, 2.0l+ engine, good manual gear box, sick interiors ranging from stock, to resto stock, to off the wall custom. They are something else to look at and are usually refered to as Trailer Queens. My dad made the mistake of lifting a decklid at BugJam with out permission and lets just say that several guys eyes opened and mouth droped when he did this including me. I appologized for my dad which in retrospect cracks me up. Bottom line, expensive, well done cars that are custom to an extent but almost perfect. I like these cars, but they make me nervous to walk around them. To me the cars are put on a pedestal and not meant to be driven. Why build something like that if you cant drive it because its worth too much or it takes to much time to clean for the next show? I could build one for fun if I had deep pockets, but to be honest I would have to have another car because I would have to drive something. These are beautiful cars, but loose cool points because they aren't driven ever except maybe 6 times a year or something. They scream trophy wife to me.
Germanlook
I like germanlooks to a certain extent, dont get me wrong. They have their place and they are cool looking... but I wouldn't build one. They usually focus on Porsche wheels, dechroming the car to a certain extent sometimes, big engines (type 4 to be specific), good handling, carbon fiber in places, racing seats, suspension setups, low profile tires, aftermarket mirrors, loud exhaust but performance oriented. I do have gripes about German looks though and that is that it is loosely defined as there are so many diferent things that could be done to make a "germanlook" car. German look is also very closely related with Mulholand look. Get ready for this one ;)
Both of these in a sense could be considered Germanlook. It seems Mulholland is a lot more geared to the 80's Porsche styling though and body kits. I do not understand this but what ever. To me though, Germanlook seems to be more focused with subtle Porsche ques while Mulholland is 80's/90's mullet style who ran into a little money and spent most of the money on coke and then blew what little he had left into his vw but ricer style... there I said it. My problems with Germanlook is that it screams "Im trying to be a Porsche but Im still a VW". Its to much of an identity crisis for me to like it. If I wanted a Porsche look, Ill buy a porsche and be happy with it. Hell of these cars that are shown, with the amount of money invested, they could have just bought a Porsche and be done with it. I am not knocking the Germanlook style, its just not my cup of Kraut. Germanlook updates the car to current trends and makes something old new, but differently, I cant place a finger on it. Germanlooks also tend to focus on cars from 67 to 78 so my car could be a part of this. I have been told to put Turbo wheels on my ghia... Im not going to do that. New wheels dont fit well on vws, they just dont, and from a design standpoint are too flashy and take away from the original design, display, and shape of the car. My Ghia is not a Germanlook by my standards. Its close, and I agree with calling a spade a spade, but Im sorry, just because a car is performance and handling based does not qualify it for Germanlook status. So dont tell me to put porsche turbo twists on my car and we will be straight. Ohh, and Germanlooks require good paint for the most part, no patina, nothing.
Resto Custom
These bug me too. Ive seen some cool ones, but more likely than not, they bug me. These to me is where the person with the car had a really weird direction for the car and couldn't place it into a style and had some money and just said blam... here it is. I hate the term resto custom, I really do. Resto customs to me are like... I cant really put my finger on it, but is the car form of Kitsch.
Kitsch (/kɪtʃ/) is the German and Yiddish word denoting art that is considered an inferior, tasteless copy of an extant style of art. The term kitsch was a response to the 19th century art whose aesthetics convey exaggerated sentimentality and melodrama, hence, kitsch art is closely associated with sentimental art.
I hate Kitsch. Let me find some examples.
This one fits the bill perfectly and makes me want to Gag, and not just because I am somewhat of an Auburn fan... sweet baby Jebus what were you thinking.
This thing is hideous, I mean really, I really cant say more about it. When the term resto custom comes up in my mind, custom is what stands out in my mind, and it isnt good. While the cars fit the taste of the owner (I love watching people trying to sell these things, they think its cool and rare and worth 20x more then their stock version, but in realitiy they are worth less then the standard or what they started with.) thats about all it does for me.
Hoodride / Rat Rod
Theres a lot of cars that could be posted here, but Ill have to choose one.
You get the idea. These guys usually focus on slamming their ride, keeping OG stuff on hand, accesories, old bumper stickers, rust, and old OG or faux logos. The lower the better. The crustier and rustier the better. These cars are cool because each one is different due to their owners style and even the cars "paint scheme or lack thereof" due to the weathering process. Some of these cars can even be restored to look this way. These guys seem to pride themselves in going against the purest and making the car cool.
Purist / Stocker / Stock Restoration
This guy is good, it looks like its from the 50's right? Check out that 90 Ford truck ehh? Stockers/purists are ok guys. The focus on making a show car like it just rolled off the line. They are obsessed with period correctness, sometimes droping 1000s on gauges, period steering wheels, even stock mufflers. Quite frankly if I want to see a 100% correct stocker, Id like to go to a meuseum to check that stuff out. Theres a lot of money in this and people will pay big bucks for good restoration jobs. Matching numbers... all that jazz. I respect it but its very bland to me, because once you have seen one, you have seen them all. These people are also GREAT at hording parts. They have good taste for sure, but some have collections of rare parts just to have and have them in display cases. Quite frankly that pisses me off because of the whole with holding rare parts deal. If you are going to use them, awesome, more power too you. But honestly, do you really need 5 sets of complete motometer insturment cluster complete with gauges so you can sell each one at $2500 a pop? Come on man. Purists annoy me as they are usually the first to point out what is wrong with your car and why its stupid or why you could have done better. They are also usually old me too. The Ghia pictured is a very beautiful example, but its bland to me, there is no soul to that car other than being stock. If he likes it like that awesome, but I like personality in cars.
I will have to cover Outlaw tomorrow as the library is closing
But this is a pretty consice breakdown so there you have it. If you agree, awesome, if you don't explain why, Im all about learning.
Wish I could have covered outlaw :( ohh well, something to keep me busy tomorrow :)
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