American Customs

BBC Top Gear, UK,  Car, South Africa, FHM, Lativa, Russia

American Customs

Car customising is big business in the USA. And the Annual Funkmaster Flex Celebrity Car Show in Atlantic City is where the bling specialists gravitate for their moment of glory.

Queens, New York: The buffed-up candy orange convertible pulls up alongside a grubby green family station wagon. As the car comes to a standstill so do the spinning engraved chrome and 24 carat gold spinners. The bass is booming from the gold amp in the boot and the sun ricocheting off the engraved chrome and gold air tanks. Such ostentatious bling on the block has passers-by scrambling for their camera phones. ‘What is it?’ one guy drawls. At the flick of a switch the car hisses loudly and its body judders downwards.

‘For my next show,’ announces Wyclef,  ‘I’m bringing a Spaceship.’

Hooked up rides are big news. ‘Everybody has a Honda so you gotta take it to another level,’ explains Gopie Ramsook, the car’s owner. ‘How much of the original Honda is actually left?’ Gopie pauses, his eyes drift upwards for a moment, ‘um….the dash,’ he offers laughing. ‘Those rims cost $5,800 – they’re the only ones in the United States.’

Ramsook is a member of ‘Low Mentality’ a lowrider car club based in Queens, New York. The club members chop, weld, upholster, chrome and gild their cars until they’re the ultimate in excess.  This car started life as a $2500 four-door hard top 1994 Honda Accord. Over one hundred thousand dollars worth of customisations later it’s a two door convertible with upward lifting Lamborghini style scissor doors, DVD player, opulent upholstered interior and a Lexus front end. Old school hydraulics have been passed over in favour of an air set-up with three chrome and gold engraved air tanks visibly mounted behind the back seat. Gopie is a man that likes to engrave everything – that includes his golden gearstick.

‘It’s like crack,’ observes another club member, ‘once you start you want more and more.’ Like crack it’s an expensive habit with most of their cars pushing the $100,000 mark.

Kasma, who runs a garage from his yard, does much of Low Mentality’s hydraulic work. Inside his workshop a white Escalade has been completely stripped in order to install remote controlled air-suspension. A boot lid is painted with gravestones and names is leaned up against the wall. I it reads, ‘this is for my hommies  - rest in peace.’

Kasma jumps in his hopper, a 1964 Cadillac Impala and with the flick of a switch the car hops up onto three wheels. It’s rush hour and as he takes a leisurely cruise around the block - the front left wheel up at forty-five degrees. ‘You should see this street at night,’ says Kasma as he is elevated over the raised wheel, arm casually out the window, ‘everybody hangs out and the whole street is filled with hooked up cars.’

Low Mentality’s twelve members are all are vying to build hip-hop’s illest ride and will be trying their luck at the Annual Funkmaster Flex Celebrity Car Show in Atlantic City. Funkmaster Flex, an NYC hip-hop DJ, and he carries a reputation as the tour de force in the celebrity customised car world. His own car club Team Baurtwell boasts members such as Justin Timberlake, Queen Latifah and Radio 1’s Tim Westwood.

It’s nine am in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and the over-zealous security team are keeping the loose-trousered guys and barely dressed women at bay. ‘You gotta let me in,’ a guy brandishing a bag of tools begs, ‘I have to finish the jacuzzi in Wyclef’s truck – I’ve been working on it all night,’ ‘Yeah - let me in too - my bitch is in there,’ shouts another.

The show opens two hours late. Inside is a smorgasbord of sound: over fifty sound systems bellow out ear-blistering hip-hop, each system distorting to the point just before the speakers blow. Who has the loudest system? The bets are on and money is already changing hands.

In the back of his electric blue Ford F150 pick-up truck Wyclef’s taking a fully clothed dip in his jacuzzi. He emerges from the bubbles, pushes himself up on the blue leather trim and stands in the middle of the tub. Rather than watching his plasma screen TV - or the scantily clad women draped around the edge - he surveys the thronging vista of bass, boots and booty. Water drips from his dreadlocks and now see-through white shirt. A flunky places a microphone in his outstretched hand. ‘I was waiting for the competition,’ he announces to the tightly packed crowd, ‘but nobody showed up.’

This year Wyclef had to up the ante. Outdoing his H2 Hummer with a 140-gallon salt-water aquarium complete with two sharks was never going to be easy. Today he has brought a Mercedes G5, made especially for him, complete with two aquariums and goldfish, Spiderman Chopper, a Pagina Zonda and an F1 McLaren. The whole display is set off with a massive waterfall and koi carp.

The car show is a mix of celebrity cars and eighty or so non-celebrity customised cars. The two day event is being judged by Bobby Trends who together with Flex runs the ICCA (International Celebrity Car Association). Trends awards points in eight different categories: exterior, interior, motorwork, sound and media, creativity, wheel packages, lighting and display. And it’s quality not quantity that will impress, ‘Somebody could have installed twenty speakers and screens,’ explains Trends,  ‘but if somebody else only has four but they’re installed really well – that is what I am looking for. It also helps if the person is a bit of brown noser,’ he adds, laughing, ‘I don’t wanna be opening the hood - they should be runnin’ round opening it for me.’

Impressing the judge with his Toyota 4runner has meant that Low Mentality’s Ansar Khan hasn’t slept for three days solid - it took him two days just to lay the marble floor. ‘I’ve been working on this car now for five years but have recently re-done it all again,’ Ansar explains, ‘Yeah we’re not talking about vacuuming we’re talking mopping his floor,’ interjects another club member.

The car has eight TV screens, DVD player, two Sony playstations, a push button gear box, remote control Lamborghini style doors, a spy-camera above the back window, chromed wheel rims, a speaker wall with chrome speakers, a Louis Vuitton and Gucci interior, grey marble tiled floor, chromed air tanks and is painted a custom metal-flake blue.

It cost around $80,000 to build, a dedication appreciated by a couple leaning in to have a look, ‘you guys are celebrities and you don’t even know it,’ says one, looking at Khan.

The convention centre is bursting with supersize accessories, supersize burgers and supersize bikini clad women selling car wax. David Basala is hoping that the quality and creativity of his two Escalade cabs welded together in a ‘push me/pull me’ style will impress the judge therefore opening the market - he has six identical ones at home. Tony Martinez, an old hand at car shows, has brought along his everyday vehicle, a Ford E150 with wooden floor, undercarriage stereo system with six marine speakers, 13 TV screens and seven cameras. ‘It’s the same surveillance equipment the FBI use,’ he explains, and it wouldn’t be complete without the x-box and disco ball.

Flex displays his cars, not far from 50 cent’s Impala, in the middle of the arena. His customised cars sit alongside classics like the Ford Gran Torino, of Starsky and Hutch fame.

In the age of crews you’re nobody without an entourage. Ashanti smiles sweetly posing in front of her cute pink Jaguar while her crew shout in vain into their headsets. Tyson Beckford, an American supermodel, sashays past flanked by policemen and several girls in butt skimming red hotpants. Rumour has it he hired his Bentley in Miami just for the show.

Buying a car straight from the showroom, no matter how much it cost, does not cut it in the world of hooked up cars – it’s simply not enough. ‘You gotta have this,’ says Gopie, thumping a clenched fist on his heart. And the sharks and jacuzzis are all a bit passé. ‘Fitting a jacuzzi in a car is not a big thing to do – it’s simple. Not like chopping off the roof and the front and back of the car.’

‘We’ve been exposed to hooked up cars all our lives,’ adds Danny, the club’s vice-president, ‘Growing up we watched people in the neighbourhood adding under lighting and hydraulics to Hondas and classic lowriders like Impala’s. Sometimes when we’re out cruising in the neighbourhood, a Lamborghini will drive past but if we are going down the road on three wheels everybody is looking at us.’ Last time Danny broke down in his 1964 Cadillac Coup de Ville he made the headlines, attracting a national news helicopter.

‘The kids look at Lamborghinis and they think “wow”,’ says Gopie. ‘Then they look at our cars and they think, ”that’s a Honda,” I could have done this to my car.’ Some car clubs are more like gangs, say Low Mentality, but that is not their bag. They describe themselves as a family and cruising is important, ‘oh my goodness when we go out forget about it,’ says Danny, ‘It’s a show in the street,’ but at the heart of the club is a passion for cars.

Periodically industrial sized dusters are produced and run over immaculate paintwork. And periodically Flex and his crew whisk around the building in a frenzy of hip-hop fists and appreciative nodding and pointing. The rumour that Missy Elliot is turning up proves to be just that  – a rumour.  So after the raucous bikini contest Flex announces the prizes. Low Mentality clean up, best car club, best domestic classic. But the most prestigious prize of all ‘best in show’ goes to Gopie. Nothing is understated in this game and the six foot plus trophy towers above his head.

‘Coming to the shows is inspiring; you get a lot of ideas, see new things. But then you have to go one better,’ says Danny. ‘The Lamborghini up-doors are definitely the big thing this year. But for next year I want to chrome and engrave the undercarriage of my Cadillac.’ He’s not the only one stepping up a gear, ‘For my next show,’ announces Wyclef,  ‘I’m bringing a Spaceship.’

Photographs ©Rachel Palmer