Every car enthusiast likes cars that suit his own lifestyle and taste, and dreams of owning that car in the future. Lowrider car lovers, on the other hand, adopt this type of cars because they live in the lowrider culture.
Let’s get to know these cars that we saw and admired in Breaking Bad and GTA.
We recommend you to read the content along with this song:
The foundations of the lowrider culture are laid with the love of modified cars that started in the 1920s in America.
At that time, with the increase in mass production cars and the more accessible prices, everyone could easily buy a car. In this way, they could modify the cars they bought and race as they wished.
Later, when this love of tuning gave way to appearance rather than speed, the lowrider culture began to emerge.
Previously, the purpose of tuning was simply to be fast and win races, but now to have personalized and flashy exterior designs.
This culture; It emerged as the modern version of an old Mexican tradition of “Paseo”, that is, making markets, with the tools that Mexican Americans, called Chicanos, reflect their own style.
The aim here is to impress and flirt with men or women with their elaborate vehicles.
Another reason why Mexican Americans spread this culture is that they drive their fancy cars in areas where they are not wanted, as a rebellion against the racism they are exposed to.
Low-income Mexican Americans who immigrated from Mexico in search of work were stuck in ghetto neighborhoods they called “Bario”. In the 1940s and 50s, the younger generation; Unlike their parents, they did not hesitate to go shopping and go to the beaches in their cars in the predominantly white areas as a rebellion against this situation. So they made the lowrider a culture of rebellion.
In the first lowriders, car owners put heavy items such as bricks and sandbags in the trunk to make the car lower.
Not long after, this situation was disturbed, and in 1958, the state of California banned the fenders of cars below the top of the rims.
Believing that this ban could not prevent them, Ron Aguirre made a lowrider by adapting the hydraulic system used in airplanes to vehicles in 1959.
In this way, they were able to make their cars flat whenever they wanted while using the vehicle at normal driving height in places where the police were present.
When the police were disturbed by this situation, they closed the streets where the lowriders were walking.
On the other hand, the lowrider community made technical changes and hid the hydraulic and pneumatic components in the chassis. In addition, they did not give up seeking their rights and continuing their meetings by holding demonstrations and protests.
At the end of the 1960s, those adopting the lowrider culture were at the forefront, and this culture began to be recognized and has survived to the present day.
War music group’s song “Low Rider”, documentary about “Chicano” culture with the name “Chico and The Man”, and lowrider cars in many branches of art played an important role in the spread of this trend.
Lowriders for the curious:
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