For love of the Game

Every now and then you come across someone that can be considered a true enthusiast, someone who has a respect and a love for all makes and models of vehicles. This type of person wont go out to buy the hottest vehicle on the market right now, he will find something he enjoys and plans to make it his own. After the car is a bit from stock he will to go out to events and meets expecting that there are others out there that have the same mindset. Sometimes, just sometimes, you will come across a few of these guys out there – but with the way things have been going you’re more likely to come across forum trolls and people with a almost disturbing form of allegiance to the type of vehicle they drive.

I recently ran into Steven’s Scion at the EMC2 South Padre Island car show a few months back – which can be seen a few posts back. I cant lie, I’m not a big fan of the stanced/hellaflush movement – I just couldn’t see myself owning a car like that, but that doesn’t mean I’m not drawn to them. I finally got in touch with Steven and after a bit of planning we finally got to formally meet and the shoot went underway. Within a few minutes of talking to him I knew exactly the type of enthusiast he was, and from that point on we talked about trends, how people in the scene are now, the goods and the bads, and how the locals have changed…in most cases not for the better.

We’ll get back to my issues with the local scene and the things Steven and I talked about, but now lets dig into the key poits of this Scion Tc. At first glance of this Scion you’ll swear this car has to be bagged, or at least you’ll hope it is. Steven plans to join the air society family within a couple of months, but for now the car sits on a set of K-Sport coilovers – and believe it or not just a few days prior to meeting up for the shoot the car was lifted a bit..yes at one point the car was even lower then pictured. Although this Scion is basically a street sweeper, there have been a few changes under the hood. The basic I/H/E combo has been addressed with the help of Descendant, Weapon-R, and Tsudo products – along with a few dress up parts to set it apart from the average Tc bays out there. The clean look was achieved by going with the Five Axis lip kit and a set of Spec D Euro Tail Lights was sourced to change things in the rear a bit.

While at the location for the shoot Steven and I talked about a few things – one of which was the local automotive community ::Zips Up Flame Suit:: We talked about the separation between everyone at the gatherings and for that matter how there is no “safe” way to hang out the way people used to do years ago. I’ve been on several local forums and I always read mixed feelings about the local Thursday night hangout. Some say X location is safe, people go and hang out with no hassle from the authorities – while others say they get pulled over just for driving a modified car on Thursdays. Now I know illegal activities used to go down years ago…and I’m sure they still do – I no longer condone street racing but hey, we’ve all done it whether it was one time or on occasion. These days its more about going out, seeing what people have been up to, just a night to get away from the normal everyday life and congregate with others in the automotive scene. While that is fine and dandy, the saying goes “one rotten apple can spoil the whole barrel”. I’ve witnessed, on occasion, people burning out in groups, doing donuts in parking lots, and in general just doing almost any type of illegal activity to ruin it for everyone. It really makes me sit back and think – “what the hell is going on?”. I understand some of us turn into little kids when we get behind our vehicles, and sometimes that happens more often if what you’re driving has some decent HP numbers. But in turn this has changed the way local authorities now view the community as a whole – and I don’t blame them, I’m with the authorities on this one.

Aside from the local hangout days being a toss up between being safe to hangout and getting pulled over – there are other things that have changed. I wont go into details about it now, I’m kinda getting tired of standing on this soap box, but it was good to see that I am not the only one that see’s the negative changes that have happened and would love nothing more than for things to go back to the way they used to be. Ricky and I have talked about the idea of getting people together on a certain night where all makes and models of vehicles can come together to hangout once a month, much like the old “First Thursdays” that were organized by RGVMag. However the one thing that I always come back to is can we trust the people that show up, will someone show up and do something that will ruin it for everyone or is this a chance we should take to get things rolling again? While I hope to see people like Steven, Mel, the EMC2 Family (which to me all feel the same way), people in the domestic and truckin’ community all come together…how long can something like that last?

Steven Garcia – 2011 Scion Tc

Performance :
Descendant CAI
Weapon R Header
Tsudo Exhaust
Descendant CF Engine Cover
TRD Oil Cap

Cosmetics :
Five Axis Lip Kit
Spec D Euro Tail Lights
Painted Emblems
Tow Hook

Interior :
Wink Mirror
Darth Vader Shift Knob

Rollers :
Axis Wheels

Stiff Stuff :
K Sport Coilovers
Tanabe Strut Bar

Sounds :
2 10″ Kickers
Custom Sub box
DB Drive Amp
Pioneer Double Din

Special Thanks :
I wanna give thanks to The Lord Jesus Christ cause without him there would be no build. I also wanna thank my beautiful Wife Ashley Nicole Garcia who I love Very much and is a blessing in my life, had my back on this build since day one and helped me make this build possible. I also wanna thank Gear-Trends for this great opportunity and giving me a chance to be featured. Last but not least I wanna thank my Mom for helping me make this possible, I Love You!

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Photos & Story courtesy of : (Bobby Villarreal)