Technical Can cars look too low

when did this get hung up on what came first. Dang. Ya say 60s maybe 70s then post something different. Customs including Hispanic lowered stuff sprung up around the same time.
Could give 2 craps which one came first.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.lowrider.com/features/0000lrm-history1/amp/

 

I'm good here: "By the late 1950s and early ’60s, what we would now consider lowriders were finally hitting Whittier Boulevard in great numbers. Such fine rides wouldn’t appear overnight, however. California car culture and Mexican-American cultura would both develop and grow, each enriching the larger American culture with every passing decade."

 

Yep.
Let’s give a trophy to whoever wants to lay claim on doin it first.
Meanwhile I will enjoy looking at old pics and articles.
My students ask questions and these are some of the resources I use to help em find answers.
My 4x4 students had no clue Mickey Thompson and Dick Cepek were more than just names on tires.
The tuner guys look shocked looking at old black and white photos of lowered cars, engine swaps, shaved handles.......

 

Sadly, I believe that all of those guys are dead.

 

Yep.
I also have to tell em Henry Ford didn’t invent the car.

 

He didn't?! NO WAY!

 

Shocking.

 

Agreed - not a fan of an open wheel car where the rear tire does not follow the body line around the fender opening. Give me a highboy any day over a channeled car, especially the extreme channels common on the east coast - just not my thing...

 

I'm surprised they even know who Henry Ford is.......

One of my last bosses, a young a**hole who was a product of rampant nepotism at my last workplace didn't know a lot about a lot of things. Some entry level jobs were created and he got his foot in the door. When he got his first promotion, there was suddenly no longer a need for anyone to fill the job he left. Promotions came rapidly and within 5 years he was my department head. His daddy was the top manager for the personnel side of our location. When his Dad retired (under some duress), the son left too.......lots of people looking for some payback.
Anyway, while trying to make himself look like a shining star to other management officials, he made a lot of bad decisions. When I (42 years experience) tried to explain that he was changing things that we had spent a few years getting them to work........and that maybe he might not want to" Raise his hand and volunteer" but just say he would "look into it"........then ask the more experienced people for some background history.........
He turned and said to me in an arrogant fashion, " What we have here is a failure to communicate"…....
I asked him if he knew the origin of that statement and he admitted that he didn't.
Who in the he** has never seen "Cool HandLuke"? They have never seen "Deliverance" or "Bullitt". Of course they don't know Henry didn't invent the car.......they don't know any of the important stuff.
When my asinine former boss left our office, I sent him a Utube video of Strother Martin uttering those famous words to Paul Newman.......to further his edumacation

 

Well, there you go, the topic is lowered cars. The first cars to be lowered were customs. Period. I'm not spinning it any way, that's the history. I provided links showing that, it's time to stop arguing.

 

I don’t have to teach automotive history but I feel having a basic understanding of how we got here is important.
Repair technology follows vehicle evolution. This sets the foundation for them grasping the fact that their education never stops.

 

@sgtlethargic posted something that said "It began in Los Angeles, California in the mid-to-late 1940s and during the post-war prosperity of the 1950s. Initially, some Mexican-American youths lowered blocks, cut spring coils, z’ed the frames and dropped spindles. " I questioned if that was accurate as it wasn't how I understood it to be. Gimpy said matter of factly it was accurate, without anything to back it up, so that send me on a mission to look it up for myself. What I found proves that is in fact is NOT accurate. That's when/how this got hung up on what came first. Just sorting out the history here for posterity's sake, and future google searchers that end up here.

So then you understand why I've followed up on it.

 

I would think that some of the basis for lowering vehicles may have originated from high speed racing on smooth reasonably flat surfaces like Bonneville and Muroc and transitioned to street driven hot rods. Pure speculation on my part, but racing has always contributed to the evolution of automobiles rather than the other way around.

 

You mean revise history. There is really no point here. You win. You can say anything that you want. All of the witnesses are dead.

If I take the time to write out my own slick website with incorrect information, I can revise history too!

 

Look at the stance and style of pre war coach work and European cars.
Check out the Indy and early salt cars.
Seems like a whole lot of stuff was influencing the customizing scene.
And all around the same time.
Seems like some of it was influenced by ethnicity as well.
And remember that all hot rods are customs. Not all customs are hot rods.

 

Second the Conestoga wagon wheels with rubber bands. Yes on the too low.

 

I think we settled it, I'll let Gimpy have the last word. It is what it is. Let's get back to the question asked in the OP.

 

Ok.........Does anyone think that cars can be TOO LOW?

 

Went to a national rat rod show.
My ride isn’t painted so folks call it one. I don’t really care, live music, cars and a swap meet and I’m in.
Once arriving at the show, I noticed a large amount or trailers in the parking lot.
I have to say I was kinda shocked. This was my first rat rod specific show. I was under the impression rat rods were the anti billet and or trailer queen rides.
Lots or really cool stuff there.
But I noticed why so many trailers were in the parking lot. Many were not functional. Very bad geometry, poor design......
I’m a huge fan of low, never seen one too low. But I witnessed poor design and execution to a level that was crazy.
Seems like the anti trailer queen crowd created a new version of em. I asked a couple why they didn’t drove em to the show and they replied with either uncomfortable or hard to drive, too hot, bla bla bla.

For me it’s can you drive it and do the mods work. Height is irrelevant if it fits the style and the owner/builder likes it.

 

Hmm! Just noticed my post about guys wearing jeans below their beer bellies got deleted for some unknown reason. Guess the spare tires they had around their waists were too fat and wide to meet the guidelines, huh?
Oh well, minds beginning to wander.....time to go to bed I guess.

 

To the original question id say yes, but to veer off like others have said with right equipment and thought some are down right bad ass as long as they are drivable.

 

Revising (or at least attempting to revise) history seems to have become a hobby for some guys on here, and that's a shame. That said, and to answer to the original question, no. If it can be driven safely for the existing road conditions, then the lower the better.
Here's a similar discussion from 5 years ago.
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/the-california-rake.984756/

 

Even the "drivability" issue is subjective. I live on a flat island with decent roads and very few speed bumps, so my T never scrapes. If I head west to the mainland, it's more of an issue. Just gotta be careful how and where I drive it, and I'm okay with that...

 

Late 50s pic.
Gonna try to talk the wife to let me set her 56 up like this. Would have to at least do an air lift set up on the rear due to it being a wagon to handle carrying extra folks.
I like this “California rake”. My merc that’s been patiently waiting its turn, would look goofy sitting like this. Needs the early “Lowrider” look.
An air lift or bags will be needed as well. Same reason as the 56 and to add a little more ability to clear dips and speed bumps.
As far as revisionist history, I didn’t live it, I just read about it. But one thing that seems constant is how all this kinda sprung out around the same time. Put on hold during the war, then boomed after it. Different cultures/ethnicities/ areas of the US put their on spin on it.
I like all of em.

 

That thing is perfect.

 

Not that makes any difference about location of the beginnings, families with the same interests shared what the did.
I can say at 75 and driving since 16 in SoCal I have never had a car that was deliberately lower in the rear than the front. I’ve heated and cut coils on a lot of our cars to give the a nice forward rake because it’s the style I like.
I liked/admired the Pachuco cars of the 50’s and still do. (That word is not racist and widely used in the 50-60’s, look it up)

 

Lowriders by definition are at the extreme end of the bell curve and should be at the extreme fringe of this discussion. They don't recognize any such term as "too low". For them, kissing dirt is their whole point and target look.

So, returning halfway back to our regularly scheduled program........ a few years ago I spotted a very tasteful lowrider for sale on fleabay and I gave it some serious thought to buy it and "save it" by putting regular size wheels/tires and suspension on it.
Didn't.

 

Not quite right!



Hello,

That is a nice looking 56 Chevy hardtop. The stance looks very cool, but in So Cal, he/she would get pulled over for a ticket. Why? The under door side pipes, whether connected or not, is lower than the lowest part of the rims. Also, it looks good in the rear section, but the dual side exhaust pipes also are at or lower than the bottom of the rim. One flat tire or blow out would cause extreme hazards for the occupant.

Occupant(s) would also lower that Chevy hardtop to well beyond safe driving limits. The looks were very popular back in the late 50s and early 60s. But, once warned and given a ticket, it is on the books and a second time stop with the same ticket (as the CHP told us teenagers) is a mandatory tow away.

So, in modern times, air ride or hydraulics do have their simplicity and legal driving action in mind. Here is a good sample of a So Cal 1957 Chevy with the Cal Rake stance, built or set for good driving and even with a few passengers, still CHP legal. A cool So Cal Chevy in action on perhaps a late lunch hour snack break, from the nearest, hot rod oriented, factory/warehouse, Hilborn Injection Company, just back a few blocks.


Jnaki

Who cares who started the low to the ground look, we saw the early hydraulics in action and were told that way, no one can steal the custom car if pancaked to the ground. A great way to “lock in place” these days.

 

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