The Las Vegas Super Show 2008 did not cease to amaze us, just like the Lowrider Super Shows before it. Twenty thousand spectators and 750 lowriders dropped down a full house on Cashman Field Center. Pickups with trailers, tow trucks, and transporters all made their deliveries from across the states to fill the venue. The greatest show on earth, or massive lowrider get-together, goes on tour every year for a four-day weekend blast. Starting on Friday, the best of custom paint, classic and exotic interiors, and blinding chrome come alive and gather to be moved into the show arena for display. After gallons or drums of wax and sealers are used on the glamour and glitz paintjobs, the displays are finally erected; at that cue it's onto the strip or over to downtown Vegas where the car show weekend also collides with luxury casinos, gaming tables, bars, buffets, and drinks. Slot machines, along with celebrity entertainment and adult shows, never fail to amuse us until the car show opens on Sunday, then Las Vegas turns into a ghost town because everyone travels over to the once-a-year Lowrider Casino for the Lowrider Super Show.
Vendor booths, hopping contests, live music, and classic cars are the show headliners throughout the day's scheduled events, and finally the award ceremony is held for those considered to be the best of the best. After that, the show comes to a close and it's all over. Everyone takes down their displays as they begin to load their show cars back up and head back to their hotels for a little rest. It's the only way to cure a lowrider weekend hangover. Check out our super coverage of this annual event, tour through the following pages, and visit Las Vegas-the Super Show that is.
This March issue is also well represented by the Imperials Car Club who dropped down a pair of '58s on the cover, along with the fabulous Holly Madison of Playmate Fame from The Girls Next Door TV show-a truly classic cover.
Also at Lowrider magazine we continue to recognize and feature the lowrider careers of people like "Crazy" George Luna ("Image") and Armando Flores ("Original"). Open up this book to our newest segmented series and read about the life and times of a true lowrider whose passion to make it to the top started at the bottom. "Crazy" George is a truly deserving lowrider leader who stays focused on the love of God and his club, Viejitos. Armando Flores enters the "Original" showcase as a sculptor of plastics. He is the masterpiece model car builder who shows us two sides of the scale in both cars and models. This plastic surgeon/model car crafter is so talented you can't tell which one is real and which one is in the glass case.
Lowrider magazine also went on tour to the Mesa Art Center in Arizona where we visited a museum gallery full of lowrider art that was on display. Richard Ochoa (Hall of Fame executive committee member) was the assistant coordinator who brainstormed and hustled in a gathering of lowrider-renowned artists to grace their talents upon metal canvases and mount them throughout the walls of the art center. Car clubs and their rides also came out in support for this cultural exhibit to display their creations. A large crane company was hired to move two legendary lowriders-the Chavez Ravine ice cream truck and the Monte Carlo, aka "Motel Hell," into the downstairs portion of the art museum gallery. The represented artists, just to name a few, who got together to show off their God-given talents were Mister Cartoon, the car collector; Mr. Jack Rudy, the classic tattoo artist; photographer and Irish phenomenon Estevan Oriol; and Bugs Auto Works, who's looking more and more like Kung Fu Panda. Clubs also showed their works of art on 5.20s-Society Car Club, Klique, Majestics, and Spirit. Arizona was in full effect at this summer night festival grand-opening weekend. This exhibit brought 10,000 people of all colors who came out to pay tribute and visit this one-of-a-kind lowrider museum, which will continue to run through January 2009. OG Abel set the tone for the exhibit with an oil painting of the Virgin Mary and a fallen youth that will leave you emotionally bent when you see it.
I'd also like to spotlight another new addition to Lowrider magazine that will run in the upcoming April issue of Lowrider called "Car Club." Yes, we will recognize those groups of people who share a common interest in lowered motor vehicles, whose styles and allegiance keep them together to demonstrate who they are as they represent where they came from. There are a lot of car clubs out there that have been in the lowriding lifestyle for 10-15 years and beyond. Those clubs were only previously mentioned in words, let alone pictures. I remember all those years, we know who you are, but the world doesn't. Here's your chance to show the world that you are what you wear on your back. No car club is better than the other as long as all of us keep this thing alive. We are responsible for each other! Fly that plaque to represent so that it will be recognized!
Until the next trip,Joe RayEditor