Ca-chunk. Ca-chunk. Ca-chunk. We’ve all heard that glorious sound. For many, it sounds like air pumps and crunching metal, but for us, it is the sweetest symphony; a sound as earth-shaking in a literal sense as it was ground breaking in the automotive world. Of course we’re talking about the sound of hydraulics, a concert of pumps and dumps that defines true greatness in our Lowrider world.
This amazing sound of rubber-wrapped wire wheels crashing to the ground was heard throughout the 2011 Lowrider Magazine Phoenix Show. The heat of the hot desert air played second only to the heat emanating from the batteries, as they were juiced up to help the cars’ front ends reach for the skies during the annual Hopper Competition. After some mechanical issues, Frank Castillo’s green Towncar muscled out Black Magic Hydraulics’ red Cutlass in the Show Hop class. A pair of Street Single Regals blessed the proving grounds next, with Castillo receiving the most crowd cheers to earn his second win of the day. Mechanical difficulty with the Black Magic Hydraulics’ Mazda allowed CCE Hydraulics to skate away with an easy victory in the Truck Hop. Alejandro Fregoso’s “El Macizo” Cutlass put on a solo dance worthy of the stars, as he made his Oldsmobile bob and weave as if it were being attacked by a pack of killer bees. Like the start of a bad joke, three Regals, a Mazda, and an El Camino drove into the ring next to do battle. The crowd-judged battle royal was too close to call, as each front bumper stretched to gain each and every inch above the competition. Like a Wild West shoot out, Todd Land, Carlos “Chato” Lozano, and Alfred Carr lined up for the final showdown of the day in the Radical Hop. Pulling off an incredible 108 inches without resting on the rear, Land’s ‘63 Impala rolled away as the day’s biggest bully on the block. As the ring was reconfigured for the afternoon concert, the crowd returned to the show with talks of how they can make their car dance and possibly complete in the next year’s show. Ca-chunk.