{"id":474,"date":"2015-01-19T00:45:28","date_gmt":"2015-01-19T01:45:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/howtokauai.com\/?p=474"},"modified":"2025-01-21T17:57:10","modified_gmt":"2025-01-21T17:57:10","slug":"aggressive-fitment-needs-to-die","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/howtokauai.com\/index.php\/2015\/01\/19\/aggressive-fitment-needs-to-die\/","title":{"rendered":"Aggressive Fitment Needs To Die"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Almost daily I see people blame stance (99% of the time they actually mean aggressive fitment, but that\u2019s another discussion for another day) for the downfall of the automotive community as a whole.<\/p>\n<p>Proclamations are made that once the \u2018fitment fad\u2019 dies off everything will miraculously change for the better.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/howtokauai.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/pfaff-tuning-scraped-crusaders-nissan-350-3.webp\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\" td-modal-image aligncenter wp-image-45973 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/howtokauai.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/pfaff-tuning-scraped-crusaders-nissan-350-3.webp\" alt=\"pfaff-tuning-scraped-crusaders-nissan-350-3\" width=\"960\" height=\"642\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Really? We\u2019re using aggressive fitment as the scapegoat for all the problems that exist among enthusiasts today, while completely ignoring the fact that less than functional wheel, tire, and suspension setups are nothing new?<\/p>\n<p>If you jump back forty\u00a0plus years \u2013conveniently hopping over the \u201cricer era\u201d that is its own can of worms\u2013 and examine the \u2018<a href=\"http:\/\/70sstreetmachines.tumblr.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">70\u2019s Street Machine<\/a> movement you will observe that people have been choosing their wheel and tire set-ups based on looks for years.<\/p>\n<p>It just so happens that currently a significant portion of the community views pebble pushing ride height, \u00a0low offset wheels, stretched tires,\u00a0and ample camber\u00a0as pleasing to the eye.<\/p>\n<p>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"1970 Ford Torino Brake Stand\" width=\"790\" height=\"593\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/kWMBB_uj5iM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/p>\n<p>No. Aggressive fitment, nor whatever styling trend comes hereafter, <strong>is not the problem<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>But those flat billed hat, skinny jean wearing, kids have single\u2013handedly lowered the bar at car shows you argue? Well, no again.<\/p>\n<p>A few years back a car that\u2019s modification list started and ended with suspension and wheels wouldn\u2019t make the cut for a show, and rightfully so wheels and lowering does not a show car make,\u00a0however these cars are not driving into shows behind the organizers turned backs, they are being welcomed with open arms.<\/p>\n<p>Why? Because event\u00a0organizers have a lot of pressure on their shoulders; sponsors need to be pleased, venues need to be filled, merchandise needs to be sold, and models need vehicles on which to leave spray tan impressions.<\/p>\n<p>From the perspective of a show runner it only makes\u00a0logical (or financial whichever best represents your show of choice) sense to usher in as many people as possible by heavily leaning on what\u2019s hot now, regardless of if it represents the best of the best from a practical, engineering, or build quality stand point.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/howtokauai.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/pull-up-with-the-doors-missing.webp\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\" td-modal-image aligncenter wp-image-47777 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/howtokauai.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/pull-up-with-the-doors-missing.webp\" alt=\"pull-up-with-the-doors-missing\" width=\"960\" height=\"604\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>But the flaws in\u00a0the current car show model (touched on\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/shifthype.com\/the-death-of-the-car-show-how-we-helped-kill-it\/\" target=\"_blank\">here by Shift Hype<\/a>) are not really detrimental to the community as a whole because car shows are arguably a very small piece of the pie.<\/p>\n<p>In my observation, the largest problems in the community today center around attitudes and egos.<\/p>\n<p>The biggest and most concerning of these issues\u00a0is that the voice of the car enthusiast is being drowned out by that of the scene enthusiast. Unlike car enthusiasts, scene enthusiasts don\u2019t appreciate the hobby as a whole, they like their segment of car modification and wholly reject the ideas, and opinions of people they feel \u2018don\u2019t get it\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>These individuals don\u2019t appreciate someone\u2019s right to build whatever they want and worse still lack the ability to respect any aspect of a build that sits outside of their own personal preference.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/howtokauai.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/mashup.webp\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\" td-modal-image aligncenter wp-image-47779 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/howtokauai.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/mashup.webp\" alt=\"mashup\" width=\"960\" height=\"526\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>People have become so head down and focused on what they like, and so opposed to what they don\u2019t, that they fail to realize they wear the same brand of blinders as those of the opposite opinion.<\/p>\n<p>The second, and perhaps equally troubling problem within the community today has to do with egos. The double-edged sword that is social media has grossly inflated the egos of those doing nothing more than lather, rinse, repeating what the person before them did.<\/p>\n<p>The loud, boisterous, vein, obnoxious, and attention seeking are being heralded while the humble, talented, creative, true innovators are being almost completely ignored.<\/p>\n<p>If you try to\u00a0challenge or question those who have been lifted\u00a0upon pedestals made up of likes, comments, and shares their bands of merry men, hiding behind shields emblazoned with the word hater, verbally strike you down.<\/p>\n<p>We are caught in a vicious cycle where as one trend gives way to another a new group of close minded, ego-centric, people replaces the last. As this circle continues nobody truly benefits and the hobby suffers as a whole.<\/p>\n<p>If it\u2019s necessary for wheel widths to go back to 6.5\u2033 and offset to flirt with +60 for this downward spiral to stop then by all means\u00a0aggressive fitment needs to die.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Almost daily I see people blame stance (99% of the time they actually mean aggressive fitment, but that\u2019s another discussion [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":476,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editorials"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/howtokauai.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/howtokauai.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/howtokauai.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/howtokauai.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/howtokauai.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=474"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/howtokauai.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":480,"href":"https:\/\/howtokauai.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474\/revisions\/480"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/howtokauai.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/howtokauai.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/howtokauai.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/howtokauai.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}