What does it take...

[Fearnside]

:rock: Well, what does it? I mean, what do you think it takes to make a car "THE" car? A car that is in the mags, winning shows, turning heads. What do you think it takes to make/build a car that everyone wants to see and read about? A car that someone WANTS to do a photoshoot with. I am in the inspiration stage for my passat build, and want to know what you all think....

Thanks! :beer:

EDIT: And I am not talking about needing money. I realize that!

[mimalmo]

http://fruithome.com/pictures/money_t3.jpg

[toasted]

^^^ lol

[Fearnside]

Whahahahahahaha. Best pic ever.

[SLK]

thats a pretty big tree for only being worth $30. I would need to cut down the Redwood forest to fund my car project at that rate.

Ben, i think its rarity. Is your car built up of bolt ons and the same exact body styling everyone else does? then chances are your car isnt in mags.

Alright take Olson for example. Yes he does have an R32 front bumper like a lot of others but he did some custom stuff to it, doesnt run sideskirts and has a shaved GTI rear. he also has the flat paint and pretty extreme color scheme. If you look on vortex how many other cars look just like his? or even close? A lot of people take styling cues from him but his car is pretty original and rare for a MK4 (which is pretty hard to do these days)

or take Chad's rabbit, ground up restoration, but with a extremely clean 1.8t swap. I have seen several rabbits with a 1.8t swap but they looked hacked and what not. His looks like it should have came that way from the factory.

Its really all the big picture. Every modification needs to flow with each other and have a purpose to your theme of the car. Also stance will make or break a look of the car aswell. Soooo many MKV's will look amazing if they would get over the retarded lets notch my frame and tuck my wheels phase.

[flippinvw]

Meh, there is no such thing as "the" car IMO. Obviously it's something that's very subjective. Follow PVW long enough and you'll see they feature quite a few cars that are basically the owner building exactly what they want, not specifically a show car. I guess this is really the only advice I can give you: Determine for yourself exactly what it is that would make the car "perfect" for you (not everyone or anyone else, mags included). If you follow through, you can bet that the car will get plenty of attention. It doesn't need to cost a lot of money or take a lot of time, it's more about setting a goal and acheiving that goal without sacrificing something because it's "not possible" or "wouldn't look right". Just do what you do man, the results will speak for themselves!

[Peetah05]

It also has to be your thing and hobby to go all out. Again, using mike as an example, he spends all his extra time working on his car because he enjoys it and wants to take it to the next level. I think in order to achieve or build this "car", then you have to be that person working on you car whenever you get a chance to reach that final goal.

[sprstu]

I think the overall theme is Purpose. So much of the JDM community was based on how show-y your car could be, how many tvs can you put in it, how much carbon fiber you have or how crazy fiberglass your dash and trunk are. Those things have stayed in that world and are on there way out.
The cars that stand up over the years are cars who have a real personality, cars who dont go to the end of the world while at the same time they are walking very thin lines.

I mean, look at some of the cars on here, Johns Jetta is a great example of the perfect purpose build future show winning magazine cover car, and to look at it you would have no idea. There is nothing on that car that would stand out to anyone in the world that dosnt have the cursory knowledge of the VW world, it just stands on its own as something special without going over the top. John took an idea and a welder to an R32 and said, what if? sure he could have lost his DD Jetta in the process but that was never a concern.

Audrey, for fucks sake, that car has more of a following in the world than (i can imagine) any other daily driven VW and it was beige. But what made it so special was the dedication Kris put into it, the energy to make it that perfect car without care or thought about who wanted to see it. That car was everything Kris wanted, many many times, without sacrifice and with a specific purpose each time he put in a new engine.
The love for that car is unheard of in the VW community, people that have never seen it in person cried when those deer pictures came out, the MK1 world was in shock. And it wasnt because Kris had a carb'd 16V, everyone who builds a MK1 someday puts in a 16V, it was the absolute unstoppable and unyielding dedication to what he loved that poured out over the world and community.
Sure, there are cars that are jaw droppingly standout, take The Bucket, for instance. here is a truly piece of crap, for all intensive purposes that car sucked. It had no windows, doors that didnt work, no wipers, rarely had a hood, was so low to the ground that rain was an issue, was covered in nonsense stickers and had bumpers that did more for drag than they would have in a collision. But the spark, the internet spark, was the absolute love and decitation 'Ugly' had for that blue hunk of shit. the time he spent alone on the engine bay was the stuff of car building legends, then to put a 1.6 diesel in it pushed it over the edge. Sure, many hundreds of people hate 'Ugly', for reasons all their own, but that car stood for something and thats what made it special. it was built on purpose to be exactly what 'Ugly' wanted.

Im sorry if I talked about you here and you do not feel the same way I thought you do, but those three cars alone are such great examples of what it takes to be THE CAR people talk about, and the common point is the pure unadulterated love and lust for their projects.

anyone can buy a mk5 gti and import body and interior pieces from Ebay.de, spend $7K on an APR stage 3 turbo kit, put some K&W coils on it and have a car that is ready for an article, but that just kinda makes you an asshole and now you have a really expensive super common car that no one will care about in 3 issues of PVW.

[audivwdave]

Hey it worked for me for a year until it was done to death ^^^


But it really takes....................






http://www.stthomas.edu/campusministry/service/vision/website%20photos/vision2.jpg