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Like many of you reading this—I got into cars as a kid and never really grew out of them. But, and I bet this is relatable too, my tastes have evolved. I used to think every vehicle needed underglow and one exhaust pipe per cylinder; now I’m like, “let’s just put nice tires on it and keep the oil changed.” But hitting a lowrider show in Kingston, New York, this weekend reminded me just how awesome pure show cars really can be.
At the end of last week, I happened to see a post about the “Envy Frenzy” show, hosted by the Made 2 Envy Auto Club, on a local paper’s site. The lead image was not the kind of car I’d ever own or build—a rockabilly-meets-Chip-Foose-style pickup truck that looked like something you’d park in front of a tattoo parlor as a prop.
But it caught my attention because you don’t see that kind of thing too often in New York state, especially Ulster County, where I spend most of my time lately. The Daily Freeman article explained that the Envy Frenzy show had run its course 14 years ago, and was now returning for the first time since 2012.
As I was flipping through images on the group’s Instagram feed, which has the joyful-chaos aesthetic of an airbrushed t-shirt you’d buy on spring break, I realized all these cars were way out of my comfort zone. I had to see them for myself.
Here’s a big batch of images I took that you can swipe through—I’m not going to annotate everything, but I’ll call out some highlights below.
There was so much creativity on display—both mechanical and artistic. Truck beds cut to fit differentials, incompatible body panels grafted together, homemade control arms. Someone had even made a decorative spiderweb out of rebar and used it as a wheel well?! And that’s before we get into the chroming and airbrushing.
One of my favorite things about this genre of car modding is how even (especially) engine trim, air-suspension plumbing, and often-unseen parts are chromed or decorated or deliberately made to look a certain way. Does it make sense for a street car? No freaking way. But many of these vehicles are closer to art projects than actual cars.
I even saw a couple of tuner cars done up in the Y2K “Hot Import Nights” style, which is a whole other look kind of adjacent to lowriders we can revisit another time.
It’s not that I forgot lowriders exist—it’s just that I hadn’t really seen any up close in so long I’d forgotten just how crazy they can get. And perhaps more importantly, the last ones I’d seen were the (literally) museum-quality lowriders on display at the Petersen a few years back. It was really a lot of fun to see the extreme lengths people had gone to to make vehicles ridiculously low and shiny. And as ever, I kind of prefer seeing what creative DIYers on a limited time and money budget can do rather than what the best-of-the-best can build with bottomless resources.
All this to say—if you’ve been into cars for a long time and you’re starting to get bored of seeing clean Bimmers, Miatas, and Porsches at every coffee meetup, step out of your comfort zone and check out an automotive genre you’re not typically into.
Is there another automotive show-car subculture I should revisit? Hit me up at andrew.collins@thedrive.com.
Automotive journalist since 2013, Andrew primarily coordinates features, sponsored content, and multi-departmental initiatives at The Drive.
