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THIS WAS WRITTIN BY A GUY NAMED JUSTIN WYNN. HIS NAME IS THENEPHILM ON HERE.HOPE YOU GUYS ENOY THE ARTICLE AS MUCH AS I DID After waiting two long years for its return, Lay’d Out At The Park (LOATP) did not disappoint. Hundreds of nice rides combined with 70 degree weather and sunny skies made for a great weekend of trucks, friends, and fun. In the midwest, this is one of the first shows to really kick off the show season after a long winter of anxiously waiting and preparing our rides. For this weekend alone, all of the hard work was definitely worth it. However, there is something that has begun to bother me as a minitrucker. Amongst all of the truck discussion on the online forums, there is always a discussion regarding both our trucks and perception amongst other automotive communities. As the limits of minis and our standards of quality push ever upward, so do our expectations regarding the worth of our trucks and the amount of respect we deserve. We spend tens of thousands of dollars building and molding these vehicles, most of the time being worth far less than money spent on parts alone (not to mention labor), into a vision of our perfect truck. We perform many of the same body and chassis modifications as the hot rodders do, even taking it to a completely different level in chassis design in my opinion, tune our engines into tire-shredding monstrocities like those into racing do, shine and detail every individual nut and bolt like the street rods and lowriders, and attempt to remain innovative and unique like every other gearhead in the world.
Yet our finished trucks are often worth less than the cost of the parts alone. For those who pay to have all of their work done, they might get the blue book value for the truck if it is a newer vehicle, maybe more if they are lucky. But in the world of hot rods or muscle cars, their finished rides can go for hundreds of thousands of dollars, perhaps over a million depending on the rarity of the vehicle. Although it’s not about the money, it would be nice to see some sort of return for all of your hard work if the time ever came to sell your pride and joy.
So what are we doing wrong? Perhaps the events of Lay’d Out will shed some light on the subject. At every minitruck show, inevitably three events will happen: dragging, burnouts, and drinking. Nearly all of these events are proceeded by some sort of police intervention of some form or another, hardly ever being a positive experience for anyone involved. LOATP was no exception. At the hotel parking lot at night, hundreds of people gathered at the Ramada parking lot to engage in the usual after-show partying. As more and more people arrived at the hotel, the burnouts and dragging in the parking lot increased to the point of the cops arriving, nothing unusual for an after-show party. Sure the burnouts and dragging are fun to watch for us, but for the hotel owners and bystanders, all they can see is the destruction of a hotel parking lot and property. The widespread devastation from these parties results anywhere from large amounts of trash and other debris strewn about the parking lot and property to broken windows and damaged vehicles.
But the main event of the evening occurred when a local man arrived brandishing five police tickets, ranging from having no insurance to running a red light. Appearing to be either a little slow or drunk, this man was clearly having a rough evening. However, it would only get worse at this point for the poor guy as someone offered him $100 to drink a cup of his own urine. Agreeing to it for some unbeknownst reason, he attempted to chug several adult beverages but couldn’t fill his own cup, which then led to others helping to fill it for him. After then downing this terrible concoction, the local proceeded to vomit violently. After mildly recovering, he promptly asked for his cash. However, a clever yet evil reply was given. “You were supposed to drink a cup of your own piss,” the clever man said, “but you drank everyone elses.”
The obviously disgruntled local then proceeded to punch through his own windshield and headbutt it until he was arrested by one of the many local cops on the property. It didn’t matter that this local wasn’t there for the show or a member of our community. To the eyes of anyone who didn’t know any better, we all appeared to be nothing more than a childish bunch of assholes, destroying property and drinking to excess.
Truck shows are meant to be fun and I am not saying that we should certainly not have it. However, perhaps having fun can go beyond these types of activities. We are judged by our actions and these will ultimately effect every aspect of our sport, including the level of respect we receive from other areas of the custom world and our own vehicle worth. Maybe if we wish both to change, we should start to really take a deep look into ourselves and our scene and change these areas that do nothing but hurt our image. Burnouts and dragging have their place within our culture but we should do so appropriately.
We are better than this.
Until next time, keep your heads high and your rides low.
Justin