CC 103 - Stance: It's Not All Bad

"SmoresTM Has No Chill (O==[][]==O)" (sammauri) 11/23/2015 at 19:08 • Filed to: None

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Hey there Oppo. I’m SmoresTM; your local stance conspirator. Welcome to Car Culture 103, a beginner level class that I just made up! Today we will be discussing stance. Last night, I decided to do a little experiment to show you that a lot of your conceptions about stance are probably wrong.

Now, it’s not your fault that you’re wrong. You’ve fallen prey to the same thing that plagues the minds of those who rely on Fox News to be their only source of news. What I mean by that is, the information you are receiving would be hysterical if it wasn’t being called “news.” When you turn on Fox News, you hear things like “not all Muslims are terrorists, but all terrorists are Muslim.” Now, this sounds like it could be smart, but it’s actually just factually incorrect bullshit meant to instill fear in all of those who hear it... I’m sorry, I’m getting off topic. To bring it back to stance, when you hear about this automotive subculture on non-stance sites you often hear about the extremes. You hear about the Hondas with -90 degrees of camber that throw sparks all over innocent motorists and that are mechanically bone stock, save a giant fart muffler. While this image is one that makes many fearful (and with good reason), it is not a stereotype that fits the majority of stanced cars.

With that in mind, I thought up an experiment I could complete in less than 4 minutes and 20 seconds, since that is the amount of time I can concentrate on something before my media-crazed millennial brain involuntarily switches its focus to Vine, Instagram, Twitter, or Snapchat. It is important to note that if your generational AD/HD switched to Facebook, you are likely not a millennial. Millennials don’t use Facebook anymore; not since the great 2012 crisis that lead many of our parents to corrupt our previously preferred social media platform.

Anyways, I decided to check out the Stanceworks forums and see what I could see. I took the first five community forum posts in the “showroom” section and compiled some pictures of the cars in each post.

First post: Nothing crazy here. A Mercedes W202 on Carlines. Negative camber is definitely present, but nothing horribly offensive. Probably too much for a lot of people on this website, but nothing worth grabbing your pitchforks and torches over.

Second Post: This post contained two cars. One red E30 M3 on DTMs and one white E36 on Gottis. The E30 is a real M3. You’ll notice very little negative camber on the E30. It still has some ground clearance and is generally very tastefully done. There are many people who will scream that this is not stance. Those people are wrong. A white terrorist is a terrorist even if Fox News refuses to describe him as anything but “a lone wolf with no friends and substantial mental health issues who is definitely not a terrorist.”

NOTE: I understand that comparing stance to terrorism really doesn’t help my point, but I’m taking an entire graduate level class on U.S.-Middle Eastern relations and our current section is on terrorism and the role of race so that’s all that I can think about.

The E36 is much lower and has noticeable rear camber. Still, not as exaggerated as most people would describe as typical in stance culture. This, like the Mercedes, is likely more than a lot of you would prefer. I understand that opinion. It is now that I would like to make a brief aside.

Aside: You are allowed to dislike stance. However, being disrespectful on the internet just makes you look like an asshole. If you dislike something say “Hey, I dislike that thing. It’s not my style. I do realize that we all have different ideas of what is cool and will refrain from calling everyone with a stanced car a ‘fucking retard with no taste who ruined a perfectly good BMW’.” Thank you.

Third Post: 1971 Datsun 240z on air bags. Okay, guys. This is important. You’ll notice that when the car is driving, the car RAISES UP. When it’s parked, and when most people take pictures, the car LOWERS BACK DOWN. Many people who hate stance like to believe that air ride suspension is not real and that all cars parked with 0.3mm of clearance drive around like that all the time. They are willfully ignorant. Do not be willfully ignorant. Willful ignorance means the terrorists win.

Fourth Post: I would like to address the misconception that “stance kids” don’t know how to modify anything mechanical. This is a 1975 Nissan Sunny with a Mazda RX7 12A rotary swap and made-from-scratch air ride suspension. Can you do that? Probably not. Can most people commenting on the front page manage that level of fabrication? Even though they all claim that they are certified welders and drive a pristine 1969 Chevy Chevelle SS that they restored by hand using only scrap metal and some left-over spools of miscellaneous wire, no. They cannot. This car is probably not everyone’s up of Earl Grey. It’s rusty and there are a lot of stickers on the rear window for some reason. But the owner built an air suspension set up from scratch and swapped a Mazda rotary engine into a Nissan Sunny. That’s cooler than what most of us have done to our cars.You can admit that. It’s okay. No one will judge you. Say it with me. “It’s cool.”

I’m proud of you, guys. That was hard. That was an important step.

Fifth Post: A nice BMW E46 on Style 95 wheels. You’ll notice this one is also on bags. That means that of the random posts I looked at, 3/5 cars were on air ride suspension. Please keep that in mind when you come to the conclusion that all stanced cars are static and drive around leaving fine granulated particulates of their frame all over the highway. Turns out, that’s not the case. Remember that thing I said about willful ignorance? Don’t let the terrorists win.

Evidence of order of posts:

You’ll note I left out “My stance-arts!” I decided to exclude that post because it was a large collection of digital art (not photoshops), some of which was based on real cars owned by the Stanceworks community while others were not. Some of it was actually pretty cool. Some of it wasn’t. This isn’t an art class, so I ignored it.

*This post is intentionally condescending. If I offended you, I don’t really care. My name is SmoresTM Has No Chill. What the hell did you expect?*

Funktheduck > SmoresTM Has No Chill (O==[][]==O) 11/23/2015 at 19:25

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All I see is ruined cars with ugly wheels

Justin Young > SmoresTM Has No Chill (O==[][]==O) 11/23/2015 at 19:29

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I was really rooting for this article...until I read the disclaimer on the bottom.

jkm7680 > SmoresTM Has No Chill (O==[][]==O) 11/23/2015 at 19:33

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ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

SmoresTM Has No Chill (O==[][]==O) > Justin Young 11/23/2015 at 19:33

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I think sarcastic may be the wrong word. All the bits about Fox News were sort of sarcastic, though true. All in all, I meant every word in regards to stance. Editing now for clarity.

BeaterGT > SmoresTM Has No Chill (O==[][]==O) 11/23/2015 at 19:40

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I made it to here before the onset of nausea. What do I win?

SmoresTM Has No Chill (O==[][]==O) > BeaterGT 11/23/2015 at 19:42

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Scorn.

BeaterGT > SmoresTM Has No Chill (O==[][]==O) 11/23/2015 at 19:47

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Phew, I thought you were going to say I had to drive one of these abominations.

LongbowMkII > SmoresTM Has No Chill (O==[][]==O) 11/23/2015 at 19:50

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This is so much tryhard. just all of it.

Justin Young > SmoresTM Has No Chill (O==[][]==O) 11/23/2015 at 19:52

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Hell yeah, someone from Oppo respects most, if not, all stance builds!

SmoresTM Has No Chill (O==[][]==O) > Justin Young 11/23/2015 at 19:55

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No one else in the comments seems to. Oh well. More for us.

DoYouEvenShift > SmoresTM Has No Chill (O==[][]==O) 11/23/2015 at 19:58

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So what exactly is stance? Explain to me like you would explain to your aunt that knows nothing about cars.

I see pics of cars online with the #stance under it. But all I see is a lowered car with aftermarket wheels.

I was under the impression that stance was a car with -40 degrees of camber and 195mm tires on an 8” wheel.

Textured Soy Protein > SmoresTM Has No Chill (O==[][]==O) 11/23/2015 at 20:06

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I want tacos with a side of spaghetti but all I could find on google image search was spaghetti inside tacos.

Perhaps an honorable mention goes to these taco shells made of spaghetti ?

Jordan and the Slowrunner, Boomer Intensifies > SmoresTM Has No Chill (O==[][]==O) 11/23/2015 at 20:16

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I don’t mind stance done right, but if you stretch your tires, you’re an asshole. On a (ex)local C&C page, a poster was complaining that a groove in the road destroyed the lip of his rim. If the lip of the rim can get caught on something because there is no sidewall protecting it, you deserve to have your rims destroyed.

Daily Drives a Dragon - One Last Lap > SmoresTM Has No Chill (O==[][]==O) 11/23/2015 at 22:19

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Get rid of the stickers and I’m good with it. I love the way it looks.

SmoresTM Has No Chill (O==[][]==O) > Daily Drives a Dragon - One Last Lap 11/23/2015 at 22:48

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Yeah, I’m not a fan of the stickers either.

Daily Drives a Dragon - One Last Lap > SmoresTM Has No Chill (O==[][]==O) 11/23/2015 at 22:51

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People say stance guys aren’t creative. They’re the new hot rodding guys because there are people who swap S2000 engines into Model A Fords and 2JZs into Miatas.

SmoresTM Has No Chill (O==[][]==O) > Daily Drives a Dragon - One Last Lap 11/23/2015 at 22:57

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Exactly. And some of them are actually new hotrodders. My second favorite Mike Burroughs project is an example of just that. A BMW S54 into a Model A pickup on BBS RSs with BMW 2002 taillights. Does it get any better than that? I think not.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

Daily Drives a Dragon - One Last Lap > SmoresTM Has No Chill (O==[][]==O) 11/23/2015 at 22:58

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That build is absolutely awesome.

AMGtech - now with more recalls! > SmoresTM Has No Chill (O==[][]==O) 11/24/2015 at 00:54

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I can accept stance as long as people aren’t driving around with more than ~5° camber. Even that is pushing it. Because those people will end up coming into my (or some other) shop after driving with their wheels thinking they’re actually mounted on a motorcycle going around a never ending circle track for the last 500 miles bitching that their tires are shit and expecting us to foot the bill then going on to facestagram in an attempt to slander us by saying something along the lines of “DO NOT GO 2 DIS GUY!!!!!! HE A BAD MEKANICH CUZ HE RIPT ME OFF!!!!!!1 DOZE TIRES R RATCHET YO GIB BACK MY SKRILLA!!!!!!”. I have no patience for this.

Funktheduck > DoYouEvenShift 11/24/2015 at 09:08

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Stance is trying to make your car as low as possible. Extra points when you cram wheels that would be too big under normal ride height conditions so they are put at extreme angles to fit along with body mods like rolling fenders. Even more points if your car is so low it makes life difficult for you and every other driver on the road.

And example for the second set of extra points: a few weeks ago I was driving on a country-ish road at night. I was stuck behind a stanced infinity going 35-40 in a 50 mph zone. On a mostly blind turn he came to a near complete stop to turn into a neighborhood that had its own turn lane but he stopped in the middle of the road. Why you ask? Because the turn lane had a small dip in it and he couldn't use the lane without scraping. That led me to stop and nearly get rear ended on this blind turn.

DoYouEvenShift > Funktheduck 11/24/2015 at 10:02

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Would these be considered stance?

Haha! Thats an awesome description too.

Funktheduck > DoYouEvenShift 11/24/2015 at 10:16

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Top is a low rider. They were first but you could think of them as a subset of stance or vice versa.

Truck is like the mini trucks of old but in a full size so I don’t know what to call it.

3rd: because race car

DoYouEvenShift > Funktheduck 11/24/2015 at 10:24

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Theyre all really low, with huge wheels/tires fitted. Isnt that the definition?

Dru > SmoresTM Has No Chill (O==[][]==O) 11/24/2015 at 16:10

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Hi. I’m Dru, and I like stance. I do not know why.

I’m more of the negative camber on the front and none on the rear school of thought, because racecar. But one of my friends from high school stanced a mk3 Jetta with barely noticeable negative camber, and sat it really low on wide wheels with stretched tires.

He then painted it purple. Himself. I dunno, I just gained a lot of respect for the trend because the only person I know involved in it is seriously about it.