Dank-Fest: "A Fitted & Stanced Affair," 6/11/11

Dank: it's a noun, an urban-ism, with a lot of meanings. It can refer to food ("that burrito was dank!"), music ("this house DJ is dank!") or a number of other things.  In the car world, Dank is usually used to describe stanced/hellaflush cars.  So Dank-Fest seems like a proper title for a show devoted to the Stance & Offset crowd.  The show - which was the first - was organized and put together by StancedLyfe, Wilkseboro Crew, and Hoodstatus, and was supported or sponsored by ISO, TeamRPM, NOS Energy, Firestone (locally), GoGirl Entertainment, and SOHO Motorsports.

So... what the hell is Stance & Offset?  In mechanical terms, it's a car that's slammed to the ground, cambered out, stretched tires and rolled fenders with the wheels pushed so far out the corners you start worrying about the wheel bearings.  It looks cool as hell - it's basically the modern-day equivalent of the goofy mini-truck movement from the 80's and 90's, but instead of hydraulics and airbags, it's usually coilovers and camber.  Instead of huge dumb chrome wheels, it's usually expensive forged alloys.  And instead of Mazda B2600's, it's usually an import.  Of course, with every scene, there are other subdivisions within that range, but this is what I'm talking about.

All these slammed Lexuses are part of Teamrpm.net, and they're all polished to the nines- no half-assed anything here.  Eldridge Cortes' IS300 (far right) is unusual in that most of these cars are modified for drifting or track racing, so it's odd to see the baby Lexus done up in the VIP style.

Although a dumped Lexus on chrome wheels tends to fit more into the Japanese VIP trend, let's not split hairs: they look fantastic.  I mean, when was the last time a mid-90's LS400 looked this amazing?  Kudos to Anh-Tuan Tran for this;.

VIP and Hellaflush share a few common traits - low as you can go, wheels pushed all the way out, it's the details that separate them.  Hellaflush tends to emulate race cars, whereas VIP is centered around flashy luxury cars.  Hellaflush cars are intentionally rough around the edges; VIP cars tend to have everything that's polishable polished to the blinding point.

This would fit more into the Hellaflush side.  Either that or ziptied-junk-drift.  Either way, it's awesome.  S13 240SX Coupes are probably 10 times more popular now than they were when new, running the gamut from show car to track car to drift car to... whatever this is.

A Bug-eye WRX, sitting what looks like about 4" closer to mother earth than FHI ever intended.  Roof racks are becoming very popular with this crowd too; I'll pass on that, I hate wind noise.  Looks great though!

My love of EK hatches continues to grow the more of them I see.  This one (owned by Chris Miller) was painted Integra Type R Yellow, and almost nothing was left stock.  While the body wasn't anything out of the ordinary, under the hood certainly was.

A B16A2 motor from a Civic Si replaces the D-series, along with a Skunk2 intake manifold, a gorgeous header, and Domo doing his duty protecting that carbon-fibre intake pipe.  I love the paint work on the valve cover too - there's still a lot of creativity in the Honda scene after all these years.  Also, Rockstar Energy drink for a PCV catch-can?

Another EK hatchback, this one owned by Jonathan Scott of Winston-Salem, and probably one of my favorites from this show.  This one is still rocking a D-Series (ZC spec), but all the aesthetic elements are on point - the wheels, the lip, the suspension and stance, it's just gorgeous.  Hopefully a feature on this super-clean hatchback is coming soon.

Another shot of just how good the stance on this car is - and the 4-lug Rota Grid's (16x8, +20 offset front and +10 rear) are always a good choice for a car like this.

Edward May's 300C SRT-8, proof that not all hellaflush cars are necessarily imports.  This is one of the few good-looking modified 300C's I've ever seen; most of them are slathered in gaudy paint with absurd chrome wheels.  This low-riding 6.1L monster is sitting on 22" SRT-10 wheels, and the evil headlight glare is from a custom hood.

That's just a lot of rubber.  A 300C is a huge car, but when you stuff 295/30/22's under it, they're gonna fill the fenders up.  Gotta love it.

This 1998 Supra Turbo, owned by Dalton McGuire, is a prime example of the breed.  The color - called Quicksilver - was 1998 only, and there were a total of 33 Turbos made in this color, only 24 of them with 6-speed manual.  According to the owner, 4 of them have been wrecked, so there are only 20 of these particular cars left in the world.    It's relatively unassuming from the outside, with a tasteful carbon fibre front splitter up front, a set of meaty wheels, and a carbon center section in the spoiler around back.

Really a gorgeous car.  I've always been partial to the MKIV Supra shape, especially when it's unadorned by ricey body kits and ground effects and Fast & Furious spoilers.  But the more you look, the more you realize there's more to this car than meets the eye.  Like, for instance, those rear tires...

Whoa.  305/30/19's.  That's a lot of rubber for the back of a Supra.  As usual with these cars, all the fireworks are under the hood...

Oh my.  This car has been converted to a single turbocharger (a huge Garrett GT45), a twin-entry ball bearing that makes a whole lot more boost than the stock twin sequentials ever did.  As always, there are some impressive numbers: the owner expressed some disappointment at the fact his pump-gas tune only put down power in the mid-600's, as it's set up to run rich to preserve the components.  Power on C16 Race Gas?  1,147 whp. Not a typo.  The car also has an integrated cage and is approved to run in the 8's on the track. I wish I had more hands, so I could give this Supra four thumbs up.

It's frankly hard to make an STI look bad.  This mean looking specimen belongs to Ynguyen Bya.

Another nice STI, this one owned by Griffin Mathis, rocking a monotone grey theme and a whole lotta rubber.

An unusual, but very well done Honda owned by Nick Wilcox.  There's more to this Acura 3.2 CL Type S than meets the eye - the motor is built with a mix of OEM Honda V6 parts (RL Rods/Pistons, Odyssey 3.5L crank, Acura TL intake manifold with an RL spacer, a ported throttle body, Unichip 95 octane tune, DC headers with full exhaust) as well as a 100 shot wet Zex nitrous kit for good measure.  This car put down 248whp before the nitrous, so I'd imagine it's taken many people by surprise.

An unusual turbo manifold.  This is under the hood of Oudom Seila Leng's RSX Type-S.  I suppose the turbo was too big to fit between the block and the firewall- seemingly the only downside to the fact that K-series have the exhaust manifold on the back - so this one just lays over on the side and feeds into a huge collector.  I've seen K-series cars with the turbo against the firewall, and it's a very tight fit - I'd imagine this setup gives better choices for turbo selection, as well as shorter intercooler piping for better response.

Hella Ghetto?  This isn't ghetto at all.  Let's show some more love for MkIII Supra's - in fact I will be, there's an upcoming feature on a very unusual JZA70 to look forward to on CarThrottle.

We've seen this slammed Q45 before, at the Carolina Hondas meet in Charlotte, but it looks so good I'll post it twice.  This belongs to Vance Milton at OMGDrift.

Jonathan Beaver's LS1-swapped (FD3S) RX7; this is known colloquially as the "RX-7 that runs swap."  Hey, I call it a torquey 350-horsepower V8 in a 2800lb car swap.

The other way to make an RX-7 move quickly... a huge turbocharger.  This white FD3S belongs to Grant Hartsell.  Turbo lag much?

Steve Darchiville's 300ZX Twin Turbo targa top, basking in the sun with the panels out.  Another of those cars it's nice to see in perfect shape, as so many 300ZX's these days have been beat to death.  Also, it seems a lot of them suffer from cracked front splitters- those things hang out so far they get caught on parking curbs and ripped open frequently.  Just don't ask me to work on one...

Dylan Carney's S2000, still looking amazing on classic BBS wheels.  It's an usual wheel choice for an S2k, but I think it works - and this car's in great shape to boot.

SOHO Performance, a new speed shop in Charlotte NC, brought their Lancer Evolution X filled with go-faster parts to show what they're about.  I always love a white Evo.

Another beautifully done S2000 - the color matched body, wheels, and hardtop are a nice touch.  As is the top-mount turbo setup and wild, wire-tucked engine bay.

Even a stock GT-R is still a sight to see, four years since it's debut in the US.  This is the revised 2012 model, which boasts a 530-horsepower twin turbo V6 from the factory.  These will hit sixty in just under 3 seconds with the launch control activated; sorta makes modifying anything else seem a little futile.

A killer combination: Mk2 GTI 16v, turbocharged, slammed on classic Borbet Type A's.

E30 3-series BMW's still get love after all these years - they'll never go out of style.  There's nothing especially over-the-top about this one, but since when was a blacked out lowered E30 anything but awesome?

Another really fascinating turbo manifold.  Most blown B-series I've seen have those distinctive rams-horn setups, but this one folding over on itself looks like a good way to get an equal-length manifold into a small space.  Check out the painted compressor housing too - no details are left undone on a lot of these cars.

Last but not least, how about a pretty low single-cab VW Transporter?  You don't see many of these!

And finally, a beautiful shot from the shade - it must've been over 100 degrees out, factoring in the humidity.  Still, for an inaugural show with brutal weather, the turn out at Dank-Fest was pretty solid - I imagine it'll be even better next year.  Till then!