The ‘stance’ subculture of the car community is an odd one. Here you have cars that are often sports cars and luxury cruisers, known for their performance, handling, acceleration and giving the driver a great driving experience. Yet the stance culture is all about dropping these cars as low as possible, with often ridiculous camber, tyre stretch and flaring the stock fenders as much as possible for the top of the wheel to tuck right in.
The handling and sporty/smooth driving experience is thrown out the passenger window. To casual onlookers and even car enthusiasts alike, it is a hard thing to fathom why anyone would do this to their car, especially one that is capable of so much.
I too was curious, and although I have seen this style plenty of times on the internet and occasionally in person, and even though I find these cars awesome to look at, I hadn’t quite grasped this subculture fully. This year’s installment of Status Seasonal would be a great opportunity to dive a bit deeper into the modern stance culture of today.
Status Seasonal is a relatively new show and has been held in Melbourne each year since 2019. However, it still gathers 100 plus chosen cars from not only Victoria but New South Wales as well.
One thing to note straight off the bat was that not every car is going to be scraping every leaf it drives over, nor have more camber than an entire V8 Supercar field combined. You can also tell that these cars are built to function too. Thanks to innovations like the modern air suspension system, owners can have both form and function without losing much of the driving experience.
At the end of the day though, particularly at a show like this, it’s all about how your car sits parked. Does the it draw you in because of it obnoxious profile, or does it invite you to look closer at its subtle touches?
I found that the best builds did both.
To appreciate the stance community, you certainly can’t take a blind eye to the cars. No, you have to look closer. The cleanliness and little details of these cars really are wonders to behold. Not just from wheel choice but the quality of little personalised touches such as choice of lug nuts, stickers, mirrors and more.
Of course, you can’t talk about cleanliness without talking about fitment. For a car to go fast on the track, it’s set up has to be just right, millimetre perfect. These cars are millimetre perfect too, just in a different way. The fitment of these cars a bang on, fenders just touching the wheel rim, wheel, and tyre combos just the right size to fit and fill in the wheel arches.
Fender flare, tyre stretch, wheel width and diameter are all juggled to get the perfect and desired fitment. Just thinking about working that out gives me a headache, but again this gives full credit to those who create these types of builds. They are no doubt artists, craftsman, and perfectionists.
There seems to be no limit to creativity. Why slam an econobox Honda Civic sedan? No, the question should be why not?
Whatever is created, you know that the owner’s personal style and flair will shine through. Those Alfa wheels look awesome! Why not put them on a VW Golf?
The quantity of quality builds at Status Seasonal certainly displayed the attention to detail that these owners have when building and prepping their rides for a show, leaving no stone unturned.
That’s a wrap for my coverage of Status Seasonal Ch. III. Thank you to Downshift for allowing me to share it with you.
Words & Images – Noah Thorley (Noah Thorley Images)