AN incredible lowrider, owned by 11-year-old car enthusiast Sol Archer, grabs everyone’s attention for its unique colour patterns. The car was a father and son build – Sol Archer, from Ipswich, UK, inherited a Honda Civic EF from his dad Pete Blackhurst. Pete told Ridiculous Rides: “Sol’s role in the design was to build something that he could potentially drive - small, inexpensive. Sol’s colour-blind, so it was never about picking a colour switch, it was about making it pop, making it stand out - loads of different colours, loads of patterns, loads of lines." He added: “You could be driving it to the shops, into town, or you could be at a show like this. It always turns heads because of what it looks like. But then as soon as you start playing with the switches, I think it baffles people more than anything else.” Sol, while showcasing the car at the Ipswich Festival of Wheels, admitted that he feels special being the only kid at the show with his own vehicle: “I don’t know many other children with real cars, and I think I am lucky”.
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MotorTranscript
00:00 I don't know many other children with real cars. It's incredible.
00:07 Ipswich in the UK. Not the first location that springs to mind when you think of low
00:23 riders. But this isn't your average low rider and Sol isn't your average owner.
00:30 I'm Sol Archer and this is my low rider Honda Civic EF.
00:39 Sol's love of low riders was inherited from his dad, Peter.
00:44 The attraction of low riders is just being different. To bounce around in a display,
00:49 that's what the draw is for me anyway.
00:51 And this Honda was a father and son build.
00:55 Sol's role in the design was build something that he could potentially drive, so small
01:00 and inexpensive. Sol's colour blind so it was never about picking a colour as such,
01:06 it was about making it pop, making it stand out.
01:09 And it certainly does that.
01:13 Today's event is the Ipswich Festival of Wheels.
01:17 It's an all encompassing car show.
01:24 You can be driving it to the shops, into town or you can be at a show like this.
01:35 It always turns heads because of what it looks like. As soon as you start playing with the
01:39 switches I think it baffles people more than anything else.
01:43 For Sol, being the only kid at the show with his own vehicle is pretty special.
01:48 I don't know many other children with real cars and I think I'm lucky.
01:55 It's not just somebody's kid at a show, it feels like he's part of everybody else, apart
02:01 from not being able to drive it. But everybody else is driving around in cars and this is
02:05 so and so's car and that's so and so's car, now he's got that car for himself.
02:09 Half of them don't believe me. Well it is hard to believe isn't it really?
02:15 But they'll believe it when they see you driving it, that's the answer.
02:21 My dad will usually drive it up to a show and we will take out the switch box and start
02:27 playing with it until it breaks.
02:29 We basically want our front back, side to side, the seat saw.
02:37 You turn them off, the car is totally rigid, no shocks, no springs, so it's good for fast
02:44 moves. Then if you want to drive it, turn those accumulators
02:47 on and it's like an inline shock absorber.
02:54 You could always argue that Sol just gave me the opportunity because I wanted to build
03:03 something for somebody else. But seeing him stood in front of a crowd of
03:08 people with that switch box and smashing it around, I get flashbacks of me being that
03:13 kid who was new to low riding, smashing a car about in front of all these old timers,
03:20 it's great.
03:23 So Sol, what's it like owning a unique custom car, six years before you're legally able
03:29 to drive?
03:31 Incredible.
03:31 (whooshing)
03:34 (music fades)