Hydraulic Lowrider Cars Defy Gravity
A car shop in California USA is creating custom lowrider cars that defy gravity. With just a flick of a switch, 3,000 pounds of metal bounces up and down eight feet in the air. Alex Tuason, 25, builds these cars at his fathers shop, Hoppos Custom Suspension Works in Ontario, California. Alex removes the coil springs from the car and replaces them with hydraulic cylinders. The hydraulic system is switch operated and controlled with a remote or dial on the dashboard.
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00:000022 01.Hoppo
00:0202.Pipa
00:04With just a flick of the switch, three thousand pounds of metal bounces up and down, eight
00:09feet in the air.
00:1103.Alex Touisson
00:1225-year-old Alex Touisson creates these custom low-rider cars that defy gravity. At his father's
00:19shop, Hoppo's Custom Suspension works.
00:2204.Alex
00:23We specialize in after-market suspension, particularly hydraulic and air suspension.
00:29The lowrider community emerged in the U.S. in the 1950s.
00:34We are actually a small, tight-knit group of family.
00:37You know, everyone knows everyone, whether you're from Canada, Alaska.
00:41I mean, there's guys that are lowriding everywhere.
00:43But overall, I mean, it does look like a bigger scene than it really is.
00:48The reason they got their name Lowriders is because
00:50they would actually be driving solo, scraping up their body.
00:53And then from there, it eventually grew into the culture that we're in now.
00:57Aftermarket hydraulic pumps, making the cars go up and down at a flick of a switch.
01:01So, it evolved big time.
01:04Alex removes the coil springs from the car and replaces them with hydraulic cylinders.
01:09The hydraulic system is switch-operated and controlled with a remote or a dial on the dashboard.
01:17Building one of these cars costs customers anywhere between $2,000 to a few hundred thousand dollars
01:23and can take years to complete.
01:25I personally know some guys that probably have close to $200,000 to $300,000 into a car.
01:31It always starts off, you know, wheels, paint, upholstery, undercarriage, hydraulic setup.
01:37And then from there, you start going into detailing everything you just bought.
01:41So, you buy a stock set of rims and then, hey, this looks nice, but let me do something greater.
01:46You've even seen a couple guys that are currently building Impalas with, like, Ferrari motors and stuff like that.
01:52So, it gets crazy.
01:54These heavily customized cars are clearly designed to stand out and Alex welcomes the attention.
01:59Being West Coast, you'd think they would kind of be used to it because West Coast is like, you know,
02:04car culture central right here.
02:06You know, it never gets old for people.
02:08They see it rolling down the streets and you'll still get a thumbs up every once in a while.
02:11It's pretty cool, you know, you get that reaction, especially when you put all that money into the car.
02:15Alex has been in the car business all his life, helping his father around the shop since he was a child.
02:21I've been doing this since I was in diapers, honestly.
02:24I grew up around it, in the shop, around the cars.
02:27Eventually, you grow into grab the tools and help this and help that.
02:31And my dad's been a big influence in my life as far as the car scene.
02:36But full time, full time, I've been into it about seven, eight years now.
02:41And he plans to follow in his father's footsteps and run the shop in the future.
02:46My dad owns the company.
02:47Of course, he's shown me the right steps, what to do in order to get to the next level.
02:51And not only building a car, but in the business aspect too.
02:54So eventually he's going to hand down the business to me.
02:58When you build one of these, you build it for yourself.
03:02It's fun driving a lowrider, man.
03:04You can't, there's nothing really else I could describe it.
03:07You know, you got to get in one and see the reaction for yourself.
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