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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00:00With just a flick of a switch, 3,000 pounds of metal bounces up and down, 8 feet in the
00:10air. 25-year-old Alex Touisson creates these custom lowrider cars that defy gravity. At
00:18his father's shop, Poppo's Custom Suspension Works.
00:21We specialize in aftermarket suspension, particularly hydraulic and air suspension.
00:28The lowrider community emerged in the U.S. in the 1950s.
00:33We are actually a small, tight-knit group of family. Everyone knows everyone. Whether
00:39you're from Canada, Alaska, there's guys that are lowriding everywhere. But overall, it does
00:45look like a bigger scene than it really is. The reason they got their name lowriders is
00:50because they would actually be driving solo, scraping up their body. And then from there,
00:54eventually grew into the culture that we're in now, aftermarket hydraulic pumps, making
00:59the cars go up and down at a flick of a switch. So, it evolved big time.
01:0306- Alex 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.
01:16Building one of these cars costs customers anywhere between $2,000 to a few hundred thousand dollars
01:24and can take years to complete.
01:2506- I 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.
01:38And then from there, you start going into detailing everything you just bought. So, you buy a stock
01:43set of rims and then, hey, this looks nice, but let me do something great. Even seeing
01:47a couple of guys that are currently building Impalas with like Ferrari motors and stuff
01:52like that. So, it gets crazy.
01:5306- These heavily customised cars are clearly designed to stand out. And Alex welcomes
01:59the attention.
02:0006- Being West Coast, you would think they would kind of be used to it because West Coast is
02:04like, you know, car culture central right here. You 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.
02:12It's pretty cool. You know, you get that reaction, especially when you put all that money into
02:15the car.
02:1606- Alex has been in the car business all his life, helping his father around the shop
02:20since he was a child.
02:2106- I've been doing this since I was in diapers, honestly. I grew up around it, in the shop,
02:26around the cars. Eventually, you grow into grab the tools and help this and help that.
02:32My dad's been a big influence in my life as far as the car scene. But full-time, full-time,
02:38I've been into it about seven, eight years now.
02:4106- And he plans to follow in his father's footsteps and run the shop in the future.
02:4606- My dad owns the company. Of course, he's shown me the right steps, what to do in order
02:50to get to the next level. And not only building a car, but in the business aspect too. So, eventually,
02:56he's going to hand down the business to me.
02:5706- When you build one of these, you build it for yourself. It's fun driving a lowrider,
03:04man. You can't, there's nothing really else I can describe, you know. You've got to get
03:08in one and see the reaction for yourself.