When we first heard about Headlights & Tailpipes me and the boys from AutoProject figured “Car show? Strippers? Why not!”… Little did we know we were in for the widest variety of show cars we’ve seen in quite a long time. Wether your into rat rods, stance, trucks, or anything else. There was an example of just about aspect of the car culture at the show… The sad part? Most of you missed it. Fret not, your boys at Stance Stories have you covered with coverage of the awesome show floor, the backstage shenanigans, and all the gorgeous models you could ever crave!

Before we kick off our coverage we’d like to give a special shout out to our good friend, and devoted AutoProject member Michael Garcia. Mike has been a great friend and ideal teammate since we’ve met, but much to our dismay he leaves for base camp in New York later this month to further serve his country with his brothers in the Marine Corps. So we figured what better way to send him off than with our three favorite things…The AutoProject way. Cars, strippers, and booze. 

The Top 10 trophies were not a mixed variety of catagories like you see at most shows. It was given exclusively to the Top 10 cars at the show, so when our boy Miguel Anaya and his turbo-built Mazda 3 scooped one up at a show with virtually no stanced cars we were grounded and more than happy for our boy Migs, who just the other night also took home Best 3 at MazFest.

As mentioned earlier, the variety of cars at the show was crazy but this candy pink Chevy Malibu on what looks like 26 inch rims provided the butt of many jokes I’m sad to say. I’m not into the Dub scene in the least bit, but a tremendous amount of respect should be shown to the mechanics that put in all the work and fabrication time to get these cars looking the way they do. The sheer man hours behind these types of builds are just remarkable.

If old school Domestic cars are more your taste there were plenty of gorgeous ratrods and flawless restorations scattered around the show. A fresh change from the same old thing at every meet and show we’ve been at lately. In fact it got us thinking that maybe we should start looking into more rat rod builds for features and displaying different aspects of the car culture in addition to stance.

The truck turnout was massive. Although most were mini-trucks or older Chevy restoration projects this massive Silverado dually left gawking for quite a while. The sheer stature of this truck rivaled some of the nearby buildings, and with a 4-tank air ride setup I can only imagine this thing aired up on the road.

The hot sun left us parched so to dodge the $9 beers and $4 Redbulls we decided to hit up a nearby liquor store, on our way out we spotted this gorgeous bagged Audi A3. My only question was why tucked this flawless Euro heart stopper all the way in the corner where nobody could see it.

We tried to sneak his cold refreshing ale back into the show by means of Jack In The Box cups but our boy Eric being the absolute genius that he is dropped his beer as soon as security was within viewing distance. Thankfully, security was nice enough to let him finish his beer in the parking lot.

Later in the day we ran into this Lexus ES with not just a wide-body, but a Bentley front end conversion. Though the lines were a bit sloppy the cost and effort of putting this thing together is only levels I can only imagine. Not necessarily my taste but big ups to getting such an original build together.

There was lots of talent at this show but this blue 1957 Chevy Bel Air took the cake. It’s been a long time since I’ve been this wowed by a domestic, but this cars simplicity provoked such an elegance that I couldn’t help but snap well over thirty photos of the car, although these were the only three that I felt did justice.

Later in the day when we all had some booze in us the guys somehow got me into getting my face painted like an Armenian kitty cat hybrid. We figured that while in Iraq, our boy Mike would need something to remind him of home. What better way than to be the exclusive model for Mike’s Scion? Happy fapping bud, come back safe, we’re all praying for you!

Headlights & Tailpipes was the most fun I’ve had at a show in a long time. Special thanks to Concept III for letting all the boys at AutoProject kick it with you and show at your booth for the event. The turn out and variety were fantastic and we’ll do our best to make it out to the next event.

• Story by Alex Royt
• Photos by Alex Royt
• Edited by Alex Royt