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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00:00COMM COMM With just a flick of a switch, 3,000 pounds
00:07of metal bounces up and down, 8 feet in the air. 25-year-old Alex Tuason creates these
00:15custom lowrider cars that defy gravity at his father's shop, Popo's Custom Suspension
00:21Works.
00:22ALEX TUASON We specialize in aftermarket suspension, particularly
00:26hydraulic 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.
00:37Everyone knows everyone, whether you're from Canada,
00:40Alaska, I mean, there's guys that are lowriding everywhere,
00:43but overall, I mean, it does look like a bigger scene
00:46than it really is.
00:48The reason they got their name Lowriders
00:50is because they would actually be driving solo,
00:52scraping up their body, and then from there,
00:54we eventually grew into the culture that we're in now,
00:57aftermarket hydraulic pumps,
00:59making 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
01:07and replaces them with hydraulic cylinders.
01:09The hydraulic system is switch-operated
01:12and controlled with a remote or a dial on the dashboard.
01:17Building one of these cars cost customers
01:20anywhere between $2,000 to a few hundred thousand dollars
01:24and can take years to complete.
01:26I personally know some guys that probably have
01:28close to $200,000 to $300,000 into a car.
01:31It always starts off, you know, wheels, paint,
01:34upholstery, undercarriage, hydraulic setup,
01:38and then from there, you start going into detailing
01:40everything you just bought,
01:41so you buy a stock set of rims,
01:43and then, hey, this looks nice,
01:45but let me do something greater.
01:46You've even seen a couple guys
01:48that are currently building Impalas
01:50with, like, Ferrari motors and stuff like that,
01:52so it gets crazy.
01:54These heavily customized cars
01:56are clearly designed to stand out,
01:58and Alex welcomes the attention.
02:00Being West Coast, you would think
02:02they would kind of be used to it,
02:03because 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
02:09and you'll still get a thumbs up every once in a while.
02:12It's pretty cool, you know, you get that reaction,
02:14especially when you put all that money into the car.
02:16Alex has been in the car business all his life,
02:19helping his father around the shop since he was a child.
02:22I've been doing this since I was in diapers, honestly.
02:25I grew up around it, in the shop, around the cars.
02:27Eventually, you grow into grab the tools
02:30and help this and help that.
02:32My dad's been a big influence in my life
02:35as far as the car scene,
02:37but full-time, full-time, I've been into it
02:39about seven, eight years now.
02:42And he plans to follow in his father's footsteps
02:44and run the shop in the future.
02:46My dad owns the company.
02:48Of course, he's shown me the right steps,
02:49what to do in order to get to the next level,
02:52and not only building a car,
02:53but in the business aspect, too.
02:54So eventually, he's gonna hand down the business to me.
02:59When you build one of these, you build it for yourself.
03:03It's fun driving a lowrider, man, it's, you can't,
03:06there's nothing really else I could describe it,
03:07you know, you gotta get in one
03:09and see the reaction for yourself.