This is Shakotan Badass
This is a blog deticated to the culture of the automotive lifestyle, mostly in Japanese Nostalgic Cars and 90s era sport compacts. Don't get butt hurt or anything if you find an occasional post about Rat Rods or less than perfect cars. The key to this is to keep an open mind.
Quick run down of the Minnesota Car Community
I am from Minneapolis, Minnesota, here we have a thriving Hot Rod community and a relatively underground, but growing import community as well. If you have not been to Minnesota, come it's quite an experience, abit come between April and September other wise it will look like this.
But given that we only have 6 months of a car season here, that leads to a dedicated community, a LOT of rusted out turds of cars but in between the hordes of 2006 Toyota Camry's with rust bubbles you will occasionally find gems. Even the rusted out classic cars have lead to the development of a strong Rat Rod community with Rat Rod magazine even being based out of Shakopee, MN. For those of you living under a rock here is what rat rods are all about.
The point of a rat rod is to recycle that which was previously left for dead, respect the patina of the car and add modifications in a traditional Hot Rod style rather than over do modifications to a point where it takes away from the individual pieces. It is the polar opposite of those Hot Rods you saw in the 90s where everything was modernized and bastardized.
Of course Rat Rods aren't all we have here... The Sport Compact community is growing, and quality is beginning to rival that of Chicago, and even some East Coast builds. A main aspect of our culture here is originality, you'll be hard pressed to find cookie cutter builds, some cars are rougher than others but where else will you find say a Saturn built with tasteful modifications, such as Darius Crooks's SL2.
Okay so far, I have mentioned how unique the builds here are, but there are a number of cars that are built off more common chassis that are just as proper. Not only do we have a ton of proper builds but our Japanese Nostalgic Car community has been exploding in the last 5 years. Prior to the recession, you'd be hard pressed to find a classic Japanese car at a show now we have a number of amazing builds growing.
Nic Rapozo's TE27 Corolla SR5 is a brilliant example. Originally an Oregon car Nic brought it here to build in a classic JNC style. 13" Tom's wheels, Offenhouser intake manifold, Weber carb, TRD header and a mint body to boot. This car screams excellence, see more of his build in upcoming coverage of our first annual Japanese Nostalic Car meet on Japanesenostalgiccar.com.
