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A lowrider or low rider is a customized car with a lowered body that emerged among Mexican American youth in the 1940s.^[3] Lowrider also refers to the driver of the car and their participation in lowrider car clubs, which remain a part of Chicano culture and have since expanded internationally.^[3]^[4] These customized vehicles are also artworks, generally being painted with intricate, colorful designs, unique aesthetic features, and rolling on wire-spoke wheels with whitewall tires.^[3]^[5]

Lowrider rims are generally smaller than the original wheels.^[6] They are often fitted with hydraulic systems that allow height adjustable suspension, allowing the car to be lowered or raised by switch. From 1958 to 2023, the California Vehicle Code made lowriding illegal, which was ultimately criticized as unnecessary and discriminatory toward Chicano and broader Latin American culture.^[7]^[8]

Origin and purpose

Lowrider car culture began in Los Angeles, California, in the mid-to-late 1940s, and grew during the post-war prosperity of the 1950s within Mexican-American youth culture. Conversion of standard production vehicles included adding lowering blocks and cut-down spindles, reduced-length suspension spring coils, and creating "Z frames" from stock straight frames.^{[citation needed]} The purpose of lowriders, as their motto "Low and Slow" suggests, is to cruise as slowly and as smoothly as possible.^[9]

Legal issues

Section 24008 of the California Vehicle Code went into effect on January 1, 1958, prohibiting cars modified to shift the vehicle body lower than the bottoms of its wheel rims. In 1959, mechanic Ron Aguirre bypassed the law by installing hydraulics that could quickly toggle the height of a General Motors X-frame chassis.^[11]

Lowriding became widely popular in the 1980s and 1990s, and bans were enacted in many California cities.^[12] It regained popularity a little in 2009, then significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States.^[13] In the 2020s, activists argued that the practice was harmless and banning it was simply the result of prejudice against Mexican-Americans.^[5] San Jose and Sacramento repealed their bans in 2022 that had been enacted in 1986 and 1988, respectively.^[10]^[12] In 2022, the California State Assembly unanimously passed a resolution urging all remaining cities with bans (including National City, which banned it in 1992) to repeal them.^[14] In 2023, California rescinded state restrictions on the height of vehicle bodies and superseded local regulations against cruising.^[8]

In 2020, police in Albuquerque, New Mexico introduced a lowrider police car in a reversal of the city's anti-lowriding policies.^[15]

Adding height adjustable suspension

In 1959, a customizer named Ron Aguirre developed a way of bypassing the law with the use of hydraulic Pesco pumps and valves that allowed him to change ride height at the flick of a switch.^[16] Ron Aguirre developed this modification with help from his father, after conceiving of the idea. Aguirre's motivation was to stop being targeted with traffic tickets, as he had been by local police in his city of Rialto, California after the statewide ban was enacted.^[7]

Role of the Chevrolet Impala

1958 saw the emergence of the Chevrolet Impala, which featured an X-shaped frame that was perfectly suited for lowering and modification with hydraulics.^[16] The standard perimeter-type frame was abandoned, replaced by a unit with rails laid out in the form of an elongated "X." Chevrolet claimed that the new frame offered increased torsional rigidity and allowed for a lower placement of the passenger compartment. This was a transitional step between conventional perimeter frame construction and the later fully unitized body/chassis, the body structure was strengthened in the rocker panels and firewall. This frame was not as effective in protecting the interior structure in a side impact crash, as a conventional perimeter frame.^[17]

Lowrider culture

Lowrider cars had their origins in the 1940s, when Mexican American veterans began customizing vehicles to run "low and slow", a contrast to the hot rod that was customized for speed. During the Chicano Movement in the 1970s, lowriders formed car clubs that began to help their community by using these cars for fundraising.^[18] Lowrider cars are typically elaborately painted and decorated, often using graphic art of significance to Chicano culture.^[18]^[5]

Southern California

At first, lowriders were only seen in places such as Los Angeles, especially in the 1970s on Whittier Boulevard when lowriding came to its peak. Whittier was a wide commercial street that cut through the barrio of the city in Los Angeles, California. Throughout the 1970s that culture spread throughout the Central Valley and San Jose areas of California, helped by release of the funk song “Low Rider” by War, and creation of low riding clubs such as Carnales Unidos in 1975,^[19] and further expanded with the publishing of Low Rider magazine by San Jose State students in 1977.^[20] At its peak in 1988, Low Rider magazine had monthly sales of over 60,000 copies. Lowriders were featured in the 1979 film Boulevard Nights, which some blamed for associating lowrider culture with street gangs.^[5] A mural in Chicano Park celebrates the lowrider culture.^[21] In 2024, the Oceanside, California community and its police department collaborated to create a hand-painted lowrider police car,^[22] and the San Jose Police Department planned to participate in the city's Cinco de Mayo lowrider parade with its own lowrider vehicle.^[23]

New Mexico

In the US state of New Mexico, lowriders play a central role in New Mexican culture, particularly of the Hispanos of New Mexico.^[24]

In Albuquerque, cruising on Central Avenue (U.S. Route 66) has become a tradition, particularly on Sundays. The city and Albuquerque Police Department (APD) used to take a firm stance against this practice,^[25] but in recent years have reversed this stance, with APD introducing a lowrider police car^[26] and the city creating a 'Cruising Task Force' to "promote responsible cruising" in the city.^[27]

The cities of Española and neighboring Chimayó have become hotspots for lowriders in the northern part of the state. Española is billed as the "lowrider capital of the world".^[4]^[28]

Japan

Lowriding culture has also spread to Japan.^[29]^[30]

Junichi Shimodaira continues to import and sell these cars through his business, Paradise Road.^[31] The spread of lowrider culture and the fame of Paradise Road even attracted the attention of Ed Roth, who is famous for creating custom cars such as hot rods and a prominent figure in Kustom Kulture.^[32] Since the introduction of lowriders in Japan and the rise of lowriders in Japan in 2001, it is estimated that there are still 200 car clubs that are related to the lowrider scene that are still active to this day.^[33]

In popular culture

The 1975 song "Low Rider" by the band War, highlighting the culture, reached #7 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart.^[34]

In the 1990s, low riders became strongly associated with West Coast Hip hop and G-Funk culture. Eazy-E, Mack 10, Ice Cube, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, The Game, Warren G, South Central Cartel, Above the Law and John Cena (In a music video of "Right Now") among others featured low riders prominently in their music videos.^[35]

Examples of Lowriders

1948 Chevrolet Fleetline lowrider. Lowriders from the 1930s through the early 1950s are typically called "bombs" in the community.
Test of a 1964 Chevrolet Impala hydraulic system
1988 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham lowrider
Chevrolet wagon lowrider equipped with hydraulic suspension hopping
A 1994 Cadillac Fleetwood lowrider 3-wheeling during the Fiestas Patrias Parade, South Park, Seattle, Washington
1991 GMC Sonoma pickup modified in the lowrider style
Hydraulic suspension system in the trunk of an Oldsmobile, running 12 batteries and 4 hydraulic pumps. This system is set up for frequent hopping, whereas a lowrider designed for cruising typically uses fewer batteries and pumps.