We thought it would be cool to let the public in on some of the stuff that goes down behind the scenes in the Liberty VIP car club. BlkonBlk and myself have teamed up to create a new blog for the crew that will fill you guys in on who the key players are, top secret behind the scenes mods, event coverage, and how we get down on a daily basis. Get some popcorn, some Joose and stay tuned. Lots of work is in the process these next few months in terms of car builds.
Friday, January 8, 2010
Thursday, January 7, 2010
The clock is ticking . . .
Back in the day, you could build a sick ride, do nothing to it for years and still be the man. You were the king of the block. Not everyone had the Internet and the ones that did, didn't know or care about message forums. No one knew what anyone was doing in other hoods let alone other states.
Now adays, the Internet has connected the whole world so nothing fresh goes unnoticed. You build something sick in Wyoming, chances are someone will try to replicate the look in a small country that you never heard of. Due to this, the current life span of custom car fame has now been reduced to only 3 months. Most don't even get to enjoy the full season of fame because their timing was off and collided with another heavy weight build. During that time, a sick new ride will come out and capture the worlds attention or someone will just do the same car that you did but better.
My advice would be to:
Now adays, the Internet has connected the whole world so nothing fresh goes unnoticed. You build something sick in Wyoming, chances are someone will try to replicate the look in a small country that you never heard of. Due to this, the current life span of custom car fame has now been reduced to only 3 months. Most don't even get to enjoy the full season of fame because their timing was off and collided with another heavy weight build. During that time, a sick new ride will come out and capture the worlds attention or someone will just do the same car that you did but better.
My advice would be to:
- Plan in advance how you plan to introduce the world to your new creation.
- Wait until the hype of the last phenom is starting to loose steam before you put yourself out there.
- Hold out on doing some details on your current build so you can get back in the spotlight with your remix edition.
When your 15 minutes of fame comes, remember that it may only last 5 minutes. Enjoy
Friday, December 25, 2009
2010
2010 will be the last year modding my Q. I said it before but I will repeat it. I have had a nice long run, acomplished things I would of never dreamed of and gotten the car to levels I could have only imagined. All good things must come to an end and if I don't offically announce an ending, there will never be one. Truth is, I could redo my entire car 30 times over in my head moddifying each panel each time and never be done. I figured by putting it out in the public again, it will force me to stop. The car might be for sale at the end of the year or I might just hold onto it and give it as a gift to one of my best friends who comes home in 014 after doing a long bid.
Don't think that means I am going to take it easy to aviod getting injured. I'm still going to continue to dive into the 5th row chasing loose balls (no homo) in the closing minutes of games where we are up by 30.
Hopefully the year is a good one for everyone and VIP can reach new levels in the US.
Don't think that means I am going to take it easy to aviod getting injured. I'm still going to continue to dive into the 5th row chasing loose balls (no homo) in the closing minutes of games where we are up by 30.
Hopefully the year is a good one for everyone and VIP can reach new levels in the US.
Update on the car. . . sort of
Nothing new, the car is still stressing me out. Luckily I have good genes or else I would of been bald a long time ago.
Right now, they are stuck at a road block with my car. There are spike strips, 8 rows of baricades, hungry police dogs and Robocop all in the way. Time is not on my side either. I'm not going to give up, we will make this happen by any means.
Right now, they are stuck at a road block with my car. There are spike strips, 8 rows of baricades, hungry police dogs and Robocop all in the way. Time is not on my side either. I'm not going to give up, we will make this happen by any means.
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Liberty VIP 6 month recap
It's been 6 months since Liberty has officially been a crew. What a half a year it has been despite all the adversities we had faced along the road.
We accomplished a lot during that short period of time. With just two weeks notice, Liberty held a BBQ which turned out to be one of the biggest vip showings on the whole east coast and that was despite no one knowing who was apart of team or anything about the crew. From there, we just rode the momentum. The next month, we held another BBQ at Liberty park where we debuted our first of 3 shirt's. During those first couple months we reached out to all the locals as well as out of towners that we felt would be a good fit on the message forums. Some left but the ones that stayed helped shape the crew into what it is today. Its is no longer a north east crew but rather a world wide phenomena.
If you are on the forums, you can't help but run into a Liberty signature on clublexus.com, vipstylecars.com or luxuryjcars.com. We made it a point to be everywhere on the internet and in person. I visited the west coast twice in the last month including San Diego for the big Autofashion meet. We had members reppin at multiple car shows every weekend collecting over 30 first place trophies (half were from one member) in 7 different categories. Not only did we have the car shows and streets on lock, we had the media in our vice grips too. 2 covers awarded in that period (Ron Lextronics feature didn't come out yet but the photo shoot and article are done) and a few other features or pics in domestic or foreign mags. We spread like swine flu but the only difference with us is that people wanted it. As of now, we got chapters in about 20-25 different cities, 12-15 different states, 4 different countries.
Why Liberty?
We are regular guys who like to have fun. When it comes to cars, we take vip very seriously and people see that. We have members from many different backgrounds and age groups all united for our love of the style. The crew is run like a democracy. Everything gets voted on and any active member has as much say as the next one. No membership requirements or fees. Everything is funded through merchandise sales. The only thing we ask is that ego's get left at the door to keep the crew a drama free zone. If you want to rep or not and how much you want to rep is up to you. We have helpful experienced members in many different areas and vehicles. Not every car is expected to be show car quality because we place a bigger emphasis on the people rather then the vehicles. Now do you have what it takes to be the first in your town to make it land of the Liberty?
What to expect from us in the next year:
We accomplished a lot during that short period of time. With just two weeks notice, Liberty held a BBQ which turned out to be one of the biggest vip showings on the whole east coast and that was despite no one knowing who was apart of team or anything about the crew. From there, we just rode the momentum. The next month, we held another BBQ at Liberty park where we debuted our first of 3 shirt's. During those first couple months we reached out to all the locals as well as out of towners that we felt would be a good fit on the message forums. Some left but the ones that stayed helped shape the crew into what it is today. Its is no longer a north east crew but rather a world wide phenomena.
If you are on the forums, you can't help but run into a Liberty signature on clublexus.com, vipstylecars.com or luxuryjcars.com. We made it a point to be everywhere on the internet and in person. I visited the west coast twice in the last month including San Diego for the big Autofashion meet. We had members reppin at multiple car shows every weekend collecting over 30 first place trophies (half were from one member) in 7 different categories. Not only did we have the car shows and streets on lock, we had the media in our vice grips too. 2 covers awarded in that period (Ron Lextronics feature didn't come out yet but the photo shoot and article are done) and a few other features or pics in domestic or foreign mags. We spread like swine flu but the only difference with us is that people wanted it. As of now, we got chapters in about 20-25 different cities, 12-15 different states, 4 different countries.
Why Liberty?
We are regular guys who like to have fun. When it comes to cars, we take vip very seriously and people see that. We have members from many different backgrounds and age groups all united for our love of the style. The crew is run like a democracy. Everything gets voted on and any active member has as much say as the next one. No membership requirements or fees. Everything is funded through merchandise sales. The only thing we ask is that ego's get left at the door to keep the crew a drama free zone. If you want to rep or not and how much you want to rep is up to you. We have helpful experienced members in many different areas and vehicles. Not every car is expected to be show car quality because we place a bigger emphasis on the people rather then the vehicles. Now do you have what it takes to be the first in your town to make it land of the Liberty?
What to expect from us in the next year:
- New gear including different color tshirts and sweaters
- Show display items like flags, banners, euro plates etc.
- Sick new cars under the knife
- Old cars getting redone to be better then ever
- A strong physical presence at most (if not all) big vip meets in the states and Canada
- Well organized meets
- Exciting non car related activities from strip club meets to go carting
- Media coverage
- Access to the private Liberty forum which is highly active
- Different chapters added in more cities
- Lots of fun
This is all in love of VIP. The scene has never been as united as it is about to get. Let's do this!
Sunday, November 29, 2009
How to form and run a car crew
I get asked random questions all the time. One recently was "How to form a sucessful car crew?"
The most important thing is finding the right people. When I say right people, I am not talking about their knowledge or skill level. I am refering to their attitudes. They can learn skills or gain knowledge over time. They can't learn the willingness to help others and become a good teamate. What keeps crews together isn't the quality of the cars, its what goes on behind closed doors. When members go out of their way to do favors and ask for nothing in return-thats what a crew is all about.
Rather then forcing people to do anything, lead by example. If you want everyone to drive low, you need to do it and let them see for them selves how good it looks. After a while, the 4x4 guys won't want to park or drive next to the low guys. From there, they will do what it takes to get lower. No need to insult anyone to get your point accross.
When giving advice that could come off as hate, do it in private so that member does not feel like they are being singled out. Not only will that member get offended if you air him out in public, so will others who may fall in the same bracket. If that behavior is proved to be acceptable by the leaders, then it sets a bad vibe for the rest of the crew as far as what is ok and whats not.
Leave the ego's at the door. This seems like the most simple of rules but it is the hardest to do. Ego's naturally build when you are in a position of power. As a leader, you need to make sure you put your team first in everything you do so they can all shine. Rather then obsorbing all the light like a solar panel, you need to reflect it like a mirror upon your teamates.
The most important thing is finding the right people. When I say right people, I am not talking about their knowledge or skill level. I am refering to their attitudes. They can learn skills or gain knowledge over time. They can't learn the willingness to help others and become a good teamate. What keeps crews together isn't the quality of the cars, its what goes on behind closed doors. When members go out of their way to do favors and ask for nothing in return-thats what a crew is all about.
Rather then forcing people to do anything, lead by example. If you want everyone to drive low, you need to do it and let them see for them selves how good it looks. After a while, the 4x4 guys won't want to park or drive next to the low guys. From there, they will do what it takes to get lower. No need to insult anyone to get your point accross.
When giving advice that could come off as hate, do it in private so that member does not feel like they are being singled out. Not only will that member get offended if you air him out in public, so will others who may fall in the same bracket. If that behavior is proved to be acceptable by the leaders, then it sets a bad vibe for the rest of the crew as far as what is ok and whats not.
Leave the ego's at the door. This seems like the most simple of rules but it is the hardest to do. Ego's naturally build when you are in a position of power. As a leader, you need to make sure you put your team first in everything you do so they can all shine. Rather then obsorbing all the light like a solar panel, you need to reflect it like a mirror upon your teamates.
Friday, November 20, 2009
DiVIPci code
In a couple months, it will be my 5th year that I have been deeply involved in the vip scene. Out of the 5, I would say that 3 of those years have been spent studying the Japanese style on a hardcore level. I went under the surface and got on a pyschological level. It got to the point where I can predict some of these cars next moves based off of the styles they are going for. There is a code and once you crack it, it all becomes so simple. Cracking it is the hard part. I don't think anyone can dissect it in dept like I feel I can. I am not trying to boast, I am just trying to get a reaction out of what I am about to say. Either you strongly agree with that comment and want to know more or you strongly disagree with that comment and are interested in hearing what I have to say just so you can feel right.
I have been working on long detailed project that will not only put you in the minds of a hardcore Japanese vip tuner, it will help you understand what works and doesn't. You will not need photoshop to know that your ideas will work and come out the way you want them to. I can't drop any more details in regards to exactly what I am doing or when it will come out. This blog may even disappear. . . Consider this a leak
I have been working on long detailed project that will not only put you in the minds of a hardcore Japanese vip tuner, it will help you understand what works and doesn't. You will not need photoshop to know that your ideas will work and come out the way you want them to. I can't drop any more details in regards to exactly what I am doing or when it will come out. This blog may even disappear. . . Consider this a leak
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