Slamology 2010 -- Indianapolis, IN

Slamology 2010 – Indianapolis, IN

June 18-20, 2010

The Slamology custom car show, sponsored by Gauge Magazine, showcased the best of the beautiful and the works-in-progress at the Marion County Fairgrounds in Indianapolis, IN. This is actually my third time going to Slamology because my husband enters his truck in the show, although this is the seventh year for the event. We have a custom 2000 Chevy S-10 that he completely painted up himself and put in air bags, among a thousand other things only him and our bank account remembers. This year was hot, and I mean scorching hot. Hotter than any car or truck there. But not hot enough to make me want to enter the bikini contest. That would be about as pretty as a 1978 Mustang II (and if you know anything about Mustangs, you know that’s the ugliest one ever.)

So anyway, there are some forty-odd classes of vehicle type you can enter in (ours was in “lowrider pickup truck mild”). And there are some requirements to be able to show too (although it’s a little ambiguous): It’s a custom show, so you have to have customized something on your vehicle. Usually a low-level customized vehicle involves getting rims. I could’ve probably entered mine if it was clean with a nice set of rims. Usually after that, you would change out your lenses (taillights and headlights) and grill, upgrade your sound system and add a new steering wheel. Then comes a decent paint job with some graphics and interior work. It’s hard to tell which to do first, second or whatever, because it’s all based on points you earn for what you’ve modified on your vehicle and what condition it’s in. There’s no real order to customizing – mostly it has to do with how much you can pay for at a time.

I tend to give more dap to the guys who put their own blood, sweat and tears into their vehicles themselves than to the guys who paid someone to do it up in a shop. That makes it all a money game. But really customizing is all about your heart and your ideas, putting your dreams into something tangible. Each vehicle out there had a story, like an artist tells about his work, from how he got the vehicle to how he got the work done and the inspiration that goes into it. It’s an artist colony surrounded by oil and wax, V8 engines revving occasionally, local rap and rock being played over the distorted speakers, scantily-clad women, and semi-cold beer (although I must place a disclaimer that the Marion County Fairgrounds do not permit alcoholic beverages on the premises. But perhaps these people missed the sign. I mean, it was only huge.) In the midst of a sun-driven tent city with clear coats glistening, I always feel proud when people walk past and take pictures of my husband’s pride and (mostly) joy.