“Why does that car look squished?” says my missus while we’re driving around town. We we’re just cruising around trying to get the baby to sleep and there was this super low Lupo. So I say “it’s a stanced car.” The look of confusion will never leave me. But what is a stanced car?
There are many different ideals for modifying your car nowadays, it’s not like the max power days where it was all neons. It’s gone a bit of a classier route. It’s all about fine lines and tight tuck. Everything looking on point.
More and more people in the UK are more excepting of this now and lowering just about any car you can think of. Although when another slammed car owner sees another, there’s a sense of respect and admiration.
Stance cars isn’t just a trend, it’s a community and a hobby for most, but it connects us to talk about something we are passionate about.
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Main Aspects
A stance car is a car that is emensly low, big wide wheels and cambered out. By cambered I mean where the wheel is tilted outwards at the bottom. People something use wide arch kits too, to flare them out and make the car wider than stock, this is sometimes to cover protruding tyres because the offset of the tyre is wider than the body.
Offset of a wheel defines how close the center of the wheel is to the hub. This meaning if an offset is positive, the wheel will be further in the wheel well. A negative offset will be further out of the car, giving a more extreme look. This is the look we are going for.
Even though they look super awesome at shows and in car parks, they are a little impractical to drive, but I think that’s part of the fun.
There are 3 main aspects of what makes a stance car
- Big unusual wheels with a negative offset
- Negative Camber
- Dropped suspension
These simple three aspects can turn any car into a thing of beauty. You might be laughing at these cars, but deep down you secretly admire them and love them as much as everyone else.
Big Mad Wheels
The aim of the game with stance cars is to be different. We all want to stand out, do things a little odd. So one of those ways is with a massive negative offset wheel. There are thousands of different wheels, meaning you have plenty of choice to make a unique vehicle.
Of course you don’t have to have negative offset to get a good stance, some wheels might look pretty flush without offset, it really depends on your car. So long as it meets or goes past the fender / arch, whatever you call it.
Your choice of wheel could be anything from a deep dish to something concave or even a flat aerodisc. Sometimes you might try something and think ‘did not think that was going to work’. But there are several wheel places around the UK that specialise in unique wheel sales like www.lkperformance.co.uk. These guys hooked up Jordan from slammeduk with some Riviera rv193’s for his Audi R8 project, which is coming along beautifully.
The reason for the big wheels, (and I say big wheels but sometimes a smaller 16” can really make a difference) is to make a statement and really show off a cars features and stand out a little more from the crowd. The usual reason to upgrade a wheel is to get more performance and traction, but that goes out the window with the next point.
Negative Camber
To really get that ‘squashed’ look you gotta get some camber. Camber in simplicity is where the wheel is tilted either positively or negatively. Stanced cars use negative Camber, meaning the wheels flare out at the bottom.
This is done using a number of different ways. You could use Camber bolts, control arms with adjustable ball joints or control rods with adjustable length.
Camber is always set on a car to get the most traction by making the wheel sit flat on the road, some cars might go as high as 0.5 degrees to get it to sit right. But with this extreme modification, the angle can be as far as 45 degrees, giving less surface area of the tyre touching the ground and the body of the car lower.
The whole camber thing came from drift cars, where they needed the wheels on a Camber so when they hit a corner and the wheels press down they get a better traction, but as we don’t street drift, it’s more of a fashion statement now and just looks hella cool.
Camber is something you’re going to have to tinker with to get the right look. If you need advice check out our Facebook, ask around, we are building a community to help those who want to do more with their car.
Mega Lows
The most important part of a stanced car is the lows. She’s gotta be sittin pretty. If you really want an awesome ride, get it dropped.
This is what makes the name ‘stance’. As you can imagine a rugby player ready to scrum, feet wide apart, a wide stance. Same thing as lowering your car. It gives it that ‘I’m ready’ look. This can be described as aggressive styling. Usually the more aggressive, lower cars get all the likes.
As described in previous posts, this is done in a few ways
- Lowering springs
- Coilovers
- Air ride / bags
It’s the owner so choice which he goes for, bags are the top spec giving the best looks, but coilovers do the same thing but can’t be adjusted without getting under the car (also known as static). Lowering springs just lower the car with no adjustability.
Either way, the idea is to make the car as low as possible and get that crisp clean look where the body meet the wheel and ground.
Keeping It Real
So the point I’m trying to make is a stanced car is a low, wide piece of art, to make a statement and stand out on the road, rather than blending in. Imagine it’s the bling of the road. If you see a stanced car on the road give him a nod, he’ll love it. He / she will have spent a lot of time working on that car to make it unique, appreciate it.
If you too either own or want to mod your car, join in on our Instagram / facebook / twitter / Pinterest. We would love for you to join us so we can chat about stancing and getting low.