iAcrophobia | Neocha – Culture & Creativity in Asia

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iAcro is a premiere tuner car meet-up and automotive lifestyle organization based in China. It was launched by a group of local car enthusiasts passionate about the culture of car modifications and the aesthetic qualities of altered vehicles. Their name is short for acrophobia, or the fear of heights, and it refers to the lowrider style in which a car’s center of gravity is modified to sit low to the ground. iAcro began organizing car meet-ups in 2010, and has since then became a household name among tuner car lovers in China. Read more below in our interview with a few of these car lovers.

iAcro是一个由中国顶尖姿态汽车玩家（以审美为基础的改装汽车玩家）发起的汽车潮流文化组织。其名字来源于它超低姿态的改装风格，顾名思义为iAcrophobia（恐高症）。自2010年来经过不同种类的线下聚会，iAcro已经成为极致改装品质的代名词，影响波及国内五十万汽车改装文化爱好者。以下有我们对其中一些改车发烧友的采访

Neocha: How did you get into car tuning? What does this lifestyle mean to you?

Ku Dang Lao Ye: I’ve loved cars ever since I was a little kid. Even then, I could tell you the name and model of every single car on the street. Around 2005 or 2006, I started getting into car tuning. It was a way to bring out the beauty of my car, and to customize it to be exactly the way I wanted. The things that I’ll do everyday are eat, sleep, drive, and modify my car. Car tuning is huge part of my life. Compared to my first meet-up, It’s become a lot clearer what I’m doing now. In the beginning, I just thought that it was cool for everybody to come together and talk about our mutual hobby. But now it’s becoming more about developing and advancing the tuner car culture in China.

Neocha: 改装车这件事对你来说是什么样的一种存在？你为什么会想到做这件事？

裤裆姥爷：从小我就喜欢车，就叫得出街上所有汽车的型号。2005-2006年我开始玩改装车。改装，可以让我的车变成我希望它变成的样子，诠释出它一步步变成那个最美样子的过程。我每天吃饭、睡觉、玩车、改车，它已经成为我生命中的一部分。从我第一次做改装车聚会到现在，所有的事情都还历历在目。我的初衷只是希望大家一起玩车，交流一些车的事。结果做成现在这个样儿了，我就想通过自己的努力推动一下中国自己的汽车文化。

Lao Jia: It doesn’t matter if it’s a paint job or a small detail. Every aspect of the car needs to be perfect in order for it to be considered a true tuner car. Growing up, I loved cars. My father used to sell clothes, so he would always be traveling around the country on business. He would bring me some Matchbox toy cars whenever he returned home, and loved to sit there, lining them up in different formations and playing with them.

贾戊辰：无论是漆面也好，缝隙也好，一定要达到一个完美的级别，才称得上是改装车。我从小就喜欢汽车。那个时候我父亲从南方往北方倒腾服装，还会给我买很多火柴盒汽车，然后我在家就像阅兵一样坐那儿玩它们。

Xiao Feng: When I was a kid, I was too scared to ride a motorbike, even riding a bicycle was hard for me. One day, I had the opportunity to learn how to drive from an older brother, and I found it to be a lot of fun. After I joined up with iAcro, my car hobby became my profession, which was really cool. Before I used to make money by making music, now I make money by making cars.

郭小峰：小时候摩托车都不敢骑，自行车都骑不明白。一次机会跟一哥哥学开车，突然发现还挺好玩的。后来加入了这个团队。当一个人把自己的爱好变成自己的事业，也是最好的事。之前是音乐，现在是汽车。

Big L: I first got into the tuner car culture around 2008. I was attracted to the cool designs of these modified cars, and I thought that I could really get into this. The last ten minutes before they implemented a new policy to limit the number of cars in Beijing, I bought what was my dream car at the time, a VW Golf. Even before I took that car for routine maintenance, I was already at the modification shop.

王新磊：08年的时候接触改装车，觉得汽车这个很冰冷的工业设计，我能拿出特别多的热情去研究它。我在北京实行指标政策的最后十分钟，买了一辆最接近我那个时候dream car的Golf。首保还没过我就去了改装店。

Neocha: What kinds of difficulties have you come across while organizing iAcro?

Ku Dang Lao Ye: The biggest difficulties we’ve had have come from government bureaucracy. It’s not like we’re doing a bad thing. Our cars are modified to sit low to the ground as an aesthetic choice, they’re inherently against the idea of illegal drag racing, and they also embody a kind of environmental consciousness. I hope that we’ll at least attract the attention of the government, if not their support. Of course, we want to avoid any kind of negative attention. It’s my wish that the government will eventually pass some kind of positive legislation regarding tuner cars, just like they have in place in other countries.

Neocha: iAcro这件事难么？

裤裆姥爷： 我觉得更多的难处是来自政府层面。我们并不是在做一些不利的事情。你看到我们的车改得非常低，都在积极倡导一些像禁止飙车、绿色改装的概念。所以我希望能得到一些政府的关注，哪怕只是关注。当然不是我们聚集很多人的警惕关注。当然我有一个私心，就是希望改装车合法化，像国外那样，给改装车一个立法。

Neocha: What would you say to people who might have a negative understanding of tuner car culture?

Lao Jia: I like sleek and powerful designs. So I hope that more and more people will be attracted to these cool designs and take an interest in our culture, then we can educate them about it in the right way. Modifying cars isn’t a dangerous thing, in fact you could say that modifying cars makes them even safer!

Neocha: 很多人对改装车这个事有误解而避而远之，这也是你们极力想要改变的东西吧？

贾戊辰：我喜欢强有力的设计，希望用这些设计把不了解改装车的人带入到这个里面，慢慢用正确的方式引导他们。改装车不是一个危险的东西。甚至可以说，我改完车以后，它的安全系数都会比原厂还要好！

Ku Dang Lao Ye: Many young people see that what we’re doing is positive and support us, but mainstream society can’t understand how what we’re doing is different from illegal street racing. They think that people who like cars are just spoiled second generation rich kids. What they don’t realize is that the standard, mass produced car models are designed that way to minimize cost. They won’t let you have better brakes or wider tires because that would be too expensive for the company. But maybe we want better brakes, alternatives that makes our car safer, and better performance. China is so big, and there’s so many people, it’s way too hard to hold everybody to the same standard. We’re just a group of people who love cars, and we’re waiting for the day that our culture is better understood by society. That’s what we’re working towards. We’ll persevere!

裤裆姥爷：在我们和年轻人的圈子里，大家觉得我们做的还挺好的。但是在老百姓的眼里，改装车就等于飙车，玩车的就是富二代。他们看到的是量产车为了控制成本，不会给你用很大的刹车或者很宽的轮胎。但是我们可能需要更好的制动效果，为了更高的安全。毕竟中国这么大，人这么多，难以统一这些标准和法规。其实我们只是一群爱车的人。我们只能等，等到出太阳那天。大家坚持住！