This is the first of several “best of” articles from Indusurreal.com, a blog I authored from June 2005 through August 2006. I think I had maybe four regular readers. After 15 months, I was running out of material and it was obviously never going to go viral, so I closed up shop and took some time off before moving on to my current, more bike-centric blog, Tanshanomi’s Snap Judgments. Indusurreal was focused (much like Hooniverse) on the sort of unique, intensely personal vehicular creations that take shape in back alley sheds and street-corner mechanic’s bays. Some are hidden diamonds, others are the mold that grows on the underside of our technological age. But each of the peculiar creations I profiled had one startling quality in common — they exist(ed). In each case, someone’s vision was turned into a real, nuts-and-bolts vehicle, often in the face of obvious economic infeasibility, overwhelming mechanical impracticality, limited skills and tools, or just a remarkable lack of common sense. While my comments often poked good-natured fun at some homegrown fabricator’s outrageousness, Indusurreal was never intended to be snarky or ridicule anyone. Some of the vehicles had a Frankenstein-like quality, and a fair number of them were of questionable roadworthiness. However, my fascination with these strange vehicles is mingled with a real fondness for off-the-wall monstrosities, and even a bit of admiration of their owners’ individuality, tenacity and determination. Some have demonstrated truly amazing construction skills in answering a question that I’m amazed someone asked. They certainly made my life more interesting, and deserve to be shared with the Hoonitics here. In the coming weeks and months, you’ll meet more of them.
Leave a Reply