Staff Spotlight: Roly Dee
New Kid on the Block

Words by Emil Garcia

Roly Dee is a local photographer that has made quite a name for himself in the south florida automotive scene. Roly came up by shooting local drift events and cars, his work was noticed by other local photographers and they teamed up to create Smerk Films. Unfortunatley as is in many cases, life happens and Smerk disbanded, leaving each of the photographers to go their own way. Roly began working for Splashlight Studios, where he is still currently putting in long hours. As of June 1st, Roly Dee will join the staff here at SoS as a Feature/Race Photographer, Videographer, and StanceTV Producer. Check in frequently for works from Roly Dee and the rest of the SoS Team.

Excerpts of Roly Dee’s works can be had at www.RolyDee.com

V2Labs Mystery Meat
RolyDee Videos

Videography by Roly Dee

Last month many people made the journey out to downtown Orlando to attend the V2Labs Mystery Meat. Roly Dee was on hand and put together this great video for our viewing pleasure.

Real Steel | Part 3 of 3
Snow White and the Four Steelies

Photography by Divan Shepherd

We make our way back to Cape Town, South Africa to bring you Real Steal Pt 3. As you may remember a few features back, we brought you two civics that had taken the Cape Town stance scene by storm. These two very unique vehicles are proof that the scene reaches every corner of the globe.  This Particular vehicle has been given the full head to toe white out treatment. The Civic sits on Renault steelies that have been custom tailored to 15″x8″ and 15″x9″ respectively.

By way of many modifications this civic has been set to play the part of a true stance ambassador, whether it been on a local back road or at a meet under the sunny skys of Cape Town, this civic turns heads wherever it goes.

Check out the gallery to view more on this Snow White fairy tale and for those of you abroad keep your eyes peeled, this snowflake could be landing on a street near you.

King Nothing
Bow Down

Photography by Eric Lopotosky

Shane Thumma, owner/operator of STD Customs hand a wrench in his hand as soon as he could make a fist. With his father a mechanic, Shane was always around cars and usually bad ass customs.

When Shane was 11 he built his first small block all by himself, with his father watching over his shoulder.  His love for cars and his Dad always working on them, allowed Shane to hone his craft in the custom car field. While in junior high school Shane got his hands on the finishing end of a street rod due to his father being incapacitated.

Although he may do this work alone, inspiration is also drawn from his stunning girlfriend Jules, who is not only a gear head since in diapers but is the talented owner/designer of Vital Couture Jewelry. If you are looking form some kick ass designs check her out at www.vitalcouture.com.

While STD Customs may be a one man operation, he does have the occasional bored friend that comes over and gets to help out. The killer paint job came from good friend Charlie Lynch, who does custom paint through out Kitsap County.

The creations from this young man are just jaw-dropping. Give him a car and an idea or just the car and turn him loose, whichever you choose the finished product will leave you standing there with a grin from ear to ear. If you are any where near Kitsap County in the Pacific Northwest, give Shane a shout, he loves to talk cars, bounce ideas and I guarantee you that he will inspire you to get the old clunker from the barn or the field and make it come alive.

 

1966 Chevrolet Chevelle is a dream for most muscle car guys and Shane got his while in high school and has been slowly working his magic, while doing customer cars to create King Nothing.

 

Blue Ribbon Z
Nessen Forged Nissan

Photography by Mick Harris

Mick Harris has done a great job of building quite the impressive Nissan Z with a very long list of modifications.

Normlly wild kitted cars don’t wet my whislte and tend to get overdone, however Mick has found a fantastic balance in agressive styling and clean well put together parts.

Everything on the car flows nicley to create a car that looks, drives and sounds amazing.

Take a moment and read through the long list of mods and you gain a much higher appreciation for this build.

Keep an eye out as this car is getting some serious attention. Already published in several magazines and getting its fair share of internet love. We are very interested in seeing where this build goes next.

Brakes:
Wilwood 4 piston front
Wilwood 4 pistonrears
Wilwood 14? Cross drilled front rotors
Wilwood 13? Cross drilled raer rotors
Braided brake lines

Headlights:
Thanks to Jeff at Twisted Housings
07-09 headlights
Blacked out housings
Painted Blue projector housing
White HID LED halos
White side marker LED
White ironman halo
Red demon eye LED
STi Lenses
8000k HID bulbs
Intrior:
Defi boost gauge
AEM Wide band o2 gauge
2 Din Eonon DVD/MP3 with TV
ARC Audio 1500 Watt Amp
Pioneer Champion series 10” Sub woofer
Pyle Front Splits
Rockford Fosgate Rear speakers
Power Acoustik 1.5 farad Capacitor.

Body:
Over 200 hours in Custom Wide body set up, 4” wider then stock in the rear, 2” wider in the front.
Custom blue pearl paint job.
Fully shaved body with emblems, spoiler and rear wiper deleted.
VIS racing AMS GT Front bumper
VIS racing AMS GT Side skirts
VIS racing AMS GT custom wide rear bumper with diffuser removed
Seibon 07-09 VT Carbon fiber hood
Carbon fiber mirror covers
Rare JDM wiring harness cover
Carbon fiber battery & master cylinder covers
Carbon fiber cooling plate
Blacked out door handles
Custom LED taillights

IA Spring Meet
Braving the Field

Photography by Ryan Cahela

The Import Alliance Spring Meet 2012 took place this year at Turner Field in Atlanta, GA on April 22nd. Known for being one of the biggest meets on the East coast, it was no surprise that a baseball field parking lot was needed to hold all the cars.

This marked the 4th year that IA made its way into Atlanta. Looking at their over 2800 car attendance last year, we were expecting even more at this event.

Here are a few of our favorites form the event as well as some overall coverage courtesy of Ryan Cahela.

Funkshion [fuhngk-shun] : the Fusion of Form and Function
Reviewing the Function&Form Type 2.5 Coilovers

Photography by Brian Leon

Form or function, the question that has been long debated in the car industry. Now what if we could achieve both? impossible you say? I think not! The guys over at Function&Form take your debate and do away with it. They have designed a coilover that does not force you to compromise. The Function&Form Type 2.5, the third release of the companies coilover line. The Type 2.5 sports industry standard 32-way adjustability, adjustable camber plates, McPherson struts and through a unique partnership, Eibach ERS Motorsport Springs.

After receiving the kit we headed over to Hybrid-Werks in Doral, FL  for the install. After benching the old setup, we called upon the Type 2.5s. Dialing in the suspension was done by our very own Johnnie Borroto. Stay tuned as State of Stance evaluates on the long term how the coilovers fare with day to day and occasional track use. 

We would like to thank Preston at Function&Form for allowing us to test their latest setup and definitely big thanks to Brent at Hybrid-Werks for the use of their facilities and man-power.

UTI TunerLife Texas Weekend
Dallas Rescheduled!

The Dallas TunerLife event has been rescheduled to coincide with the Houston tour date.
What does that mean for TX? Well it means that UTI, Meguiar’s, Tjin Edition Roadshow, Performance Auto & Sound, Social Apex, Fitted Agency, Ricekiller, Texas Imports, and State of Stance will be taking over Texas on May 19th & 20th.

Starting May 19th in Houston, followed by May 20th in Dallas.

SEE YOU THERE!

And So It Begins
Formula Drift Round 1, Streets of Long Beach

Photography by Joseph Ginzburg

Maybe I’m just crazy, but to me there is something magical about opening day of a new season of any motorsports series.  Formula Drift is no different. Since the close of 2011 I’ve been awaiting the 2012 season of FD; waiting to see the returning drivers, the new cars, and the buzz around the newest drivers; 19 new drivers (the largest rookie field in the series according to John Pangilinan). Everyone with the same hopes for series champion.

Stepping into that energy is just amazing; the excitement, unexplainable. There were some driver changes for this season, some surprising. The new cars and new livery show the always changing trends in our industry and of course there is the addictive smell of race fuel and burnt rubber.

And to show that nice guys do finish first, Justin Pawlak took the victory at the season opening event in his Falken Tire Ford Mustang.  Daijiro Yoshihara in the America’s Tire/Falken Nissan 240 took second place. Then there’s the new guy Diago Saito who placed third in his Achilles Tires/Bridges Racing Lexus SC430. Let me tell you, Diago’s SC430 is something of a masterpiece and I’m looking forward to seeing more of that car all season.

So Fresh and So Clean
HardParked Does It Again

Videography by Jose SanLuis

After much hesitation, here is Pat’s Official video debut for Hard-Parked. Pat has put much time and dedication into his JDM front and rear Civic that is currently sitting on Work VSXX in 17×9.5. Check out the video and share it with your friends. Don’t forget to ‘Like’ the team on FaceBook!