Flippie’s Slammed Civic

Its only been 6 months since Flippie first got his hands on this completely stock civic and in this time he managed to mould her into the vision he had from the moment they first met. In this short space of time Flippie has changed his wheel setup more times than some people have ever bought in their lifetime.

The wheel whoring started off with a set of 15x8.25J Advan Racing wheels purchased from Shaba Mags (Shabeer Motala), then onto a set of HRE Vintage style wheels, then a set Volk CE28 style wheels and finally on to his current setup - 15x8.5J AC Schnitzer Type 01 Style wheels. Flippie decided to stretch a set of 175/50/15 hankook tyres on them, so that they can clear the fenders while riding slammed.

The suspension comprises of a shortened shock with custom set of Megan Racing sleeve over springs. He first fitted the sleeve over kit on standard shocks and he immediately turned them on their lowest setting. However, stock shock was restricting him from reaching that beloved tuck. He sent the shocks in to be shortened, customised the Sleeve over kit and fitted Buddy club camber kits. The result is the ride height you see before you, which in his opinion is tucking perfection!

Flippie has that classic Less is more approach to his styling that we at CapeStance cant get enough of! In the saturated Honda scene Flippie want to distinguish his civic from the rest but still keep with the OEM styling. So he went with adding a prelude front spoiler which is current replaced with the EK SIR front spoiler.

In addition to this he smoked the headlights in a Type R fashion, sprayed the rear tail lights full red, electric Spoon mirrors, JDM quick release bumper kit, F1 racing style rear brake light, Type R Seeker rear wing, spoon brake reservoir covers, JDM extended gear knob and extended wheel nuts. Everything was fitted by Flippie himself, he says it was child’s play because he’s daily profession is being a heavy duty truck mechanic.

This ride height obviously brought new challenges for Flippie, the first of which was cat-eyes that kept ripping his exhaust system off the manifold. It happened about 4 times and this forced him to have the exhaust tucked close to the chassis to get some further clearance. 

The low life struggles are endless for Flippie because he stays on a farm and the roads and his driveway is not at all practical even though he faces these challenges he hasn’t complained about it or made any excuses as to why he doesn’t ride low. He just suffers the worse and sticks it out so his car can always look how envisioned it - slammed and tucking hard! 

Its been a while since there has been some Hondas in the South African scene that are really pushing the boundaries, Flippie’s civic is definitely one of those extraordinary cars. The passion he has for the low life and efforts for that fitment is admirable and we hope that it can inspire you to push the low boundaries and aim to be the Fittest.

Photos and words by: Tauriq Ajam

Hot flushes - Ramiz Isaacs’ MK5 on Air

Rosey, one of those cars that really no amount of photos can really do justice to how amazing she really is. Ramiz often refers to her as his baby, even though this might be cliche in most instances but in Ramiz’s case it almost literally is. He pampers this car with more products than he uses to take care of himself. He has special allocated times in his weekly routine just to spend time waxing and detailing every little corner and curve. So setting the tone to the amount of love put into this car we bring you the journey Ramiz and this MK5 have taken.

In March 2006 Ramiz was in search of a 2002 Audi S3 but he felt that the prices were still slightly too high and might as well search for a MK5 instead. He went to his local dealership and the only colours they had were white or black but he had his heart set on red and placed a special order and decided to wait it out a few months and finally in September, Rosey had arrived.

Before Rosey even was close to arriving in South Africa, Ramiz had already purchased a variety of parts that would make this MK5 his own. These included Reiger front spoiler and splitters and 18” Work Euroline SL 2-piece split rims and H&R lowering springs.

In 2008, Ramiz decided to get a bit more serious with his MK5 and ordered his air suspension as well as a set of 19” Work VS-XX 3-Piece wheels and opted to go for the Bag-over-coil setup. Ramiz being a member and prowling every informative MK5 forum online resulted in him having the know of every ins and outs on a MK5. This resulted in him being way ahead of the MK5 Game in South Africa (SA), namely because he is the first bagged MK5 in SA and possibly the first Volkswagen too.

Although Ramiz purchased the air suspension and wheels in 2008 it wasn’t only until 2010 where everything was actually fitted. Even with the kit laying gathering dust for two years Ramiz was still the first MK5 on Air in SA. I met Ramiz in 2010 a few months before he actually decided to fit the air suspension. I can still remember clearly picking up the VIAIR compressor and UVAir bags because this was my first time actually getting to hold one of these bad boys.

Few months after this we had a small meet up in Cape Town Stadium and when we rocked up there Ramiz was one of the first guys there and looking at is his car parked it looked unusually low. At this moment I knew he finally got the kit fitted and he totally surprised everyone at the meet up and at probably the rest of South Africa as well. We feature Rosey rocking the 19” VS-XXs a few features back along with Bob’s Static Candy White MK5.

A few years later, Ramiz got tired of this look and the inevitable search for more lows commenced. Ramiz ordered even shorter struts as well as sway bar links from Zubair Sayed (WheelsandMore in Jozi) including some wheel hardware for a current wheel project he is busy building for Rosey’s next look. 

But in the meantime he decided to refurb these 17x8.5J Work 2-piece wheels and these were done by International Rim Repair (IRR in Wynberg, Cape Town). They sprayed the centres in cream Tusk and super high polished the lips and these are held together with black powder coated assembly bolts. Finally they are wrapped up with Falken 912 Rubber, 195/40 up front and 205/40 in the rear.

So currently, this is just a temporary setup until Ramiz finally completes he’s new split wheel project. He intends to finish it for the end of this year. So stay tuned because we’ll surely bring you a feature on Rosey next wheel fitment.

Photos by: Achmat Booley

Words: Tauriq Ajam

Nithaam Fakier’s Bagged Toyota RunX

We present to you, Nithaam Fakier’s Bagged Toyota RunX. A car that was intended to be built for speed and satisfy his need to have adrenalin piercing through his veins, ironically, it is in fact one of the cars in the South African stance scene that quite simply personifies what a stance car should ideally look like. 

Nithaam resides in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa, approximately 650km from Cape Town, the ‘mother city’ of South Africa. A few of his friends and himself began a stance movement; “The Mainstream Crew”. Although separated by hundreds of kilometers, our intentions and ideologies are basically identical. 

The journey to where this car is now begins in 2012 and incidentally, Nithaam had purchased coilovers but not intended to be adjusted to ride low but ultimately to increase the handling capabilities. However, the stance bug bit him hard when he came to Cape Town to attend a local car show - King of Slam by Resistance. In an effort to compete, Nithaam turned his coilovers to its lowest. This event is what introduced Nithaam to the world of Air Suspensions, however he was not completely sold but the curiosity lingered.

In the early days of February 2014, Nithaam attended the Largest VW and Audi gathering in Johannesburg, Gauteng - VW CampFest. Nithaam professed that this was ultimately the weekend that sold the deal for him to go air suspension and leaving the event the only thing on his mind was getting his RunX fitted with air suspension. Not too long after that he missioned once again back to Cape Town. This is where his car was transformed from a static stead into one beautiful bagged RunX that quite literally took the scene to a hole new level. 

Throughout the past few years in the stance scene we have been searching for cars that will really supplement diversification and basically broaden the horizons and dimension of what South Africa has to offer to the car scene on an international level. To our dismay, our searches have often resulted in a bitter unfruitful end. However, there are a few individuals who are really destined to create something special, to do things that will create milestones and benchmarks for others to judge themselves by and strive to work towards. It does not take much to see that Nithaam is in fact one these individuals. Nithaam has set the bench mark not only in Port Elizabeth, but in South Africa as being the lowest RunX around (That statement is open to be challenged). Nithaam was adamant that without the support of his parents, his sister and his creator he would not be where he is now. Especially, when his sister would stay up until early hours of the morning to help him wash and fit new parts to his car. 

Nithaam managed to keep the whole air suspension upgrade a secret and I was lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time to stumble across Nithaam while he was in Cape Town for just a weekend to collect his car and take it back home to Port Elizabeth. This luck was mainly due to his sister, Taybah, as she invited me to meet up with them while they were meeting some friends in Muizenburg. Realising that not many in Cape Town will be able to be of the first to shoot the lowest bagged RunX in South Africa due to the fact that  Nithaam intended to leave the next morning. I jumped on the opportunity and I managed to sweet talk him into sparing a few hours the next morning before his long journey home.

Nithaam’s RunX’s Air Suspension is controlled by an analogue dual paddle switch Airlift system and this allows for front and rear to be raised independently. The 3SDM style wheels are wrapped in 185/35/17 Nankang NS2s upfront and 195/40/17 Falken Ziexs 912s in the rear. The rubber stretched perfectly so that it sits just clear of the fenders when aired out, giving the car a full flush appearance.

It was truly a honour and we appreciate being able to feature this car, especially because we have been waiting for a while for someone to build a local stanced Toyota that will literally take the country by storm. We are excited to see the future progress of Nithaam and his projects as well as the contributions the Mainstream crew have to offer to the scene at large. 

Coincidently, today also is Nithaam’s Birthday and we hope this will be a great way to end his day! We wish you even further success and hope you bring us more stanced rides to shake up the scene!

 Photos and words by: Tauriq Ajam