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
