Sheldon’s Car Culture

Victoria Wolf & Noah Steeves copy editor & staff writer

If you’ve ever walked to lunch and heard a car racing past, there’s a good chance it’s a student who is part of the car community. Sheldon’s car scene is a small community of students who take driving a car to school to a whole new level. These students take a basic car and add performance modifications to make their cars run faster, better, and louder. Some keep it simple, while others go full out and create a car they’ve only dreamed of driving.

Senior Kelsi Reents has been part of the car community for over two years. She used to drive a stanced, static 2018 Honda Civic. A stanced car is lowered so much the frame drags and the suspension has negative camber. Reents explained that her car “was mainly stock, lowered on BC Racing Extreme low coilovers, catback exhaust, three piece VsKf wheels, and lots of other small things that made it look/sound good.” She had fun with having a stance car, but has since switched it up. “After much cringe of scraping the ground and the stress of always trying to avoid potholes I cracked my oil pan and decided that stance was really not what I enjoyed.”

Since her days with the Civic are over, she now focuses on achieving the car of her dreams. Reents said, “I fixed the car in my garage and decided to get something new If you know me, you know I love BMW’s and going fast on back roads, so what better than to get an M3? So that’s what I did, I sold my Honda, financed an E46 M3, and oh man do I love it.” Through cars, Reents has matured to find what she wants to build instead of building what the internet wants to see.

Like many others, Reents agrees that social media has a toxic role in the car community. Reents said, “A majority of the car community is building their car based on a fear of hate. I think a lot of us have forgotten why we are even into cars in the first place and it’s easy to lose motivation or to really be happy with where your car is at, regardless if it’s finished or not.” Social media is projecting the idea that cars have to be showroom ready and perfect all the time. The idea of perfection that social media presents of cars is what makes people not enjoy their car, even if they are still in the process of building it. Continuing, Reents said, “Social media has not only divided our community, but it’s also actively destroying it.”

Senior Ty Heinze prefers a more classic style of car. Heinze is a Datsun purist, and starting in November of 2021, he got into buying old, rusted 280zs and restoring them back to stock. He was led into the easy misconception that old cars are easy to work on, “I’ve never worked on old cars before and I’ve always heard they were super easy to work on. So I thought. I soon learned that is not the case.” Nissans, especially old ones, are some of the hardest cars to work on, but that didn’t discourage Heinze.

Even with this love-hate relationship with his Datsuns, Heinze still enjoys them. “I personally just love driving them and enjoying it for what it is.” As fun as cars are, they create a lot of issues and hard work for the owner. Heinze said, “And as far as how I got them, it is from working hard and having a lot of debt.” Even with the ups and downs of owning a classic car, Heinze will always come back to his Datsuns.

Like Heinze, Senior Owen Oliver also enjoys retro cars. He daily drives a 1996 BMW 328is that he purchased in 2021 and has been building ever since. He has worked hard to update crucial parts in his car like overhauling the entire cooling system because BMW’s are “known to overheat,” according to Oliver. Oliver paid $7000 for his car, but it was ultimately worth it thanks to his vision of a drift build. “I’m building my car for myself because I don’t care about other people’s opinions or cars for that matter. I just like making my car drive the way I want it to,” stated Oliver.

Owning a car can be an investment, but to some Sheldon students, every penny is worth it to drive a car that they love. Next time that you hear a car racing down Willakenzie Street, just remember the work and devotion that person driving it has put in. Sheldon’s car scene will continue to grow, as long as there are new drivers who love to drive their cars, no matter what others think.