Mark Turner of BlackTop Media looks at a retro car scene, Southern Old School
S.O.S (Southern Old School) is an underground car gang overflowing with attitude. Don’t make the mistake of thinking this is some ordinary car club or group, it’s a retro car gang.
The gang was put together by James ‘Elk’ Ellerker and his brother Tim in 2008, almost by accident.
Back then, running old school cars wasn’t anywhere near as cool as it is now.
There were 15 or so of them who shared the passion and used to meet up from time to time.
As it grew it became more and more of a pain in the arse to make arrangements by text so Elk decided to start a Facebook group to post up the meets. The rest is history.
S.O.S has forged its own furrow, soaking up influences from skate, BMX, surf, graffiti and other urban cultures and has created its own scene.
From humble beginnings on the coast at Torbay in Devon they are now known throughout the UK and have a reputation for having the baddest, lowest cars around.
These guys are overflowing with attitude and character. I feel like I’ve discovered a long lost family.
There’s a passion for cars that stretches back to Elks childhood. His dad built cars and now so do Elk and his brother Tim and you want to see the shit they get up to……
Tim had an old MK1 Fiesta that had seen better days. He was going to scrap the car when a sinister plan was hatched deep inside the dark recesses of their minds.
The motivation was simple, to make this Fiesta as ridiculous and impractical as possible.
It’s been brutally slammed and sits 200mm lower than standard.
That’s an extreme stance but is just scratching the surface with this car.
Just for shits and giggles the brothers thought they’d make the Fiesta pillarless, so out came the angle grinder and off came the door pillars, B pillars and sidewindows.
Enough? Not even close. The boys must have had a big night when they came up with the next stage…..ROOF CHOP, obviously!
The boys headed down to South West Coast Customs for a 4” roof chop where the roof was lengthened and widened so the pillars didn’t need to be laid back.
Hand painted with no windows or wipers, this Fiesta is a rad little car that encapsulates the attitude of Elk, his bro Tim and the whole S.O.S retro car gang.
This is not the end of this cars journey. There are plans to revamp it in the summer and go balls deep. I’m looking forward to see the results of that little adventure.
There is an awesome collection of cars amongst these guys. I’ll show you some more soon.
