Feature: ART In Motion

When you think of art, snapshots of the Mona Lisa, Van Gogh paintings, and ancient Greek sculptures naturally come to mind. That's not the case for David Angenend, who transformed his beautiful 2002 WRX into a rolling canvas.

One thousand hours. Yep, forty-one and a half days-straight, or six weeks, or a month and a half, or whatever you want to call it, that's the time it took artist Cindy "Crash" Raschke to paint the car gracing this spread. Quite a bit of time if I do say so myself, but the look is well worth it. Very few cars can pull off such an aggressive skin, and this WRX manages to do it perfectly. The way the car sits, the way the paint flows with the body and the aggressive lines, this car screams masterpiece on wheels. "It's caused accidents before" laughs Dave. "It almost forces you to look at it. I've had so many people take pictures of it, videos, all that stuff. But that's the point of it."

As the owner of Sideways Auto Salon, Dave needed something with some personality. Something he could showcase his work and taste on. Having been in the automotive seen since MC Hammer pants were in style, Dave is a pioneer of sorts in this industry, and has seen many trends and businesses come and go. He's still goin' strong, and that itself speaks leagues about his work and passion for the industry he works in.

His first import was a 92' Integra GSR, and later on went on to upgrade to a 99' Subaru 2.5RS, which he states "it was a huge improvement over the GSR, and I definitely liked it, but it was ferociously slow! The WRX came out in 01', and i had mine by May of that year, drove it half a mile to my shop, by the time i had it for about 20 minutes, it already had a stereo upgrade and an exhaust. It's been my daily until recently, at least since I've gotten the turbo kit and motor built at AWD Tuning."

Having enough paintwork for a dealership lot, Dave turned to focus some more madness in the engine bay. Being a fan of balance, Dave needed to step up his motor game, because how cool would a $100,000 paint job be on a stock car? Naturally He turned to his close friends at AWD Tuning for the task. There they took his stock motor, where they gracefully Frankensteined it to a 2.5l setup. As motor taxidermists, they stuffed it full of Mahle goods, Mahle H beam rods, and pistons to be precise. Sitting atop a custom Kustomz Unlimited & AWD Tuning rotated turbo kit (say that 5 times fast), lies the source of the power; Precision 6776 turbo. A Vibrant 50mm wastegate keeps the boost on its leash, while a Turbo XS front mount peeks through the canvas. A hint of methanol is also added into the mix for a little magical addition of power, but the real magic is the custom engine management done in house at AWD Tuning.

Moving on to the footwork, also all done in house by Dave at Sideways Auto Salon, is a set of JIC FLTA2 coilovers. Cusco came to the rescue with their H-brace and adjustable sway bars to keep the car feeling adjacent to freshman-on-prom-night-tight. Kartboy endlinks keep the sways in check, while Whiteline front and rear tie bars and an anti lift kit keep things stable. Not leaving good enough alone, Dave decided to take his 18x9 Raderwerks M Ten 80 wheels and douse them in a custom finish, once again done in house at Sideways Auto Salon. To keep his balance, Dave needed some stopping power, because you can only go as fast as you can stop. To accomplish such a task, he turned to the pro's at AEM and snatched up a Big brake kit. The man's got good taste, what can I say?

Now comes the real artwork, the audio. Having specialized in this industry for the last 18 years, Dave knows what the hell he's doing. His audio list consists of more audio components than a Rage Against The Machine concert. Starting inside, sitting infront of his Yonaka Samurai seats, rests a Sony XAVW1 7" DVD/SACD player. 7 amps fill this car. they range from 5 Zapco Reference 200.2 amps, 1 Zapco Reference 500.1 amp, and 1 Zapco DC Reference 350.2 amplifier, all controlled by Zapco DSP6SL 6 channel digital signal processor and a Zapco DRCSL controller. to balance out his 7 amps, he chose 7 speakers. 5 of them being Hybrid Audio Technology L3SE, with the remaining 2 being Hybrid Audio Technology L8v2. All this transforms some pounding bass through a 12" Morel Ultimo sub. This car has got it all. Naturally, as an owner of an electronics shop, Dave couldn't just stop with the sounds, he had to balance out his beauty with some security. Keeping his car Fort Knox safe is an Intuvi Secure Track GPS security system with a Compustar 2w900fm-as 2 way remote start security system as well. and for a little final touch, a Zapco Symbilink signal system to boot.

Moving to the exterior, and its pieces, you'd be hard pressed that alot of people dont believe that the car is actually painted. "A lot of people think its a vinyl wrap!" says Dave. "They just can't believe the attention to detail, and no pictures do the car any justice at all." With a custom 1 shot paint used for the brushwork, there was another few coats of Dupont paint layered underneath. A custom SAS Blue and Infiniti Titanium gray make up the canvas color, while 10 coats of Transtar Euro Clearcoat keep the paint protected from curious hands, and preserve the exceptional creation like a museum. However all of this wasn't done on a stock body, oh no sir. An aggressive Chargespeed Front bumper covers the huge Turbo XS front mount, and supports the Morette headlight conversion, which rests in front of a Seibon CWII carbon fiber hood. to complete the aggressiveness, SPT came in with their 3 piece valance and spats, and to top it all off... a shaved antennae.

Dave Angenend has created a masterpiece. Art that moves. This artwork is a balance and blend of everything automotive; audio, custom fabrication, motor work, suspension, and styling. But the real artwork is how he got everything to work together in unison, and that in itself is a masterpiece. Owner Dave Angenend has truly created art in motion.

Dave would like to thank Cindy "Crash" Raschke, Johhny Unger, Jimmy Cole, James Kreitsch, all of the Sideways Auto Salon staff, Keith & Mary Fields & Les Lajoie at AWDTuning, Russ Taylor at Raderwerks, Bob Morrow & Scott Buwalda at Hybrid Audio Technology, John Jiles, Jr, and Team 16niss for their help and support.