Today’s Quick Question prompt: What’s a small scene, subculture, or niche of the car world that more people should know about?
Some of us here in The Drive‘s editing staff chat were discussing this question earlier this morning (it’s one that resurfaces a few times a year). Managing Editor Jonathon Klein mentioned “donks”—which as you may know refers to 1971-1976 Chevy Impalas and Caprices running huge wheels and wild paint schemes.
I tried to grab a sweet donk picture that I could instantly get publishing rights to, but there was nothing I could quickly find! Klein’s point was instantly illustrated—donks are not exactly a mainstream sect of car culture.
The closest approximation, deep in Getty Images’ archive, was this shot of a seventh-gen Impala at the 2017 V-103 Car & Bike Show in Atlanta, Georgia … and that’s actually what’s known as a “bubble,” which is aesthetically adjacent to a donk but a little too new (and rounded) to fit the original definition. Other automotive species near the donk look are known as “high-risers” and “boxes.” If you can dig up an old issue of Donk Box & Bubble magazine you can get more insight into the distinctions—but these days Donk Planet (on Instagram and YouTube) seems to be holding the torch.
Tuner cars and drifting have long since rolled into the mainstream, as far as custom car looks go. But some others I can think of that are still pretty obscure, hmm, has anybody heard of “Hawaiian style” or “808 style” trucks? Look that one up if you’re curious. Meanwhile, what are some other small scenes within car culture that we should talk about more?