Parents can be your worst enemy, and your biggest ally.  
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Let me explain that real quick by giving you a little bit of background. I’m Kevin Whipps, owner of the Bad Apple civic that was on the cover of the premier issue of Import Racer!. You might remember that in the article it was mentioned that I was a minitrucker at one point and still consider myself one to this day. My first truck was a 1994 Toyota standard cab which I bought in 1993. After lowering it and putting rims on it, it seemed that getting lower and lower was my goal. Back then hydraulics weren’t reliable or comfortable, and airbags were the newest thing that you had to sell your soul to buy. I did what any minitrucker would do; I cut out the fenders and laid that thing as low as possible, yet still being driveable. My front crossmember was about an inch from the ground, and I drove it that way every day. Then one day I had some problems with the truck. Turns out it would stall out occasionally while I was idling, or driving down the road. Ironically enough, it was the coil wire pulling out of the coil because I had relocated it too far when I cut out the fenders. However, it was in to my local mechanic where he could fix it. Instead of him calling me with the problem, he called my folks and let them know in no uncertain terms that my vehicle was unsafe to drive. The front crossmember was too low, the shackles were ground through, and the lack of front fenders meant a front end collision could kill me. As a result, my parents took my truck away from me and I cursed them for a long time. After getting my next vehicle, a 1994 Civic, and subsequently totaling it by getting hit by a drunk driver, I bought the soon to be Bad Apple civic. This is in 1995, and the import scene was taking off. After going through that phase for a while, it was on to minitrucking again by making my car into what you saw it become. While in the rebuilding process, it was decided to put a 40X40 slider in the car.
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