SLAB- Slow Loud And Bargin

Grab some sizzurp and prepare to pop trunk as we deep dive into Houston’s wildest car culture

- ROWAN HORNCASTLE

The text message that pinged into my pocket when I was walking out of George Bush Intercontinental Airport sounded simple. But rolling into MacGregor Park on the southside of Houston 30 minutes later, photographer Mark Riccioni and I quickly realised that finding Les spelt with a dollar sign might be a challenge. Partly because we had driven into what looked and felt like a riot, but mainly because the potent and blinding combination of tyre, marijuana and barbeque smoke filling the air hindered our vision.

Spilling out of the park to frame the adjacent six-lane highway were hundreds of people; all cheering, jeering, and live-streaming the health and safety nightmare we were witnessing. People sipped sizzurp (see slang guide on p84) and smoked joints the size of carrots while motorbikes adopted beyond vertical numberplate-kissing wheelies, old boys dripped out in gold straddled trikes and did burnouts at the traffic lights while ‘bally boys’ on quads conducted dusty donuts. But the various-wheeled bikes were just the filler for the main attraction: the cars.