Car appreciation... the aesthetics, the engineering, etc

OK, sled, then--low cars, anyway. Why do people like them?

Originally lowered cars were a sign of stiffened suspension for spirited driving. Racing cars try and get as close to the ground as possible to maximise stiffness and minimise airflow under the car.

Extreme lowering on road cars is an evolution of that.

Example, a car that's for sale at the moment, it's lowered purely for looks rather than handling purposes.

Initially cars we're lowered for lakes and salt flat racing to make them streamlined and therefore faster, (in a brick shaped '32 with flathead power you need all the help you can get) as Nurse has said this evolved into road cars trying to emulate their race prepped counterparts.

Sled's are lowered to look good - the roofs are chopped, the lights frenched, hoods and trunks nosed and decked, sometimes bodies channeled and sectioned, all to make the cars look more 'rounded' and streamlined - lowering accentuates this. In the space obsessed '50's streamlining and low and slow was important. They we're lower at the rear than the front because back then it was easier to lower leaf-springs than re-weld spindles/chop springs to lower the front. Customising was just to make the car appear more modern, taking styling cues from the current cars and applying them to you're 2 year old ride. Just as had been done in the 40's when VW owners cut the middle out of their rear window to make it look like the latest oval rear window.

Love the plate on that golf BTW.