Cherry On Top

As much as I hate to admit it I use to be quite the fan of the popular afrikaans soap opera 7de laan, which airs on sabc2. In 7de laan there were two hang out spots where the characters would gather to socialise, Oppiekoffie, which had a daily grind, old fashioned kind of setting and, Cherry On Top, the new age, fresh, sexy (lol) bar/club where the younger characters would meet up for drinks or a night out.

Its sad that I still remember all this but for some reason while reviewing the pictures of Allister's red 160ie Mazda Etude the Cherry On Top came to mind, it could be because of the colour that my brain associated it with cherries and hence the bar or it could be because the car is fresh to death and sexy as hell! I think its the latter...

Initially we planned to shoot this car with a set of 13 inch Compomotives fitted after Allister piched up at the LowerLympics with them on, slammed to the ground, to take part in the limbo event. When we took the undercarriage measurements we were shocked at the lack of clearance there was, a lack of clearance that resulted in a broken exhaust and the car see-sawing on a speedbump! Needless to say he decided to put the 17's back on, but we're not complaining, these 17's do the car so much justice.

We contacted Allister and expressed our interest and, he was more than happy to let us spend some time with his pride and joy.

When he purchased the car it was already looking good but it just lacked that something special to make it really stand out, it also had a couple of scratches and dings which enabled him to get it for a steal.

First thing Allister set about doing was getting the red paintwork up to standard again, a job he trusted Theo's panelbeaters with and of course it came back looking refreshed and brighter than ever. He decided to paint the wheels in the same bright red, which, as it turns out was that something special that the car was missing. The Lenso bsx's in 17x8.5j with 205/40/17 tyres all-round sit so beautifully flush with the fenders, it's hard not to stare when you see this car.

The fitment of course is helped along by the sweet drop which is courtesy of the kind of tender loving only a grinder can give, leaving 2 and half coils upfront and 3 at the rear.

The styling's been finished off with two additions that work well on almost any car, as a matter of fact I'm yet to see a car that it doesn't look good on, and this car is no exception, the ever so popular M3 slimline bootspoiler and Webasto tilt-and-slide sunroof. The bootspoiler and sunroof combination work particularly well on this car as it just accentuates the sharp lines that are already present, managing to make it look like standard factory items, very subtle, very neat.

The best thing about this car is the fact that its a Mazda Etude, you just don't see that many looking this good and being the facelifted version just makes it look even sexier. I've been using the word sexy a lot, but that's because there's no better word to describe the car. If I had to compare it to a girl it would be the girl wearing a tight red dress and red stilettos, with curves in the right places on a her way to club. Sexy right?

Allister plans on changing the wheels soon and doing a few minor touch ups on the paintwork to keep everything fresh, he hinted at something in a 16 inch which would bring the car a bit closer to the ground and that's something we always like to hear.

The Etude is a true headturner, it could be because of the red-on-red paint scheme or the way it bounces when it rolls over an imperfection in the road, either way in our books its turning heads for the right reasons.