When stepping out of his apartment, sights of old and new greet Matt Mehl, Cedar Hill junior, every morning. In front of Mehl is an '87 red Camaro, and next to it, his black '98 Camaro, gleaming in the sun.
Mehl, owner of two muscle cars, said he takes the classic '80s Camaro to contests and it wins - most of the time.
"This wins almost every car show," Mehl said, commenting on how most judges at car shows he attends are older and often feel sentiment toward his '80s Camaro, saying things like "Oh yeah, I remember in high school�"
Mehl said he often gets bored when competing and tries to enter contests when he knows the competition is going to be more difficult.
"I usually try to go when other cars like mine are entered so it makes it more of a competition," Mehl said, as he cleaned some of the dust off his '87.
As far as other reactions his car receives, Mehl jokingly said sometimes women will ask him when he's going to take them out in his car.
"I think 30 percent [of women look at a man's car]," Mehl said. "The others can't really tell or don't care."
In order to win competitions and keep his car in good condition, Mehl said he's done a lot of custom work himself. His '98 Camaro has a modified transmission, a large cold-air intake, ceramic-coated headers and completely reworked springs, Mehl said. It also has a short-throw shifter, custom shocks and torque arms in the rear. This is what some people would call doing custom work to a car, or as the popular TV show "Pimp My Ride" phrases it, "pimping" a ride.
"I did this while I was working at Discount Tire with my income," Mehl said. "I did all the work myself."
Mehl, who said he is an avid muscle car fan, is not the only NT student to pimp his ride. Some of his fellow fraternity members from Theta Chi also make customizations to their vehicles.
Marshall Lilly, Little Elm senior, said he also makes customizations to his vehicle, a red '03 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution.
Lilly's car has customized air intake, a turbo engine, custom exhausts and a fuel management system (which boosts the turbo). Translation: Lilly has made modifications that increase his cars acceleration and speed.
"When I first got it, I put a lot into it and raced all the time," Lilly said. "Even though it still eats up gas, and it takes premium gas as well, it's horrible."
Lilly said he doesn't think that girls care much about guys' cars, except Lamborghinis, he joked. He said he customizes his car because he likes the extra speed.
"I like being able to have the speed when you want to have it, to be able to know when you're late you're gonna' get there," Lilly said.
Even though his car is from Japan, Lilly also mentioned that he still likes domestic cars.
"You always have to love the domestic muscle car," Lilly said. "My grandfather owned a dealership, that's where I get the love for muscle cars."
Francisco Guzmán of the marketing faculty teaches buyer behavior and said that for some people, "pimping" their cars is a hobby.
"There are people who really are into 'The Fast and The Furious,' and for them, pimping their car is converting the car into something else," Guzmán said. "While other people maybe just put rims on. There are different levels of pimping."
Guzmán noted that some people take their car more seriously than others and that people use their car as an "extension of their personality."
"From a product perspective, I have to stress this, there are many ways to pimp your car," Guzmán said. "There are people who pimp their car for security issues, people who pimp their car for technological reasons and people who pimp their car for image reasons."
He also said some people, parents mainly, will purchase things such as DVD players to put in their car in order to keep their kids under control. Still, Guzmán said personalization is the key.
"I think personalization is of anything, not only cars," Guzmán said. "People dress differently, cut their hair differently, the reason behind you wearing the hair the way you wear it, the way I wearing my shoes the way I wear it. It's a matter of personal statement. The car is a matter of personal statement."
Flower Mound junior Nick Jerome looks at personalization in a different way than some people. His idea of pimping his '68 Acapulco-blue Mustang isn't about adding bells and whistles. His idea of pimping his ride is keeping it as close to original condition as possible.
"It's an all-original color, all-original interior, which is pretty important when you talk about a car," Jerome said. "That's an original color from 1968."
Jerome said he's interested in muscle cars for nostalgic value, and that when he was younger he built a '34 hot rod from "the ground up," and also worked on a '73 Corvette Sting Ray.
"A muscle car is sort of famous, it's just all-American like baseball or apple pie," Jerome said. "To me, muscle cars are kind of raw artwork, and I think that newer cars don't have the same amount of character. It's something fun."
Jerome also said he bought his car because it was an investment, that his car was worth $5,000 more than he paid for it.
Mehl, as mentioned before, said that he also has a past history with muscle cars and is partial to Chevy muscle cars. When he was younger, Mehl said he often was picked on for being smaller than other kids.
"I was always the little guy on the bus, and I got picked on," Mehl said.
While this was going on during his early teen years, Mehl said he developed an affinity for muscle cars along with an interest in building model cars.
"I felt that if I got behind a muscle car, I'd be bigger than I was," Mehl said. "It was a small-man syndrome."
About the time of getting his first car at the age of 16, Mehl's small-man syndrome was abruptly cast aside when he experienced a growth spurt and ended up growing to be more than 6 feet tall.
"When I grew, I already planned to get a muscle car and me and my dad looked for a muscle car," Mehl said.
He said that working on a muscle car with his father ended up adding depth to their relationship.
"He went from being a father, to a friend," Mehl said. "It brought me and my dad closer together."