«Jesse
put up with a lot of bullshit from other
car clubs because of that paint job,» says Tomas Vasquez, 65, president for the past 20 years of the Imperials, the legendary East L.A. lowrider club founded
in the mid-1960s by Valadez and his younger
brother, Armando, who was still
in junior high school at the time.
At the time of launch, the BMW 1M Coupe saw off the Porsche Cayman R, Nissan 370Z and Audi TT RS
in a group test, while it finished impressively well
in our 2011 evo
Car of the Year contest, sharing the podium with the McLaren 12C and Porsche 911 GT3 RS 4.0,
putting paid to the Cayman R (again) as well as the Lamborghini Aventador, Ferrari FF, Jaguar XKR - S and its recently launched big
brother, the BMW M5.
Other vehicles
in this general size class (Honda Pilot, Ford Explorer and Dodge Durango) at least have third - row seats available, but Toyota hasn't yet
put one
in either the 4Runner or its
car - based
brother, the Highlander.