A scraper is an informal term to describe a modified American-made luxury/family car, usually a
General Motors
The General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is the largest automaker in the United States and ...
model from the 1980s to current vehicles, typically enhanced with
after-market rims. Scrapers are popular in the
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...
of
Northern California
Northern California (colloquially known as NorCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. Spanning the state's northernmost 48 counties, its main population centers incl ...
, usually associated with the
hyphy
The term hyphy ( ) is Oakland slang meaning "hyperactive". More specifically, it is an adjective describing the hip hop music and the culture associated with the area. The term was first coined by Oakland rapper Keak da Sneak.
History
The hyp ...
music and lifestyle movement. An example of hyphy is shown in the
E-40 lyrics "sittin' in my scraper watching Oakland gone wild". A scraper is a general description and can refer to a number of different model cars. Popular models include the
Buick Regal and
LeSabre,
Pontiac Bonneville,
Buick Century,
Oldsmobile Delta 88,
Buick Riviera,
Buick Reatta,
Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera,
Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme,
Pontiac Grand Prix
The Grand Prix is a line of automobiles produced by the Pontiac Division of General Motors from 1962 until 2002 for coupes and 1989–2008 for sedans.
First introduced as a full-size performance coupe for the 1962 model year, the model varied ...
,
Lexus SC
The is a grand tourer that was retailed by Lexus (a luxury vehicle division of Toyota), and built from 1991 until 2010. It features a front-engine, rear-wheel-drive design and seating for up to four passengers. The first-generation SC debuted as ...
,
Chevrolet Caprice Classic
The Chevrolet Caprice is a full-sized automobile produced by Chevrolet in North America for the 1965 to 1996 model years. Full-size Chevrolet sales peaked in 1965 with over a million sold. It was the most popular car in the U.S. in the 1960s ...
, and
Chevrolet Impala
The Chevrolet Impala () is a full-size car built by Chevrolet for model years 1958 to 1985, 1994 to 1996, and 2000 to 2020. The Impala was Chevrolet's popular flagship passenger car and was among the better-selling American-made automobiles in ...
s, as well as full size conversion vans such as the
GMC Vandura.
Supercharged
In an internal combustion engine, a supercharger compresses the intake gas, forcing more air into the engine in order to produce more power for a given displacement.
The current categorisation is that a supercharger is a form of forced induct ...
automobiles are particularly sought after due to their high performance.
Similar to
donks from the
South
South is one of the cardinal directions or Points of the compass, compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west.
Etymology
The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Pro ...
, the cars are highly customized, with large custom rims, custom paint (two-tone is popular as of 2008) and custom interior to match the paint, loud audio (called slaps) and televisions. What makes Scrapers different from Donks is that Donks are typically fifth generation Chevrolet Impalas and Caprices, fourth generation Cadillac Coupe de Villes and third generation Monte Carlos. Donks are usually V8 engine, rear wheeled drive, full sized General Motors sedans and coupes of the 1970s and 1980s. Scrapers on the other hand, are typically late-1980s and 1990s midsized, front wheel drive, six cylinder General Motors sedans.
The trend of customizing these cars were made popular by African American youth. Scraper cars have also inspired the
scraper bike movement.
Gallery
See also
*
Hi-Riser (automobile)
Hi-risers, are a type of heavily-customized automobile, typically a full-size, body-on-frame, rear-wheel drive American sedan modified by significantly increasing the vehicle's ground clearance and adding large-diameter wheels with low-profile ...
*
Lowrider
References
{{Reflist
General Motors vehicles
Modified vehicles