This '97 Toyota Tacoma has
some serious get-down style, but it didn't take a
truckload of cash to create. By carefully choosing
appearance and performance modifications, the owner, Matt
Vallessi, didn't brake the bank. Matt lives in Chandler,
Arizona, and is a member of a local club, Pharcyde
Customs. With little help from some friends and club
members, Matt began the process of transforming his brand
new, stock Toyota into a Twisted Tacoma. Perhaps the
biggest attitude-adjustment made to any truck is a
serious slam, and Matt didn't take this issue lightly. He
went for an all-out slam that would allow him to scrape
frame on-demand, while providing total
height-adjustibility and ride comfort. Matt put the
chassis guru Trevor Bart to work on his suspension, who
equipped Matt's truck with Firestone airbags at all four
corners. Up front, the airbags replace the coil springs.
An the rear, airbags now sit between the rear axle and
custom-made airbag mounts on the frame. The rear frame
was modified with a 4-inch bridge notch to allow
suspension travel for driving at minimum ground
clearance.
 The
bags get their air from a Firestone air compressor which
is hooked up to a 7-gallon reserve tank for massive
amounts of air on demand. The whole system is controlled
by two Firestone air-pressure gauges, which are custom
mounted in the dash. The result is fingertip control of
ride height, front or rear, over a range of about
8-inches.
With the suspension work complete, Matt
replaced the stock wheels with 16x7-inch Lexus SC400
wheels. They are covered by a set of sticky 205/40r16 BFG
Euro Radials which keep the twisted truck on the twisted
roads.
 The
exterior was deemed smooth enough for now, eliminating
the need for cutting the brand-new sheetmetal (and saving
a lot of cash too!). The front of the truck features a
custom-made billet aluminum grille for a touch of style.
 The
interior of Matt’s Tacoma was livened up by painting
the dash with Sunset Pearl by House of Kolor. The window
cranks were replaced with custom billet aluminum. The
custom air gauges look right at home in the center dash.
 Under
the hood, you will also find various components either
pained in Sunset Pearl or covered with polished chrome.
Matt drives his twisted truck every day
and has put over 20,000 miles on the odometer already.
Matt said the truck wouldn't be complete without much
help from Trevor, Worm, Benji, Ron, Jake, Cody, Drew, and
most of all Tim for the inspiration to build the truck.
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