Vroom! Vroom!
The Gator Greasers held a fundraiser featuring auto vehicles displayed outside the Humanities building on Friday afternoon.
President of the Gator Greasers Automotive Club, Kevin Vekaria, explained their first on-campus event.
“The fundraiser today is for Toys for Tots. It is going to be to raise unopened, unwrapped toys and books for the less fortunate kids in need during this holiday season,” Vekaria said.
Gator Greasers was established in 2020 by Gabe Allen –– a former SFSU student –– to bring car-enjoyers together. The group, which organizes frequent meetings around the Bay Area, currently has almost 300 members on their Discord channel.
The process for this event has been a long time coming, but Vekaria was glad to be able to hold the event finally.
“We have been trying to get an on-campus event going for our club for well over a year and a half at this point. Just the fact that we weren’t big or had many connections to those in the university that kind of delayed that,” Vekaria said. “When we finally were able to meet with the right people, we were like, ‘Let’s go for this right away,’ and this is something we definitely want to do.”
Mercedes-Benz, Ford, Chevy, BMW and Toyota were displayed outside, playing music as the San Francisco State University community peeked at the exteriors. The creativity of the owners of the vehicles was in full force, as they were seen putting up the hoods of their cars for bypassers to watch.
“What drew me into cars, actually, was as a kid getting lots of LEGO sets,” said Massimo Sciaroni, a club member and owner of a BMW M4 displayed. “I would always get them for Christmas and my birthday, and I was building things. Eventually, I grew older, so I actually watched Adam LZ on his BMX days and he transferred into cars and then I was like, ‘I kind of like cars now’ and got into cars.”
The hard work put into these cars has not been overshadowed. Another club member, Ibrahim Hussein, expressed all the hands-on work done on the Chevy II Nova.
“For the most part, it has been built from the ground up. It started out as a junker, pretty much, and growing up, I kind of built it slowly. A lot of blood, sweat, and tears went into it,” Hussein said. “Half the things I do to this car, nobody notices. I do it for myself.”
A long grind was required to get the car built. Hussein explained the amount of time that was invested.
“It took me a long time to build, but it’s not like I just sat down and built it. I’m building this car piece by piece, and it’s not like I have the whole plan out right in the beginning,” Hussein said. “It’s hard to say how long because it was done throughout many years but I want to say in total, four years, maybe five, which is pretty short. There’s people who work on their cars for 10 years and they’re not even done.”
The student organization brings together dedication as students showcase their vehicles and love for automobiles. Their passion comes from personal experience or generations passing down their traditions.
“It’s a lot of different reasons for everyone but the main thing is either we grew up with it, our parents were a motivator in getting into cars, or we were just really mechanically oriented when we were little, and we played video games, grew up with Fast and Furious,” Vekaria said. “It’s kind of like the pop culture influences sort of influenced everything, and then we learn more about the cars and it goes from there.”
This is one of many events that Gator Greasers hope to organize. They also hope to start having motorcycle meet-ups to connect with more automotive enthusiasts –– especially more on the SFSU campus.
“We are planning to do more in the future, probably around the beginning of each semester and at the end of each semester as well,” Vekaria said. “We do have great relationships with the university now, knowing some great people, so we’re hoping to make this a consistent event in the future.”
