Last month, we wrote about the shuttering of well-known aftermarket garage Car Porn Racing, owned by Angie Mead King. The closing of one of the most innovative tuning shops in the country shocked a lot of people, and while almost everyone attributed the closure to COVID-19 difficulties, there are other, more surprising reasons for the closure.
While Angie didn’t share the reasons why she decided to close down the business she was incredibly passionate about last month, she opened up on the causes in her YouTube channel recently.
It basically boils down to four reasons:
The COVID-19 pandemic
As with all other businesses, Car Porn Racing was heavily impacted by the COVID 19 pandemic. Less mobility meant fewer reasons to drive and go out, and with the heavy economic impact of the pandemic affecting many of her customers, it only stands to reason that business took a major hit. In fact, Angie had to close her other businesses as well, and it’s not surprising that Car Porn Racing also got the axe as well in the grand scheme of things.
“The pandemic really just changed everything. It really rocked my world where I had to close other businesses. We closed some restaurants, we closed the hotels, we closed now the car shop,” Angie said.
Shop rental fees were too high
Anyone with a major business in the city will tell you how expensive it is to rent space is there. Even before the pandemic, Angie was already paying high rental fees for the space that Car Porn Racing was occupying. And since her shop was the go-to place for high-end vehicles and sports cars, her landlord apparently thought that she could afford double the rent she was paying before.
“The second major reason is that our rent is going up. You know, what’s very unfair with our rent, when we were inspected and people saw that there were some nice cars, our rent instantly doubled. For no reason,” Angie revealed.
She currently resides on her farm away from the city now
If you follow Angie, you would know that she and her wife Joey are now living on a farm away from the hustle and bustle of city life. Because of this, traveling and well, their lifestyle, do not fit in with the operating hours and heavy requirements of the shop anymore.
“Everyone is asking, ‘Why, Angie, why are you closing Car Porn Racing? Well, you know, let’s start off with the most practical reason: I live on the farm now, which means it’s about a 2.5- to three-hour drive down to Manila. Honestly, after living on the farm for almost a year, I really don’t like the city anymore. The city is so polluted, it’s so cramped, and it’s just not a great environment to be in to be a balanced person,” she said.
Car Porn Racing isn’t in line with her passion anymore
The last reason she stated was that the shop isn’t in line with her vision when she first opened up shop years back.
“The fourth reason why we’re shutting down the car shop, I actually want to get out of the service space already. Servicing cars wasn’t the main reason I got into the car shop. It was more for racing and customizing, and doing bespoke builds—something I lost along the way because we grew too fast and we wanted to cater to everyone, tried to reach as many people as possible,” Angie stated.
Even with one of the most well-known aftermarket car servicing shops now out of business, Angie still believes that the industry remains to be very alive with great and talented people here in the local car community.
