Xtreme Lowz Car and Truck Club | 30 Years in the Scene

As custom truck enthusiasts, we have all either been in a car club at some point or know people who are in a club. Some are small local clubs while others are big national clubs. For most of us, starting out with a small group of local, like-minded “car friends” is where it starts. We hit up local cruise nights or regional car shows together. We wear the same logo on our shirts and in our back windows. We have seen thousands of clubs come and go throughout our time doing this magazine over the years. We’ve seen people hop from one club to another due to various reasons. But when it comes to a club that stands the test of time and can say they have been around for decades, it narrows down to only a few big names.

One of those clubs that has withstood the test of time is Xtreme Lowz. This is a club that was started back in 1993 in Chico, California, by a group of friends—Brian Avery, Matt Baker, Steve Neilsen, and Kory Carter. After a short time hitting a few shows, they were joined by Adam Madrigal, John “Lucky” McFarland, Mike “Sclem” Sclimenti, and Shawn “Marley” Andersen. By adding the new guys, the club pushed to be a multi-chapter club and started its move to becoming one of the most recognized car/truck clubs in the country. Even from back in the early days, a full set of rules were set for someone looking to join. This would ensure that the club held everyone to the same standard that would fit the style of builds they were after.

Even with all this growth, the chapters kept that ‘small local club’ feel, which made it feel more like a family than just random people with a logo.

Even though Xtreme Lowz started out small, it quickly became a multi-chapter club, adding Los Angeles; San Diego; and Mesa, Arizona, in 1994; and Reno, Nevada, in 1995. It stayed with these original chapters and started making a name for itself until around 1998-1999 when one of the Los Angeles members, James “Goofy” Roberts, moved to Atlanta where he started the Georgia chapter. Adam Madrigal moved from LA to Las Vegas; after meeting some like-minded car enthusiasts, he created a Las Vegas chapter. Shortly after that, chapters in Florida and North Carolina were established, which gave XL a strong presence on the East Coast and made it a coast-to-coast club.

Even with all this growth, the chapters kept that “small local club” feel, which made it feel more like a family than just random people with a logo. With the club showing up in multiple magazine features and becoming known at shows, a West Virginia chapter and multiple Texas chapters were added to the list.   

When the West Virginia chapter was added, Darrell Poe, also known as the “Mini-Truck Mayor,” took on a larger role with the East Coast chapters. Since then, the club has grown to 20 chapters nationwide with 120 members. There are four chapters in California, three in Texas, and single chapters in Florida, Colorado, Pennsylvania, Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Arizona, Washington, Nevada, Michigan, Tennessee, and Kentucky.

Not only does the club show all over the country, but it has had its hands in several big shows, running and promoting them. Shows like Ludikris Show 2005-2008 in California, Blood Drag 2000-2006 in Florida, Scrapin’ the Smokies 2006-2011 in North Carolina, Down 4 Dennis 2018-2021 in West Virginia. One thing that sets Xtreme Lowz apart from a lot of the other big national clubs is the fact that four of the original members, Adam Madrigal, John “Lucky” McFarland, Shawn “Marley” Andersen and Mike “Sclem” Sclimenti, are still active to this day.

Over the past 30 years, club vehicles have been seen in numerous magazine features, on multiple magazine covers, and have even had quite a few cars and trucks showcased at the world-famous SEMA show held in Las Vegas.

Some of the club members are so ingrained in the industry that they even became shop owners at one time or another. Alter Images (Steve Nielson), Musso Motorsports (Adam Madrigal), Plattinum Audio Designs (Steve Platt), Sin City Concepts (Dave Slavik), Extreme Audio and Kustoms (Joel “Gromit” Sadenwasser), S&S Motorworks (Germain Smeyres), and Eye Kandy Designs (RJ Silva) are a just a few. Adam Madrigal, formerly of Musso Motorsports, later went to work for Counts Kustoms and made it to Reality TV on The History Channel’s hit show “Counting Cars.”

Other Xtreme Lowz members, including Travis Noack, Mike Self, Kevin Aguilar, and Brandon Burrell, went a slightly different route via writing and photography as editors of our very own Street Trucks magazine. All of this shows just how connected the club was (and is) when it comes to the custom truck industry over its 30-year history.

Even though Xtreme Lowz started out small, it quickly became a multi-chapter club…   

Knowing that a milestone like 30 years was so big, Xtreme Lowz decided to bring together as many of the club’s people as possible for a big celebration. This event was held at the Southeast Mini Nats, which provided something fun for the club to do while letting everyone hang out and catch up, and not just a dinner and send everyone home. They wound up bringing home the Club Participation award that weekend as well as one of the members bringing home the Long-Distance award.

We tried to gather as many cool, old, OG photos from the club as well as some up-to-date photos to show the timeline from 1993 to now. As you know, photos from 30 years ago are not a clear as modern ones, but that’s a big part of the nostalgia of an article like this.

Knowing that a milestone like 30 years was so big, Xtreme Lowz decided to bring together as many of the club’s people as possible for a big celebration.