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Ian Young

Living in the Vancouver suburbs is a 22-year-old man named Marcel Lech who has 1.7 million Facebook followers. He’s not a pop singer, a movie star or a hockey player. He takes photos of cars.
Talented as he is – and Lech’s work is stunning  – his worldwide social media fame largely owes itself to the way that wealth migration, mostly from China, has transformed Vancouver and its garages.
Chrome Ferraris. Nissan GT-Rs with every modification imaginable. A blue camo Lamborghini Aventador - with a roofrack. The customised vehicles that Lech shoots are some of the most insane-looking pieces of metal and carbon fibre in the world, perfect amalgams of adolescent fantasy and limitless parental cash-flow.

Original image here

Original image here
The number of supercars in Vancouver - a modestly-sized city with no particular industry to create grand wealth - can surprise outsiders. Median household incomes in the city are, in fact, among the lowest in Canada.
“A lot of people ask why [there are so many supercars in Vancouver],” says Lech. “I think 80 per cent of owners in Vancouver are young Asian males, so I think it’s overseas money.”
Lech has been photographing Vancouver’s wildest rides for six or seven years, and has been doing so professionally for the past three, with a client list mainly made up of proud owners and customisation workshops.  His social media fame has also led to paying gigs with manufacturers including Tesla and Lexus, and he works in partnership with duPont Registry, the luxury buyer’s guide.

Original image here

Original image here
Ninety per cent of his photography is done in Vancouver. There are rich pickings: According to one estimate, Vancouver has the highest per-capita rate of luxury car ownership in North America (although this is hard to prove).
“It was a hobby to start with,” says Lech, who has more Facebook followers than The Vancouver Canucks, the Vancouver Sun and CBC Vancouver combined. “I guess my photos just got to a point where people saw that they were good enough, and so they started hiring me and paying me.
“There are probably more opportunities in the United States or Europe. But it just happens that there are a lot of these cars in Vancouver.”
The motivation behind owning a fancy car is easy enough to understand, but I wonder what possesses someone to take things to the next level and go about transforming the look of vehicles already regarded as works of art in their own right? I cite to Lech the example of a mirror-chrome Ferrari, a 458 sporting a Chinese name on its personalised number plate that caught my eye in a suburban liquor-store  carpark last week. A quick internet search of its provenance had led me to Lech, who photographed it last year for the customisers, C & L Auto Decoration.
It takes a lot to stand out on Vancouver’s roads, explains Lech.
 “Ok, let’s say you’ve got a Ferrari 458,” Lech says. “There could be 40 or 50 of those in Vancouver, right? So the younger Asian guys always want to have the most unique car, something that stands out the most, and that’s why they do these funky colours.”

Original image here

Original image here
That desire to stand out has created a thriving industry of supercar modification in Vancouver, devoted to both extracting maximum performance as well as sheer aesthetics. The more extreme paintjobs that Lech photographs do not involve paint at all, but a “wrap”. Essentially a sticker that envelopes the entire car, wraps can be changed relatively easily, should an owner get tired of, say, chrome purple. Most of the workshops that carry out such customisation are run by young Chinese and Chinese-Canadians, with a cluster of such businesses in Richmond, just outside Vancouver.
Lech himself drives a Toyota Supra – certainly a performance car but in a different league to those he usually photographs. He says his current favourite car in Vancouver is an ultra-rare McLaren P1 (average price, US$1.5 million), whose owner is in his early 20s.  
I ask if he envies his wealthy clients, whose identities he guards, even as their vehicles draw admiring stares on the city's roads and online around the world.
 “It’s not really envy,” he says.“It’s definitely inspiring to be around these cars, for sure.  But I don’t want to say it’s envy, or anything like that.”
*
The Hongcouver blog is devoted to the hybrid culture of its namesake cities: Hong Kong and Vancouver. All story ideas and comments are welcome. Connect with me by email ian.young@scmp.com or on Twitter, @ianjamesyoung70.


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Hongcouver

Chrome Ferraris and camo Lamborghinis: A wild ride through the streets of Vancouver

Mirror chrome Ferrari 458 and gold chrome Lamborghini Aventador, by C & L Auto Decoration. Photo: Marcel Lech

Lamborghini Aventador roadster in “Galaxy” wrap, by Deluxe Supercar Club. Photo: Marcel Lech 

Lamborghini Aventador in arctic “Bape” camouflage, with roofrack and skibox, by Dynamic Performance. Photo: Marcel Lech 

Ferrari F430 with Rowen kit in matte metallic red, by Deluxe Supercar Club. Photo: Marcel Lech 

Mercedes-Benz SLS-AMG and friends, by MM Design Car Wrapping. Photo: Marcel Lech 

C$850,000 Conquest Evade by SR Auto Group. Photo: Marcel Lech 

Photo 7: Green and red chrome Lamborghini Aventadors, by MM Design Car Wrapping. Photo: Marcel Lech 

Opinion

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Photographer Marcel Lech documents a custom-car culture that has been transformed by wealth migration, most of it from China


Expresses the views, ideas and conclusions of the author. (Eg. Enough of Crazy Rich Asians, think of crazy poor Hongkongers.)


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The Hongcouver

.css-1m2rp1p{color:#34b8b5;}The Hongcouver | Chrome Ferraris and camo Lamborghinis: A wild ride through the streets of Vancouver

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Photographer Marcel Lech documents a custom-car culture that has been transformed by wealth migration, most of it from China

The Hongcouver | Chrome Ferraris and camo Lamborghinis: A wild ride through the streets of Vancouver

Photographer Marcel Lech documents a custom-car culture that has been transformed by wealth migration, most of it from China