Isn’t it amazing how even car enthusiast have their own following, it’s like a club within a club. With so many design choices these days, you can never just be an enthusiast anymore, some go the VIP way, you also have the racer boy, then you have the ICE guys, and then it’s the whole extreme mods thing that has cars decked out in the most extreme of extreme bodykits and rims and whatever.
I also think it’s amazing how different designs represent a certain region, area, city or country, something like how a low-riding ‘67 Chevy Impala represents the American gangster either side of its coasts. That’s also something I noticed when we covered the Indonesian International Motorshow recently, but it doesn’t involve any gangsters. It seemed as if every car that caught my attention came tearing out of a DUB magazine, everything from its 26” rims and candy paint, to its presidential tint was immaculate. I only came across the typical Malaysia car with lightweight rims, carbon fiber and a big-ass intercooler once every two days. Indonesians love their bling so I went out in search of the source of all that chrome.
I didn’t go on an Indiana Jones type of quest for the bling but I meant to make you think that. Already having asked a few people back in Malaysia, I knew exactly where to go, who to meet and what to do. Permaisuri or Permaisuri Ban as locals know it is something like your regular tyre shop, it even looks like it too but it’s the only stop for Jakartians to get the latest, biggest, craziest rims. It has been around for more than 30 years now and a lot has happened over those years.
The Managing Director, Wibowo Santosa ran me through the history of his shop. Among all those things he said one point particularly caught my attention, when the business first started out, almost all of its sales staff comprised of attractive young women, hence the name Permaisuri, which ironically translates to Queen or in this context Queens. Business naturally picked up with the occasional ups and downs and here we are today, with the building almost exactly how it was 30 years ago but minus all the attractive women sadly, got me all excited about it too.
From the outside, it’s your typical tyre shop with rims being showcased at the window display but one thing that sets it apart from the rest is the type of cars parked outside. I visited on a weekday and had a Mercedes S-Class, ML and SL greeting me at the entrance, not cars for your average tyre shop. Walk through the door and you have to squint your eyes to keep the glare from all the rims from blinding you, there are easily over a 100 different rims of all colour, size and design’s in here.
Permaisuri gets its rims from all over the world and carries almost every type of brand, no wannabes here, there’s nothing other than the real deal. They carry everything from TechArt for your Porsche to Vellano for your Maserati and even the famous Giovanna’s find a temporary home here, but there’s one thing you won’t find and that’s something Malaysians might find odd. There is a lack of lightweight rims for your carbon-fibered, turbocharged, 500hp, race machine a.ka Japanese rice burner, and that is because demand for such rims is just about non-existent. But that doesn’t mean they don’t have it, of course they have it, and they have nothing short of the standards set by OZ and Rays for those pesky Malaysians that come by and ask for such things.
As I stood in awe with camera snapping away, a few customers walked in, made their choices and left. I swear I heard them close the deal in what little Indonesian I understood but then they would leave and I was somewhat flabbergasted that some rich person can just walk in, say he’ll buy something then just leave. Wibowo sensing my confusion explained that their driver would later return with the car and have the chosen rim fitted. That cleared things up but there was this customer that had his car fitted while I was there, this gave me the chance to watch the entire choosing, buying, and fitting process of the typical Permaisuri customer.
The process is somewhat similar to what we Malaysians are used to, you know, drive over to the shop, check out the collection, make a pick, enquire about it, get convinced that it’s the only choice for you, agree, have your rim fitted, pay and leave. Right? Wrong! At Permaisuri, customers are King, the entire process is the same except you get to have your rim fitted to your car just to see whether or not they suit your car, and if they don’t, you get to pick again, in other words, you get to ‘test’ the rim. Where our local rim dealers will tell you to go xxx yourself, the guys at Permaisuri obligingly climb up ladders to reach the rim of your choice just to put it back again just because you suddenly realized it’s not chrome enough for you.
Actually, it’s a feature of Permaisuri, that’s because it does not only stock up great rims, they also stock technologically advanced machines that can fit and remove tyres without so much as laying a mechanical finger on it. This allows new rims to stay new and judging from the customers that walked in that day, they would have nothing short of the best.
So as my shoot came to an end and I was packing up, Wibowo mentioned that Permaisuri can also customize the center cap of your rim. You can have your ex’s name there, your dog’s paw, your signature or anything you want, in fact, if the price is right, you can also customize your own rim design, what more could you want? Heck you could have a different center cap for every day of the week, something like Jay-Z but he has different car’s for every day of the week.
As much as I love cars that go insanely fast and have not really come to terms with the VIP look, that trip to Permaisuri opened my eyes to a different side of the story. You may not be the only one who can afford a Maserati or any car for that matter, but you can definitely make it stand out from the rest. I can also understand why Indonesians are into the entire VIP thing, with tiny roads that stay gridlocked for hours, it would be hard to imagine where you could stretch 500hp. So if you’re going to be stuck in traffic for a few hours, might as well do it in style, especially when you have Permaisuri around, the BlingRimKings of Jakarta, Indonesia.
Check out the blinging gallery below
Find out more about Permaisuri at: www.permaisuri.com
Thank You’s:
Muhamad Balbed for setting this up.
Wibowo Santosa Managing Director of Permaisuri for his patience, time and care.
Permaisuri staff and drivers.
Everyone involved in the shoot.
