Becky Accord: Leo Garcia & the Story of Serious Innovations

THE PEOPLE BEHIND THE BUILDS

In 2008, Leo Garcia bought a 2003 Honda Accord because he wanted something reliable that would last. He had no idea the car would take him far beyond the streets of Dyckman, help build a community, and eventually lay the foundation for Serious Innovations.

Eighteen years later, Serious Innovations has grown far beyond the Honda Accord. But the biggest question longtime followers still ask Leo to this day is: Where is Becky?

2008: La Marina 

Leo grew up at the northern tip of Manhattan in an area locals call Dyckman. Raised by Dominican parents, he was surrounded by the energy of a predominantly Hispanic neighborhood.

Before "Becky," Leo owned a 1996 Acura RL for about a year. When the Acura began giving him problems, he wanted his next car to be dependable and something he could keep for a long time.

In 2008, he bought a 2003 Honda Accord V6 sedan. The plan was simple: a reliable daily driver with a few basic modifications—window tint, lowering springs, maybe some wheels. Building a show car was never part of the plan.

"I did not know about car shows at that time."

On weekends, Leo would take the Accord down to the end of Dyckman Street near the Hudson River, to an area known locally as "La Marina." It became his unofficial workspace. He and his friends worked on cars outside, sometimes parking beneath the nearby bridge so they could keep turning wrenches if it started to rain.

For Leo, La Marina was a place to spend his days off, work on the Honda, hang out with friends, and just disconnect. But before long, people around Dyckman began recognizing him as the guy who was always working on cars.

At the time, none of this felt like the beginning of a business. Leo was simply modifying his car.

2009-2010: The Streets

Around this time, Leo and a group of friends started a car club called Why So Serious. Though the club only lasted about a year, it pushed them to venture beyond their local blocks. They began exploring meets across the city—from 190th Street in Washington Heights to Hunts Point in the Bronx and the massive parking lots at Randall's Island.

Leo also spent nights watching late-night street races with his friends. It was an intense era defined by wild, dangerous car and motorcycle activity. Car culture was taking over his life, and he was just beginning to realize how much bigger the scene was beyond his own neighborhood.

2011: Getting Deeper Into the Scene

When he wanted a break from the street scene, he spent his spare time binge-scrolling through blogs like StanceNation, Canibeat, and StanceWorks. He was amazed by how dedicated other owners were to their project cars, and he closely studied how they executed their builds. At the time, those stance websites were relatively underground, and few people in his area were paying attention to them.

A four-door Honda Accord wasn't the obvious platform for the stance and VIP-inspired style Leo was becoming obsessed with, which made him want to pursue it even more. He bought his first set of WORK wheels, experimented with stretched tires, and pushed the suspension and wheel fitment further.

With the information he absorbed from these stance sites, he decided to try it on his car. He recalls going to local alignment shops and explaining the specific adjustments he wanted. The technicians looked at him like he was crazy. Leo insisted on zero toe while pushing the camber to the double-digit negatives—specs he admits were completely impractical for daily driving. But he had a specific vision in mind and was willing to deal with the trade-offs.

At red lights, strangers would point toward the Accord's aggressive camber and yell: "Hey, your car is broken."

Leo would laugh and keep driving.

It was also during this era that Serious Innovations was born, sparked by conversations with his cousin, E-Man. The two spent a lot of time together, and E-Man watched Leo constantly come up with new ideas for his car. Noticing how seriously Leo took the work and how relentlessly he sought to refine every detail, E-Man suggested the name Serious Innovations.

2012: Becky & the Internet

By 2012, Leo was taking the build public, documenting his journey on YouTube and car forums. Posting under the handle Leotec207, he posted progress on StanceWorks and other online communities, showing the suspension changes, different wheels, and constant experimentation happening to the car.

It was also during this period that the build escalated to a serious financial commitment. Determined to fit an aggressive wheel setup in the rear, Leo knew he had to push far beyond the Honda's factory metal. He took the Accord to his good friend Mike Trinijastic’s body shop, where it underwent a major structural and visual transformation. The rear quarter panels were heavily altered and widened to fit the new wheel specifications. To cap off the extensive custom bodywork, the car was completely resprayed in what would become its signature color: Balloon White, pulled directly from a Lamborghini paint code. This exact setup—the aggressive, widened, bright white stance—was the turning point that caused "Becky" to officially blow up across the internet.

2012 was also the year the Accord officially got its nickname: Becky. The inspiration came from Sir Mix-a-Lot's classic line, "Oh my God, Becky, look at her butt." In car culture, the name "Becky" is often associated with the archetype of a white girl with curves, and to Leo, the Accord's heavily widened rear quarters, slammed stance, and wide wheels gave the car a surprisingly thick rear end compared to a stock Honda. The nickname stuck immediately.

The Photography Journey

Before Serious Innovations evolved into what it is today, it lived online as a WordPress blog and YouTube channel. Leo regularly published his photography to the site while sharing personal vlogs on YouTube, giving viewers a front-row seat as Becky transformed through constant wheel swaps, custom interior builds, and engine modifications. Over time, viewers were connecting with Leo just as much as they were with the car.

"Cars came first, but photography wasn't far behind."

The camera forced him to pay attention to the finer details—wheel fitment and subtle fabrication choices that most people overlooked. While Becky remained his primary test bed, launching a photography blog under Serious Innovations gave him a platform to document the broader stance community.

2013: The Addiction to Car Shows

By 2013, that passion quickly evolved into a relentless drive to hit the road. Leo became obsessed with traveling across the country to seek out unique car shows and document high-level builds that rarely made it to local meets. He searched through forums and Facebook groups for events state lines away, packing up Becky for long-haul road trips.

Whether rolled out in Chicago, parked in front of the Taj Mahal, or making stops through North Carolina, those photos capture a unique chapter in the journey. Beyond the miles logged, it was all about the solid friendships made along the way. This was back when car shows were purely about the fun—an era driven by a genuine love of the game, where people built out of passion and showed real respect for anyone else putting in the work to their builds.

Fatherhood

In mid-2013, Leo's life changed for a reason that had nothing to do with cars. His first daughter, Katelyn, was born. Fatherhood didn't immediately pull him away from the scene. Instead, he tried bringing his daughter into the life he was already living. When Katelyn was only about three months old, the family packed up and traveled to Florida for a week built around car meets, shows, and the automotive scene Leo had become immersed in.

Cars were still a major part of his world. Now, his daughter was becoming part of that world too. People often thought he was crazy for driving such an extensive build so many miles, but Leo always said, "Cars are meant to be driven."

That same year, the Japanese publication USDM FREAX featured the Accord in Issue 17. The ordinary Honda Leo had purchased for reliability back in 08 had now appeared in an automotive publication on the other side of the world.

Building a Community

The same drive that kept Leo on the road eventually inspired him to build a hub for the community himself. What started as small local link-ups between Accord owners quickly evolved into the East Coast Accord Meet. As word spread, the gatherings exploded—cars were traveling in from far beyond New York, turning casual meets into destination events. That momentum opened new doors, leading Serious Innovations into major event organization and high-profile brand collaborations like Nurotag.

The scene also introduced Leo to friendships that would last much longer than individual builds. He connected with people including Quan Smalls, Ken from SNTRL, Rob from VraceWorks, and many others active in the Northeast automotive community.

By this point, photography, YouTube, events, car building, and Serious Innovations were becoming increasingly difficult to separate.

"Plain Vanilla"

At the same time, Becky's recognition continued growing. In 2014, S3 Magazine featured the Accord in Issue 29 in an article titled "Plain Vanilla."

The name played against the car's clean white exterior. Underneath that simple color was an Accord with aggressive fitment, extensive interior work, and an interpretation of VIP styling applied to a platform rarely built that way.

"Even though my Accord is not a typical VIP platform, I still went ahead just to be different."

Even at massive events like Honda Day, surrounded by hundreds of the cleanest builds, the energy shifted the second Becky rolled in. Spectators went crazy just to get a glimpse, swarming the car the moment it parked and proving its reach went far beyond standard show-car hype.

Later that year, Leo welcomed his second daughter, Miley. The girls were born only 13 months apart, and life became significantly more demanding during that first year of parenting. But Leo continued to push the limits, and the online hype around Becky grew.

That same year, Leo took Becky back to Chicago for the Nurotag show to pull off something the scene had never witnessed before. Famous artist René Turrek flew in from Germany to spray paint the Accord live right in front of hundreds of spectators. Turrek executed a striking, custom graffiti artwork directly onto the car—a daring move that broke all the rules of a traditional show build and sent another massive wave of viral hype crashing through the internet.

2016: A Pause, and New Priorities

Between raising two babies, the pressure at home, working, and trying to maintain the pace of traveling, filming, building cars, and attending events, Leo began to pull away from the scene.

At the same time, his own health had become another concern. He was dealing with back problems and had reached roughly 210 pounds. Instead of continuing at the same pace, he redirected the intensity he had once poured into cars toward transforming himself physically.

Over the next seven to eight months, Leo dropped roughly 60 pounds while building significant muscle and reaching a level of fitness he had never achieved before.

For a while, cars were no longer the center of his attention.

Becky remained with him, but the constant cycle of modifications, road trips, events, photography, and videos slowed dramatically. What had once consumed nearly every free weekend had been replaced by fatherhood, family responsibilities, and a new personal challenge.

 

2017-2018: The Bounce Back

Leo was beginning to find his way back into car culture. He had stepped away at a time when his priorities needed to be somewhere else. Now, as he returned, he wasn't interested in simply picking up where he had left off. The scene had changed, his life had changed, and Leo had changed with it.

Alongside his longtime friend Wender from Dyckman, Quan Smalls, and Carlos Abreu, who helped heavily with recruitment, Leo began building a car club that was meant to be something much larger than a local group of friends. This is where SI Crew was born.

Quan took responsibility for the Pennsylvania chapter, and SI Crew's presence quickly expanded. Leo remembers arriving at events like Wekfest with more than 30 members together, carrying custom Serious Innovations flags and representing the crew as one group.

SI Crew eventually expanded beyond the tri-state area, with official chapters forming in places including Florida, California, Texas, Chicago, Turkey, and Japan.

Leo had returned to the scene. But something more important was happening in the background: he was beginning to realize that the skills he had spent years developing might have value beyond his own cars.

Turning a skill into art

Throughout this period, Leo was still working his regular career as a low-voltage technician specializing in CCTV systems, access control, commercial wiring, and security infrastructure. The work required patience and precision.

Large installations could involve miles of wires being routed through buildings and eventually organized into clean control panels. Every cable had a destination. Every connection had to be correct. Sloppy work created problems later.

Leo genuinely enjoyed that part of the job.

"I was doing wiring because I loved it."

Without realizing it at first, that career was training him for the type of automotive work that would eventually define Serious Innovations.

At first, Serious Innovations was still something being built after work and on weekends. But people were starting to notice.

When the Internet Started Paying Attention

Leo had already spent years documenting his projects on YouTube. Unlike a traditional shop that relied primarily on word of mouth, people could watch his work develop in real time.

One of the biggest boosts came through his relationship with filmmaker and automotive creator Chris Petruccio of Krispy Media. Chris was documenting the evolution of his Subaru Legacy wagon online, and Leo became involved in building the custom trunk setup, hardlines, lighting, and air-suspension presentation. The project exposed Serious Innovations to a much larger audience.

The attention translated into recognition. More people knew the Serious Innovations name. More people were asking about custom work. More customers were willing to trust Leo with their cars. By this point, the idea of Serious Innovations becoming a real business no longer felt imaginary. Leo could see evidence that people wanted what he was building.

2019: Burn the Boats

In 2019, the tension between Leo's day job and Serious Innovations finally reached a breaking point. A confrontation at work became the ultimate catalyst.

For years, Leo had juggled a traditional career while pouring his nights and weekends into building something of his own. The growing traction from YouTube, Krispy Media, and an expanding client base had already proven that Serious Innovations had real potential. The friction at work simply gave him the push he needed to stop treating it like a side hustle.

His mentality was simple:

"Burn the boats. Either I make it, or I don't."

He quit. No safety net, no Plan B—just straight-up determination.

There was no grand facility, no crew of technicians, and no room for failure. Operating full-time out of a friend’s one-car garage in New Jersey, Leo locked in on the high-level craftsmanship he did best: custom air suspension, detailed hardline trunk setups, and precision audio builds.

Serious Innovations was no longer just the decal on the front of Leo's Accord. Through raw hustle, it had officially established itself as a recognized, respected automotive brand.

The Rebirth of Becky

As Leo returned to car culture and Serious Innovations began gaining momentum, there was still one unfinished piece of his past waiting for attention.

Becky.

The Accord had been with him since 2008, but after years of changes, travel, shows, and eventually sitting through Leo's break from the scene, the car needed another major rebuild. The original plan wasn't supposed to become anything extreme. Becky's automatic transmission had failed, so Leo bought a 2003 Accord V6 coupe as a donor. The idea was to convert the sedan to a 6-speed manual transmission and get the car back on the road.

Then his friend Oscar, known as Reckless, suggested something much more ambitious: Why not convert Becky to right-hand drive?

Not long afterward, Leo found a right-hand-drive JDM CL9 Accord front clip on eBay for roughly $900. What began as a transmission repair suddenly became another complete transformation.

Leo revived his YouTube channel and began documenting the project under a new series appropriately titled Rebirth.

The car was torn apart.

The engine came out. Becky's longtime burgundy interior was removed and eventually sold. The engine bay was stripped, shaved, filled, sanded, and refinished. The right-hand-drive front clip was integrated into the car, with Rogelio handling much of the conversion work.

At one point, Becky's engine bay was so empty that Leo's two young daughters could stand inside it together.

The rebuild kept moving slowly. Leo and Sammy Boss Bays worked on smoothing and preparing the engine bay. A J30A4 engine was refinished and paired with the 6-speed manual transmission.

The same girls whose arrival had once pulled him away from the car were now standing inside the project that had existed before they were born.

But something had fundamentally changed since the original Becky era. When Leo was younger, the Accord could consume nearly unlimited amounts of his free time. Now there was a business depending on him. Customer cars were waiting. Serious Innovations was growing. Every hour spent chasing perfection on his own Accord was an hour that could not be spent on the company supporting his family.

Still, Becky kept moving forward. Slowly.

2020-2022: Serious Innovations Keeps Moving

When the pandemic disrupted events in 2020, large gatherings slowed and much of SI Crew's momentum naturally cooled. But Serious Innovations continued working.

Customer cars kept coming. Air-suspension installations, trunk fabrication, lighting, and other projects competed for Leo's time while Becky continued progressing whenever circumstances allowed.

2023: Getting Closer—and Getting Hit Again

By 2023, after years of fabrication, mechanical work, body modifications, and setbacks, Becky was finally getting close to the version Leo had imagined. The right-hand-drive conversion was complete. The car was back together enough to run and drive under its own power.

For a project that had spent years scattered across garages in pieces, simply seeing Becky moving again was a major milestone.

Then the engine developed a knock.

The engine had been assembled from scratch, and Leo suspected a rod-bearing problem, although the exact cause was never confirmed. His reaction wasn't complicated. He was mad. After everything the project had already demanded, it felt like another problem arriving at exactly the wrong time.

"At that point, with everything I had going on, I felt like I couldn't catch a break."

Years earlier, Leo might have immediately torn the engine apart again. But Serious Innovations now needed his attention more than Becky did. The business had customers, deadlines, expenses, and projects of its own. Continuing to pour hours into his personal car simply wasn't the priority anymore.

"Too much of my time was going into the car when my attention was needed in the business."

And then another problem arrived that had nothing to do with the Accord: Leo lost access to the shop space where he was working and had to relocate.

This time, there wasn't much of a decision to make. Becky had to move too. The engine still needed attention. The custom metal widebody still had imperfections Leo wanted corrected before final paint. The business had work waiting. The shop itself had to be moved.

There were too many battles happening at once. So instead of tearing the car apart one more time, Leo put Becky into storage.

Not because he had given up on it. Because, for the first time, the thing Becky had helped create had become more important than Becky herself. Serious Innovations needed Leo. And Becky would have to wait.

2023 also marked another quiet ending. After years of documenting his life, projects, and the evolution of Becky on YouTube, Leo stopped uploading to the channel. There was simply too much happening at once.

But Leo didn't disappear. While the YouTube videos stopped and Becky went into storage, Serious Innovations continued moving forward. Leo remained active through @seriousinnovations on Instagram, documenting customer builds and the work coming out of the business.

The camera that once followed Becky is now following what Becky helped create.

Where Is Becky Now?

Leo still owns Becky. The Accord remains safely stored in a garage, where the project has largely been paused since late 2023. There is no official completion date.

In the early days, Becky was the entire universe. Today, she's part of a much bigger picture. Leo’s focus is split between client builds, family, and running the company she helped launch. The Accord didn't lose its importance—it just had to share the stage.

But the original vision hasn't changed. Leo has little interest now in trophies or proving anything at car shows. What matters is finishing what he imagined years ago.

"I owe 25-year-old Leo big time. I have to finish it for him."

His daughters have grown up alongside the project. They were babies during Becky's original show years. Years later, they stood together inside its empty engine bay during the Rebirth. Finishing the Accord today would mean something different than it did when Leo was younger. It would simply mean seeing the original vision through.

After eighteen years, people still recognize Leo in unexpected places and ask the same question:

"Where's Becky?"

She's still here. And her story isn't finished.

From the Archive

Much of this story happened publicly. Long before this article existed, pieces of Leo and Becky's history were being documented through magazines, forums, photographs, Facebook, YouTube, and independent automotive media.

Watch Leo's original @LEOSRSINN YouTube archive

Browse the Becky Accord Facebook photo archive

Explore the Complete Serious Innovations Archive

Magazine Features & Independent Coverage

• S3 Magazine — Issue 29 (2014), “Plain Vanilla” — Becky's 2014 feature, with words by Ross Huber and photography by Sean Bradford.
• USDM FREAX — No. 17, Winter 2016 — Japanese coverage of Leo's 2003 Honda Accord, photographed by Andrew Grossman.
• Squeaky Clean — East Coast Accord Meet — period coverage documenting the meet and its organizers.
• LowLifeStyle — “A TSX Named Desire” — 2013 feature on Quan Smalls' Acura TSX, including acknowledgment of Leo and Serious Innovations.
• Jalopnik — Chris Petruccio's Subaru Legacy — later coverage of the Legacy project.

Original Build Threads & Video Records

• StanceWorks — Leo's 2012 introduction as Leotec207
• StanceWorks — 2003 Accord build thread
• YouTube — Becky under construction, 2012
• Vimeo — Serious Innovations End of Year Outro
• YouTube — East Coast Accord Meet, 2013
• Krispy Media — Chris Petruccio Legacy build, 2017
• YouTube — Becky Rebirth, Season Two
• Serious Innovations — Becky project update, 2021

Community & Period Material

• Becky Accord — Facebook photo archive
• 6thGenAccord — period community discussion
• Vraceworks — period walkaround footage
• Carlisle Performance & Style — 2014 event material
• Serious Innovations — original YouTube video archive

Dates and event details follow period documentation and Leo's recollection. Original photographers are credited wherever known. Some older links may require sign-in or may contain media that is no longer available.

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