The “old days” of imports.

I bought my first XR4Ti after reading about them in a 99 GRM article. It would run mid 13s with little more than a t bird intercooler and pcm , and a 3" turbo back exhaust. In the early 00s, pre WRX/EVO/SRT, and 240hp Mustang days, that was pretty darn quick from a street car, and certainly faster than you expected an Escort to be. ;) All I'm going to say is it hurt a lot of import feelings back then, and the FF crowds made for some fun nights. Street racing became a huge problem in north west Baltimore for a while! 
I still have several issues of Scc and Turbo and hi tech. 
Circa 2001:

_ said:

Three words: APC euro taillights. 

They'll always be Altezzas to me.

Knurled. said:

_ said:

Three words: APC euro taillights. 

They'll always be Altezzas to me.

Word.

Mndsm said:

 I almost bought an integra GSR. I accidentally bought an AWD DSM instead.

Weird I was in high school when these came out and didn't lust for a single car from the movies until Tokyo drift had the mustang. I've watched all of them but aside from Tokyo drift and the escorts in the later movie I never understood the cars. 

In reply to Datsun310Guy :

Yeah, I thought we were talking stuff like Honda CVCCs and the little mid-'70s Celicas that looked just like 5/8-scaled Mustangs. 
 

There's a guy in town still driving a F&F-era Eclipse (base model, and I think it's automatic) with the full Wings West treatment over stock steelies. It's painted WW-gelocoat blue and has that weird swoopy manta-ray wing they all seemed to have, and the spider-eye clear taillight kit. They only thing it lacks is a 6" fart cannon and tribal flames. 
 

dropstep said:

Weird I was in high school when these came out and didn't lust for a single car from the movies until Tokyo drift had the mustang. I've watched all of them but aside from Tokyo drift and the escorts in the later movie I never understood the cars. 

never saw the tokyo drift. 

The0retical said:

I'd say I never grew out of that phase. (35 here)

I still read D-Sport and Super Street from time to time. Both magazines have grown up a bit.

 

ya know, I think this is the reason hoonigan is so popular. Wild, fun, and immature is what we REALLY want to read and watch when it comes to cars.

I don't know anyting about Hoonigan.

These days (locally), I see LOTS of hoonigan stickers on mustangs. Which to me made me think its some American car thing. Didn't realize Hoonigan is import related. 

I wasn't aware that 10 seconds wasn't a good time in the quarter-mile either. Pretty sure you need some safety equipment at that point that isn't typical of street-legal cars.

I had a 3.8L Mustang, though, and I would have smoked your Dodge Dynasty.

mr2s2000elise said:

I don't know anyting about Hoonigan.

 

These days (locally), I see LOTS of hoonigan stickers on mustangs. Which to me made me think its some American car thing. Didn't realize Hoonigan is import related. 

Never really got that. "I drive like an idiot on the street with soccer moms." Sounds pretty unethical, honestly, to a guy whose favorite cars have been run into by high school kids.

b13990 said:

mr2s2000elise said:

I don't know anyting about Hoonigan.

 

These days (locally), I see LOTS of hoonigan stickers on mustangs. Which to me made me think its some American car thing. Didn't realize Hoonigan is import related. 

Never really got that. "I drive like an idiot on the street with soccer moms." Sounds pretty unethical, honestly, to a guy whose favorite cars have been run into by high school kids.

Not seeing where this is coming from. Hoonigan is just a brand. The name did come from Australian slang that started around reckless drivers though.

I've had Hoonigan stickers on a couple of my beaters as a joke but I actually like most of what those guys do.

I miss SportCompactCar. I miss Dave Coleman. His Medula Badidea article is some of the most relevant, entertaining piece I've ever read.

Medulla-Bad-Idea

mr2s2000elise said:

I don't know anyting about Hoonigan.

 

These days (locally), I see LOTS of hoonigan stickers on mustangs. Which to me made me think its some American car thing. Didn't realize Hoonigan is import related. 

Hoonigan is just automotive-related. If you go on their YouTube channel, they cover pretty much anything. Imports, muscle cars, European cars, supercars, lowriders, hardcore offroad racing, drifting, drag-racing, doesn't matter. If it's about cars and it's cool or loud or fun or insane, they are all about it. That's what I love about them, there is such a breadth of content. One day they have a Super Stadium Truck Bronco jumping over a Mclaren doing donuts, the next day they are LS-swapping a Chevy P10 van and then the day after they have a pro Formula Drift car decimating tires in their yard.

In reply to Vigo :

You remind me of my buddy Snyder who had a single-cam 5-speed Neon when he was in high school. He said it didn't matter who he was next to at a stoplight, he would launch his Neon at rev limiter, usually getting beat by the Camaros and Mustangs that were the vehicle of choice in his area. One time he is at the stop light and a guy was next to him in a Mitsu Galant and he thinks "I got this guy". Launches his Neon and the Galant immediately runs right past him and shows him the taillights. He goes "What was that?" They stop at the next light, he tries it again, and the Galant beats his ass again. This time he sees the VR-4 badge on the back and goes "Wait, what is that?!" Shortly afterwards he went and got his first of a string of DSMs

mr2s2000elise said:

The0retical said:

I'd say I never grew out of that phase. (35 here)

I still adore brightly colored, heavily vinyl'd, wild body kit toting, 200+ HP/liter imports.

Everythign I own has been lime green, yellow, red, orange. Though some of the used cars I buy now are beige, not due to my choice. Just what the market has. I won't change. 

That's what vinyl wrap is for right? I've been wondering if I should wrap the MS3 purple...

38 here, class of 2000.  I had a Ford Probe and all my friends had Hondas so I was the outcast.  They were all cutting their springs and stuff so I taught myself how to work with tape and spray paint and for about $40 I put blue hotrod flames on my white car.  Ahhh, those were the days.  Sport Compact Car, NOPI Nationals, Super Street.  

Stephan Papadakis is still doing high hp import stuff:

Fueled by Caffeine said:

A quick search shows that Lisa Kubo is now a "social influcencer" for cosmetics on youtube...  ????????????????????????????

She was working for K&N a few years ago. Not sure if she's still there or not.

mr2s2000elise said:

z31maniac said:

Yep.

I'm 37, I had an '88 300ZX in high school (class of 2000). Super Street would have good stuff, but I typically would pick up Turbo & High-Tech Performance. The "scene" had pretty much jumped the shark by the Fast and the Furious part 2 was released.

The Z guys never respected us. They were actually fast. We were pretending to be fast. Honestly, we were just jealous we couldnt own the 93 ZXTT, Supra TT, or 3000GT VR4. We were the douchebags, while the true Z car guys were the sports car guys.

I wish my Z had been a Z32 as well!

when I was teen in the 2000s (another 35er here) I thought Super Street was embarrassing to have around because of all the t&a , but it's actually good now and I subscribe. I think some of the people from Modified and Import Tuner came on board when those magazines folded.  I got in when the drifting craze was ramping up, which was great for me because Initial D is what got me into tuning.

I remember my first mod:   a clamp on big exhaust tip on my non-turbo Talon.   Then going +2 on my wheels all the way up to 16s and dreaming about 17s.   And having a row of  decals down my door like the show cars.     

I miss NOPI and the original racers.   I miss those magazines too.   

mr2s2000elise said:

I don't know anyting about Hoonigan.

 

These days (locally), I see LOTS of hoonigan stickers on mustangs. Which to me made me think its some American car thing. Didn't realize Hoonigan is import related. 

I generally like hoonigan videos, but they shout too much. 

The0retical said:

mr2s2000elise said:

The0retical said:

I'd say I never grew out of that phase. (35 here)

I still adore brightly colored, heavily vinyl'd, wild body kit toting, 200+ HP/liter imports.

Everythign I own has been lime green, yellow, red, orange. Though some of the used cars I buy now are beige, not due to my choice. Just what the market has. I won't change. 

That's what vinyl wrap is for right? I've been wondering if I should wrap the MS3 purple...

Yes. I was going to do mine in this ridiculous flat blue 3m makes at one point. 

I remember FWD drag cars. At first people were like "oh ha ha ha." Then they were like "oh holy crap!." That scene went real fast, real quick.