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The 'Import scene' or 'Import racing scene' refers to the subculture that revolves around modifying imported brand cars (commonly referred to as imports), especially those of Japanese brands, for street racing in foreign countries. Thanks to movies like ''The Fast and the Furious'' (2001), it has become a mainstream phenomenon among American youth of all backgrounds.

Contents

History

Car shows

Motion pictures

Japanese products

DVDs

Anime and manga

Video games

Magazine publications

See also

References

External links

History

Car modifying has been very popular among youth in the United States, especially in Southern California, since the days of hot rods in the 1950s and 1960s. There is significant evidence indicating that import drag racing first started in Southern California in the mid-1960s, with Volkswagen Beetles, including documentation of quarter-mile passes published in Hot Rod Magazine as early as August of 1965. The island of Puerto Rico also has a long history of pioneering import drag racing in the mid 1970s and 1980s, and it is still a huge sport on the island. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, front wheel drive vehicles, at first Datsuns and later mostly Hondas, gained popularity in Southern California. Young Asian American street racers played a particularly important role in the development of the early street racing scene. Many enthusiasts in southern California also began to modify their compact Japanese cars, following similar trends that originated in Japan. Arising from the street culture, import racing venues eventually arose and huge drag racing events at Palmdale, California often packed in over 10,000 spectators per day. Racers like Stephen Papadakis, Ed Bergenholtz, and Myles Bautista dominated the first import drag racing circuit IDRA (Battle of the Imports) in the mid 1990s. Show car clubs became a huge factor within the import scene: Southern California had Team Kosoku, Northern California had Z.Team Yossi, while the east coast had the Jade Crew (still active to this day). This Japanese racing scene can be seen in the anime series ''Initial D'', which focuses mainly on mountain pass racing and ''Wangan Midnight'' which deals with high-speed expressway racing.

Car shows

The car show scene emerged with the pioneer event called Import Showoff and was the first of its kind.^[1] Modified cars are often exhibited at car shows, such as Hot Import Nights (HIN), Extreme Autofest, NOPI and Driven To Perform (DTP). Hot Import Nights is the largest of the car shows in this space with over 20 events across the US reaching over 250,000 enthusiasts. Endemic vendors sell various products at these car shows including sound equipment for cars and other car modification products. Non-endemic vendors and sponsors like XM Satellite Radio, Hanes, Pepsi and Rockstar Energy Drinks participate in these events to target the young, mostly male, demographics attracted to these shows. Frequently, spokesmodels are present to attract showgoers and to pose for photographs alongside cars. These models are also known as import models or booth babes and have gained massive popularity among those in the import scene and now beyond into mainstream media and pop culture.^[2][3] Increasingly, music (mostly hip-hop, urban and electronic dance music) has become a large part of these events. Whether its DJ's spinning the latest tracks, up and coming recording stars or B-Boys and Go-Go dancing, the lights, the sound and the movement have become a staple of these multi-faceted shows.

Motion pictures

The import scene has been portrayed in these mainstream movies:

★ ''Gone in Sixty Seconds'' (2000)

★ ''The Fast and the Furious''

★ ''2 Fast 2 Furious''

★ ''

★ ''Biker Boyz''

★ ''Initial D''

Japanese products

Another aspect of the Import scene is Japanese products that either explores or details such racing, which often introduces new fans to the scene. These are usually found through DVDs and books.

DVDs

Some of the more well known DVDs about the import scene, apart from the movies listed above, include:

★ ''Best Motoring''

★ ''Street Fury''

★ ''Torque Video Magazine''

★ ''Video Option'' (alternatively known as 'JDM Option')

Anime and manga

Two Japanese Anime and manga have been attributed to the growing Import scene in some form or another. A common theme is that both characters are seen as complete underdogs with hidden and untapped talent, and drive what amounts to antiquated cars that many would deem either ready for the scrapheap or severely underpowered compared to much better tuned and modified cars..
The anime and manga ''Initial D'' stars Takumi Fujiwara as he is introduced to touge racing after it is found that he has a natural ability to race his father's nearly bone stock Toyota AE86 Sprinter Trueno. With his amazing skill he is able to defeat Mazda RX-7s, Nissan Skyline GT-Rs and Mitsubishi Lancer Evolutions. With This has spawned several arcade games, which utilizes cars from both the manga, plus other cars associated with touge racing. The cars are setup more to take the tight mountain passes and emphasis is placed more on driver ability rather than speed and power. The series at first gained popularity via fansubs and bootlegs, until TOKYOPOP translated both the anime and manga. However, some have criticized TOKYOPOP's translation of the property, with major changes to both the story and the content.
On the opposite spectrum, ''Wangan Midnight'' focuses on the vast and wide Shuto Expressway of Tokyo. Akio Asakura is an ambitious racer whom after being defeated by Tatsuya Shima's 'Blackbird' (a Porsche 911), acquires a monstrously powerful Datsun 240Z known as the 'The Devil Z'. All but one of its previous owners got killed trying to tame its power, and quickly makes a name for himself on the Wangan. The cars are designed for speed and power, and are based on the exploits of street racers whom used the Wangan as their own personal racetrack. The cars often were modified to attain high horsepower (this is reflected in the arcade game: it allows cars to attain horsepower to the 815 HP mark, at the cost of virtually no grip) with bodykits and other modifications to make the cars go fast. While not as well known as Initial D, the series gained a cult following after the arcade game ''Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune'' was ported to the US by Namco.

Video games

Numerous video games have been produced about import racing, including:

★ ''Shutokou Battle series'' (the highly influential Genki series existing since 1994)

★
★ ''Tokyo Xtreme Racer'' series

★
★ ''Street Supremacy''

★
★ ''Import Tuner Challenge''

★ ''The Fast and the Furious'' the game from Namco

★ ''Initial D Arcade Stage''

★ ''Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune''

★ ''Juiced''

★ ''Midnight Club'' series

★ ''Midnight Outlaw'' series

★ '' (also includes muscle cars, European car tuners and other sports cars)

★ ''

★ ''

★ ''

★ ''

★ ''Street Racing Syndicate''

★ ''West Coast Streets Tricked n' Tuned''

★ ''Pimp My Ride''

Magazine publications

There are many magazines published following this scene. They often include tutorials for car modification and feature sexy models.
The following is a list of such magazines (and country of origin, those not mentioned are from the US):

★ ''AutoPress''

★ ''Banzai'' (UK)

★ ''Battle Magazine'' (Japan - Notorious for their coverage of street races, became defunct in 2005)

★ ''Chrom und Flammen'' (Germany)

★ ''D-Sport'' (formerly ''Drag Sport'')

★ ''Elaborare''

★ ''Fast Fours and Turbos'' (New Zealand)

★ ''Honda Tuning''

★ ''Hot Compact & Import (HCI)''

★ ''Hyper Rev'' (Japan - Famous for their performance guide books)

★ ''Import Racer''

★ ''Import Tuner''

★ ''J Tuner'' (UK - Defunct)

★ ''Japanese Performance'' (UK)

★ ''Max Power UK

★ ''Modified Mag''

★ ''Option'' (Japan)

★ ''Option Auto'' (France - ''not related with the Option magazine from Japan)

★ ''OverRev''

★ ''Performance Auto & Sound''

★ ''Sport Compact Car''

★ ''Super Street''

★ ''TMR''

★ ''Turbo & High-Tech Performance''
Most of the Tuner Magazines are printed by Primedia Publications (notably ''Import Tuner'', ''Super Street'' and ''Honda Tuning''.)

See also

★ Boy racer

★ Cruising (driving around)

★ Drag racing

★ Engine tuning

★ Hot hatch

★ Hot rod

★ Kustom Kulture

★ Import model

★ Lowrider

★ Sport compact

★ Rice burner

★ Sleeper (car)

★ Street racing

References

1. Their Dreams, Your Realities - Industry Innovators
2. Internet killed the TV star
3. Tila Tequila

External links

★ autoDRIFTer Import Models

★ Article on the Asian Car Crew Scene

★ Import Model Photography

★ Import Tuner Magazine