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Import Scene

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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 the United States. These modified cars are sometimes pejoratively referred to as rice rockets (sometimes also refers to Japanese motorcycles), rice burners or ricers. This scene was originally frequently associated with Asian American youth, however, thanks to movies like "The Fast and the Furious", it has become a mainstream phenomenon among youth of all races in the United States. Women who modify their cars have become a significant presence in the scene and commerce has responded with specific marketing campaigns geared toward women, such as NOPI (Number One Parts, Inc.) Chick.

Contents

History

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 early 1990s, front wheel drive vehicles, mostly Hondas, gained popularity in Southern California. There were huge drag racing events at Palmdale, California, that 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. Car modifying has been very popular among youth in the United States, especially in Southern California, for decades since the days of hot rods in the 1950s and 1960s. In the early 1990s, enthusiasts in southern California began to modify compact Japanese cars, following similar trends in Japan. This Japanese racing scene can be seen in the anime series Initial D, which focuses mainly on drifting.

Car shows

The car show scene emerged with the pioneer event called Import Showoff and was the first of its kind. Modified cars are often exhibited at car shows, such as Hot Import Nights (HIN), Extreme Autofest and NOPI. Vendors sell various products at these car shows including sound equipment for cars and other car modification products. Frequently, models are present at these shows to pose in front of cars. These models are known as import models or "booth babes" and have gained massive popularity among those in the import scene.

Negative stereotypes

Another cultural development, gaining prominence around the turn of the century, has been the division between enthusiasts primarily interested in modifications with likely performance gains (usually for racing applications) or performing significant, custom stylistic modifications (as with show cars), and individuals using inexpensive, off-the-shelf equipment to give their vehicles a trendy look. The term "ricing", related to the older slang term "rice burner", has emerged, used pejoratively to refer to this general style of lower cost, non-performance-enhancing vehicle modification. General examples of products and modifications involved include Altezza-style tail lights, neon lights, stickers, windshield squirter lights, chrome rims, large spoilers and spray painted interiors. Many of the accessories generally included in this style are considered gimmicky or unattractive by dedicated motor enthusiasts, and some, such as unnecessarily loud exhaust systems or non-standard lighting, may be a nuisance to the general public or even illegal. Some modifications actually make the car slower, by adding weight or areodynamic drag, or can damage the car. An example would be installing a racing turbocharger to an otherwise stock engine without replacing engine internals (crankshaft, pistons, connecting rods).

Motion pictures

"Drag-racing teams may not actually be populated by shiny-pated hunks like Vin Diesel or tough beauties like Michelle Rodriguez, but in other ways the film got it right. Diesel's chief rivals are a tough oriental gang; the real-life Z.Team Yossi, led by the fearsome Tai brothers, are one of the most successful drag-racing teams in California. Shaun Tai has got his nitrous oxide-powered VW Tessa under the 10-second mark in various official meetings, while the Yossi's group of sexy "Hunnies" are there to bring some glamour to the all-oriental team wherever they race." - Saturday September 8, 2001, The Guardian UK

The import scene has been portrayed in these mainstream movies:

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 DVD's and books.

DVDs

Some of the more well known DVDs about the Import scene include:

Anime and manga

Two Japanese Anime and manga have been attributed to the growing Import scence 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 in the Toyota AE86 Sprinter Trueno. 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 critized TOKYOPOP's translation of the proeprty, 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 an incident with Tatsuya Shima (aka Blackbird), aquires the Nissan 240Z known only as the Devil Z due to the reputation that it's previous owners got killed trying to tame it's 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:

Magazine publications

Natasha Yi featured on the cover of Performance Auto & Sound
Enlarge
Natasha Yi featured on the cover of Performance Auto & Sound

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):

Most of the Tuner Magazines are printed by Primedia Publications (notably Import Tuner, Super Street and Honda Tuning.)

See also

External links

 

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.

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