The “old days” of imports.

I'm 34, which means I got my license right around the time the SpoCom scene got big. FF1 inspired a lot of us. At the time, I had a sub to SS (super street for you kids). 
 

guys like Johnny Wong, Nads, Yamz, etc we're reporting on the "big" breakthroughs in the import scene. 
I came across this today: 

https://www.clubflyers.com/graphic-design/archive/artwork/len-monserrat-nira-pro-fwd-champion/3465/

reminded me of good times. Back when we used to dream of a FWD being fast. Now they are. Back when a 10 second drag pass was considered quick. Back when Ja Rule was cool. Back when you could get a Fruitopia out of a vending machine. Don't mind me, I'm just getting reminiscent and teary-eyed.

I remember the Super street reading 

we used to race at LACR every Friday. $20 for as much passes. I had EF si hatch, later crx with zc motor swap and greddy turbo, and lastly sc300 with single turbo 

 We used to go see RJ de Vera, Cito cabale, papdakis 9 second pass. 
 

battle of the imports ... 

In reply to _ :

I used to love when Honda Tuning (RIP Honda Tuning) would interview the old guard of the Honda Scene, like Norris Parayoonto, Steph Papadakis, Ron Bergenholtz, etc. Always crazy to hear how some of those guys went as fast as they did on nonsense like twin-cam ZCs with turbos blowing through Mikuni carburetors.

In reply to mr2s2000elise :

Lisa kubo (I used to think, because of her last name, that she was Japanese, until I met her in real life at the NOPI drag wars in St. Louis)

In reply to _ :

I remember kubo! 
 

we used to read about nopi nationals on East coast

i remember the cover of the EK hatch yellow with the 19s racing hart c5. People were like WOw 19s on civic 

cant remember the name of the guy - he was feom central cali. Grew up and lived on a farm. Raced a Rx7 FD was very fast, then switched to nsx 

I lived 30 miles from battle of the imports .... 

Edit: remembered his name

adam saruwatari 

also abel Ibarra 

Who was the gal who ran some crazy fast Hondas, got killed in a freak skydiving accident? Stephanie something? I remember reading where she was contacted by some company to race a Scion tC drag car for them and weeks before the season was supposed to kick off her and her husband, who was her crew chief went down to look at the car because the company was being cagey, and got there to find out that the car wasn't even remotely close to being complete. She literally told the company to go berkeley themselves and went back to racing her own Honda.

mr2s2000elise said:

also abel Ibarra 

Abel Ibarra is still building absolutely mental rotary cars. They had him on Hoonigan with his RX-8. Good lord.

In reply to NickD :

Nice to see he is around. i used to love him, as I grew up on Toyota Starlets and some other different things, which Abel was into. Back, then Abel didn't get much respect. Nice to see him still around

In reply to mr2s2000elise :

That guy was the most consistent racer in NOPI. He would win most of the time just because his car ran about the same ET, R/T, and would almost never break. The car was dead reliable. 

In reply to _ :

Yup.   Good times. Miss those times. Well I have still some of the old skool stuff in the driveway, and its now interesting to get compliments at gas stations from "old guys," on bone stock cars .I remember back then, we wouldn't go out of our house wiht our car, if it wasn't lowered, on Volks/Blitz with exhaust and intake, etc, well clean modified with JDM lights etc. Now, running stock, is a badge of honor. How times have changed.... 

Oh man. You guys are making me nostalgic.  I'm a little older than the OP, so I was a poor high-school student, then a poor college student when all this was going down so I never had the scratch to do the crazy stuff.  That said, I slowly modified the EG Civic Si (hatch) over the course of seven years.  I still miss that car.  Probably more than any other.

I had a friend who couldn't fathom that I would enjoy reading something as low-brow as Super Street.  I basically gave the Playboy excuse - "I read it for the articles!"  

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.

Three words: APC euro taillights. 

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

In reply to Fueled by Caffeine :

Damn. Times were rough for everybody.

A 10 second pass is still very fast. Just try doing it in front of your house! If it's not fast for various people out there, i mostly feel bad for them. Some people need to have something to wave around or something to chase and I guess that's fine as long as they contain themselves to well marked areas. If they do it in front of my house I'll think they're going too fast.. 

35 here. I can still remember the sheer asininity happening on the roads 2 hours after FF1 released. I was driving my dad's Dakota, which in spite of being faster than a stock 420a Eclipse that everyone had back then (and weren't embarassed to race!) i was not engaging in much hooliganism in. But once i got my champaigne colored 3.3L Dodge Dynasty (!!!) all those non turbo eclipses, Integra LSs, 3.8 Mustangs, Celica GTs and other slow cars that looked like they weren't got silently trundled past.  

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. I remember pouring over D-Sport and Super Street during that time period. The internet was a much smaller place, certain parts were considered rare, and it was a huge deal when someone turned up with RE Amemiya bits.

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

The only thing that's changed is that I don't want cars to be as loud as they were.

Matt B said:

Oh man. You guys are making me nostalgic.  I'm a little older than the OP, so I was a poor high-school student, then a poor college student when all this was going down so I never had the scratch to do the crazy stuff.  That said, I slowly modified the EG Civic Si (hatch) over the course of seven years.  I still miss that car.  Probably more than any other.

I had a friend who couldn't fathom that I would enjoy reading something as low-brow as Super Street.  I basically gave the Playboy excuse - "I read it for the articles!"  

We had the EF civic, than CRX, and then DA Integra (91-93). The rich kids had the EG Hatch and we ooh and ahhed that the civic si/ex had sunroof that popped up and over. The rich kids then got DC Integras too and EK hatch finally.  We stayed poor. 

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. 

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.

_ said:

Three words: APC euro taillights. 

My sister got a new IS300 sedan, MT.  Got pulled over 4 times in 2 years for OEM tails. She got sick of it.Traded it in a Sport Cross IS300, same tails, never got pulled over. Her Sport Cross has 575K miles on it, she still has it.

I got a ticket on my 91 Integra hatch for "clear tails." The 90-91 Teg turn signal is clear, while the 92-93 Teg is orange.  I fought it in court and won. Needed a letter from Acura saying my lights were OEM. 

We used to get these tapes from my cousin in Tokyo 

https://youtu.be/GuDjjBbdKYg

pretty cool to see the mr2 vs integra 

mr2 is faster but the integra is more fun to drive 

I had a giant pile of Sport Compact Car starting from 1997 or so.

SCC had tech-ish articles, which I greatly appreciated.

The old days?  I guess I'm gramps then. 
 

Performance parts were non-existent on this car.  Remember Phoenix Stahlflex tires?  
 

Damn great grandpa status 

Wow, yall are bringing me back. I was 22 when FNF came out (just turned 40) I almost bought an integra GSR. I accidentally bought an AWD DSM instead. It lead me down the path of David Buschur. Then came GRM. And here I are.