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The import scene, also known as the import racing scene or tuner scene, is a subculture of modifying mostly Japanese-import cars, particularly in the United States and Europe.
Car modifying has been popular among youths in the US, especially in Southern California, since the days of hot rods in the 1950s and 1960s and muscle cars in the 1970s. There is significant evidence indicating that import drag racing first started in Southern California in the mid-1960s, with modified Volkswagen Beetles, Ford Populars and Austin A40 Devons: Documentation of quarter-mile passes were published in Hot Rod Magazine as early as August 1965.
Puerto Rico also has a history of pioneering import drag racing in the mid-'70s and -'80s, and it is still a popular hobby on the island.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Japanese vehicles, mostly early smaller Hondas (Civic, Prelude), Toyotas (Celica, Corolla, Supra), Nissans (Datsun 510) and Mazdas (RX-2, RX-3) gained popularity in Southern California. To be more precise, within the city of "Gardena" at a parking lot (location) for then what was called "Meiji (Japanese) Market or Meiji Market Plaza" along with a line of other authentic Japanese retailers serving the largely Japanese communities of Gardena, Torrance, and Palos Verdes was to become the " 1st known and established Weekend late-night meet-up location." The Young Asian-Americans and first generation "Issei" Japanese street racers from Japan and Okinawa played a particularly important role in the development of the early street racing scene. Many enthusiasts in southern California centered around the City of Gardena
In 1973, the Japanese issei began to bring the style of Japanese styled cars over to the U.S. Cars such as the Datsun 510, Toyota Corolla, and the Honda Civic along with other modified vehicles.
also began to modify their compact Japanese cars, following similar trends that originated in Japan, such as the paint schemes, modified exhausts, and engine carburation. As the import racers and car aesthetics grew in popularity and numbers, so did the competition. Meiji Market's parking lot became very well known outside the original Japanese car crews and this attracted more outsiders to visit, as well as American Car race Crews to appear, which inevitably became somewhat problematic. This local Import Racers scene became a hotbed for pink slip racing and more aggressive tension between race crews. Non-Japanese automobile racers & car clubs started to appear from far outside the Gardena, Torrance, & South Bay communities and in approx. circa 1983-86 Import racers and midnight racers started to meet at another local restaurant called "Naugles," which was located on Western Ave & and 186th street. Naugles was the "1st obvious step" that import racing was now gaining popularity in other Southern California communities.
The import scene grew exponentially in the 1990s and 2000s with more Japanese imports internationally, better performance, and media and cultural influences such as the Fast & Furious film series and Need for Speed video games. [1] [2] [3] The growing scene was headlined by the flagship Japanese halo sports cars such as the Toyota Supra, Nissan Skyline GT-R, Mazda RX-7, and Acura NSX. Other cars such as the Mitsubishi 3000GT, Nissan Z, Honda S2000, Toyota MR2, Nissan Silvia, Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution, and Subaru Impreza WRX were all successful entrants in the booming scene.
Street Import racing venues and street meet-up locations in nearby cities such as Carson, Ca. and Long Beach, Ca. eventually arose from the original Meiji Market Location, and then came huge drag racing events at Palmdale, California often packed in over 10,000 spectators per day. Racers like Stephan Papadakis, Ed Bergenholtz, Myles Bautista, Lisa Kubo, and Eric Sebastian [4] on the West Coast dominated the first import drag racing circuit IDRC (Battle of the Imports) in the mid 1990s. Show car clubs became a huge factor within the import scene: Southern California had Team Macross 7, Team Outkast, Team Kosoku, Northern California had SVP, Sinister Racing, Team Flipspeed in the East Coast (New Jersey, Toronto). In the South, Team Himitsujigen and Team Dangerous (Texas) and Team Hawaii had Midnight Racing and Alpha Project which won numerous car shows all over the island of Oahu. Special thanks to the crews at Distinctive, GX Auto, Progressive Auto Sounds, P.A.T.S, Sonic Motorsports, Midnight Tinting, Kaizo Speed Gear, Architechs, Hypersports Racing, Speedline, HDS, Hawaii Raceway Park and AugustKinetics. Guam had teams like Lowered 2 Perfection and Toys R Us, while the East Coast had the still-active Jade Crew.
The 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.
Another part of the import scene is Japanese products that either explore or detail such racing, often introducing new fans to the scene. These are usually found through DVDs and books.
The Japanese domestic market supplies high quality parts and brands for tuning Japanese cars. It is made up of various associations working together to supply products to street racers and tuners.
Some of the more well known DVDs about the scene, apart from the anime series mentioned above, include:
Two Japanese anime and manga have been attributed to the growing import scene in some form or another. A common theme in both is that characters that are depicted underdogs with hidden and untapped talent drive what amount to antiquated cars that many would deem either ready for the scrapheap or underpowered compared to much better tuned and modified cars.
The anime and manga Initial D stars Takumi Fujiwara as he is introduced to touge (mountain pass racing) after it is found that he has a natural ability to race his father's specially tuned 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 spawned several arcade games, which utilizes cars from the manga, plus other cars associated with touge racing. The cars are set up 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. After Tokyopop lost the license to Initial D in 2009, Funimation picked up the license to Initial D and re-released the first four seasons of the anime, with new subtitles and dubs more faithful to the original.
On the opposite spectrum, Wangan Midnight focuses on the relatively wide Shuto Expressway of Tokyo. Akio Asakura is a high school student who likes to race on the Wangan highway. After being defeated by a doctor (and a racer as well), Tatsuya Shima's Blackbird (a Porsche 964), he accidentally acquires a monstrously powerful Nissan Fairlady Z (S30) known as The Devil Z. All but one of its previous owners were mysteriously killed in traffic accidents involving the Z, but he 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 who used the Wangan as their own personal racetrack. The cars often were modified to attain high power (this is reflected in the arcade game: it allows cars to be upgraded to over 820 hp (610 kW), at the cost of having 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 import to the United States by Namco as a replacement for Ridge Racer V: Arcade Battle.
Initial D is a Japanese street racing manga series written and illustrated by Shuichi Shigeno. It was serialized in Kodansha's seinen manga magazine Weekly Young Magazine from 1995 to 2013, with the chapters collected into 48 tankōbon volumes. The story focuses on the world of illegal Japanese street racing, where all the action is concentrated in the mountain passes and rarely in cities or urban areas, and with the drifting racing style emphasized in particular. Professional race car driver and pioneer of drifting Keiichi Tsuchiya helped with editorial supervision. The story is centered on the prefecture of Gunma, more specifically on several mountains in the Kantō region and in their surrounding cities and towns. Although some of the names of the locations the characters race in have been fictionalized, all of the locations in the series are based on actual locations in Japan.
Keiichi Tsuchiya is a Japanese professional race car driver. He is known as the Drift King for his nontraditional use of drifting in non-drifting racing events and his role in popularizing drifting as a motorsport. In professional racing, he is a two-time 24 Hours of Le Mans class winner and the 2001 All Japan GT Championship runner-up. He is also known for touge driving.
The Initial D video game series, also known as Initial D Arcade Stage, is an arcade racing game series developed by Sega, based on the anime and manga series Initial D. In the United States and Europe, the game series is simply known as Initial D.
Road Fighter is a racing arcade video game developed by Konami and released in 1984, and was the first racing game from the company. The goal is to reach the finish line within the stages without running out of time, hitting other cars or running out of fuel. The game spawned a spiritual successor, Konami GT (1986), and two sequels, Midnight Run: Road Fighter 2 (1995) and Winding Heat (1996). A Japan-only sequel was also released 14 years later, Road Fighters (2010).
Drifting is a driving technique where the driver intentionally oversteers, with loss of traction, while maintaining control and driving the car through the entirety of a corner or a turn. The technique causes the rear slip angle to exceed the front slip angle to such an extent that often the front wheels are pointing in the opposite direction to the turn. Drifting is traditionally performed using three methods: clutch kicking, weight transfer, and employing a handbrake turn. This sense of drift is not to be confused with the four wheel drift, a classic cornering technique established in Grand Prix and sports car racing.
Street racing is typically an unsanctioned and illegal form of auto racing that occurs on a public road. Racing in the streets is considered an ancient hazard, as horse racing occurred on streets for centuries, and street racing in automobiles is likely as old as the automobile itself. It became especially prevalent during the heyday of hot rodding (1960s), muscle cars, Japanese imports (1990s) and sports cars (2000s). Since then, it continues to be both popular and hazardous, with deaths of bystanders, passengers, and drivers occurring every year. In the United States, modern street racing traces its roots back to Woodward Avenue, Michigan, in the 1960s when the three main Detroit-based American car companies were producing high-powered performance cars. Since a private racing venue was not always available, street races would be held illegally on public roads.
A custom car is a passenger vehicle that has been altered to either improve its performance, change its aesthetics, or a combination of both. A desire among some automotive enthusiasts in the United States is to push "styling and performance a step beyond the showroom floor - to truly craft an automobile of one's own." A custom car in British according to Collins English Dictionary is built to the buyer's own specifications.
Wangan Midnight is a Japanese racing manga series written and illustrated by Michiharu Kusunoki. It was first serialized in Shogakukan's Big Comic Spirits in 1990, but was later serialized in Kodansha's Weekly Young Magazine from 1992 to 2008. The manga was compiled into 42 volumes published by Kodansha. A second manga series titled Wangan Midnight: C1 Runner was published from 2008 to 2012. A third manga series, Ginkai no Speed Star, was published from 2014 to 2015. A fourth manga series, Shutoko SPL - Ginkai no Speedster, started in 2016.
Tokyo Xtreme Racer, known as Shutokō Battle in Japan and Tokyo Highway Challenge in Europe, is a racing video game for the Sega Dreamcast. Released in 1999 as one of the console's launch titles, the game was one of the first mission-based racing games. In the game, players challenge other drivers on the Shuto Expressway in order to gain money to modify and enhance their cars. The game features a wide variety of Japanese cars and tuning parts to purchase as the player progresses through rivals.
Megalopolis Expressway Trial is the original title of a series of six Japanese films, about illegal highway racing in the Shuto Expressway, released between 1988 and 1996. An English subtitled version of the film series was released on DVD in North America in 2004 due to commercial success of popular Hollywood films like The Fast and The Furious. A 4-disc re-release of the 2004 edition was made available in 2007, it was renamed Tokyo Speedway: The Complete Collection. Though also available in Hong Kong, the DVD edition was not released in Japan since the series is still banned and the last episode unreleased yet.
Shakotan Boogie is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Michiharu Kusunoki. It was serialized in Kodansha's seinen manga magazine Weekly Young Magazine from 1986 to 1996, with its chapters collected in 32 tankōbon volumes. It follows the adventures of two friends interested in shakotan, the Japanese term for lowriders. While getting into trouble, picking up girls, and street racing, these two guys have a blast in the world of Shakotan.
The Fast and the Furious is a 2006 racing game developed by Eutechnyx and published by Namco Bandai Games for the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable. The game is based on the Fast & Furious film series, particularly the third film The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift.
Zero4 Champ (ゼロヨンチャンプ) is a series of racing games created by Yutaka Kaminaga at Media Rings, which started in 1991 with the PC Engine title Zero4 Champ.
The Bayshore Route signed as Route B, is one of the routes of the tolled Shuto Expressway system in the Greater Tokyo Area. The Bayshore Route is a 62.1-kilometer (38.6 mi) stretch of toll highway that runs from the Kanazawa ward of Yokohama in the west, northeast to the city of Ichikawa in Chiba Prefecture in the east. Opened in phases beginning in 1976 and ending in 2001, it is an important route that runs between the artificial islands lining the western shore of Tokyo Bay by way of bridges and sub-sea tunnels that bypass central Tokyo.
Wangan Midnight is a racing game developed by Genki for the PlayStation 3. It is based on the Award-winning Japanese comic of the same name created by Michiharu Kusunoki back in 1992. The Wangan Midnight PlayStation 3 Blu-ray was released in Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan on July 5, 2007. The game runs at Full HD 1920x1080 resolution at 30 frames per second.
NZ Performance Car is a monthly automobile magazine and website, and is the biggest selling automotive and men's lifestyle magazine in New Zealand.
Super Lap is a time attack motorsport event. Super Lap events are being held in Australia and New Zealand.
R-Tuned: Ultimate Street Racing is an arcade racing game developed by Sega AM2 And released by Sega on 23 October 2008 in Asia and North America, and on 17 April 2009 in Europe. The game focuses on the import scene and illegal street racing. The game runs on the Sega Lindbergh platform, and uses Virtua Fighter 5's characters model engine. Players can save their progress and records by using IC cards. There are boost buttons on the steering wheel, players can use unlimited boosts to speed up during the game.
Over Rev! is a Japanese manga series created by Katsumi Yamaguchi and Team39. The manga began serialization in the now-defunct seinen manga magazine Weekly Young Sunday in November 1996, and compiled into 31 volumes released between May 1997 and November 2004. The series also spanned into a live action film (V-Cinema) and a CD drama. There were plans for an anime and OVA, but there were no further reports about production. The story revolves around Ryoko Shino, a Japanese high school senior and a former track star who gets into street racing after breaking her Achilles tendon. The tagline for the series is "A Legend of Ultimate Hot Rodder".
