What happend to the import scene? (Cars)

[CRTGAMER]

My brother sold his '65 ragtop with a 289 small block when he joined the Air Force, still can't get over that one ...........

How weird, my brother just bought a 65 convertible that also has a 289. Its in pretty rough shape, but no major rust from what I can tell. Cant wait to see it finished. Some ass left it sitting out with no top for about a year.

Nah couldn't be same car, 289 very common on older pony car ...........

Or maybe years later ................

Was it a Turquoise color? If so I'm dying for pics!

[Droid party]

Was it a Turquoise color? If so I'm dying for pics!

Speaking of pics, how about some of yours.

[DCsegaDH]

I remember when the whole import scene was popular when I was in high school, I wanted a Integra really bad, I couldn't afford anything for a long time so I settled for my sister's car (Cavalier wagon). I modified that, its cool because its way different than anything out their, I just lowered it and put on some wheels, no neon lights or big exhausts. I still kind of like imports, but just the JDM style ones only, nice clean lines and the non-rice look.

I think the whole scene went downhill because it was over populated with rice parts, crappy fast and furious movies, and most car guys probably moved on to a different scenes like trucks or hod rods or something else. I'm not really into car stuff anymore, its way too expensive and right now I'm too much into video games to get into other things.

[Luke]

I think the scene has died out since everyone who was into it grew up.

Not trying to be condescending, but everyone I knew who was into that stuff was when I was in high school. One of my good buddies Geoff had an amazing civic (I'll post pics if I can find one). Totally tricked out, tweed interior, mega system, and winner of dozens of car shows. I'll never forget the time we went to a huge car show in Atlanta (probably 2001) and Geoff had recently painted his rims a bright orange. This group of smoking hot chicks walked up to us and said, "Look at them white boys rollin' on pumpkins. You boys cute too". Good times.

But years later, Geoff got married, had a kid, and just doesn't have the extra time, money and effort for suping up cars. I'm guessing this happened to most of the other guys/few gals.

That said, everyone should know the basics of their car. Most mechanics are like doctors, they can always find something wrong to make them a buck.

*edit-pics added

[videogameexperiment]

My take on it is this. Now days taking a civic and throwing on a fart can and body kit is generally considered uncool, even by a high school kids standards. Once you cut out the people doing it to fit in or look cool it leaves a much smaller base of people. The rest of those guys are turning wrenches on their imports in a TASTEFUL fashion. I would be in this group. I ran an Integra several years ago and reached potential on it and graduated to something more serious - 3000gt VR4. That's what most of my friends have done as well, going from simple base class hondas to shoving turboed chevy pickup motors into tiny rx-7s.


The import scene is still there. It's just shifted to more of the serious competition drag/autoX side. I've seen most of the local shops close since many of the companies selling cheap ricer accessories go out of business. All you got left to sell is the expensive quality stuff with no where near the target market as you had before.

Also is it just me or does it seem like the muscle vs. import fight has settled? Seems like they both have started to respect each other.

[Jrecee]

Muscle vs. Rice settled? I dunno. . . I still see plenty of riced up hondas driven by mexicans down here in ga and I want to throw up every time I see them. It's the definition of tacky. You've got a car that's worth maybe $3000 with $2000 rims (or $50 walmart "chrome" hubcaps) and unpainted bodywork that doesn't even fit properly.

Now if you mean that ricers have moved on to ruining mid 90s mustangs as well, yep, they've done that. I guess I missed out on the whole import scene, but I missed out on the 70s muscle car scene as well, but I appreciate that.

I love cars no matter where they're from (except china) and I can appreciate the work that people put into them to make them their own, but it has to be tastefully done, and I've seen very little rice (at least in real world situations) that is respectable. Honestly I think those giant orange rims are the reason custom imports have been relegated to the mexicans, I'd be embarassed to be associated with that =/

Also I think the economy has probably effected that hobby. Most people souping up sub $10,000 cars make less money, and therefore have been more substantially impacted by the employment situation.

My idea of a car:

[CRTGAMER]

That is one beautiful Mopar with a Big Block...........

But why are you Stereotyping a group of people?
Just because you are a certain race doesn't mean you drive a certain type of vehicle........

Also is it just me or does it seem like the muscle vs. import fight has settled? Seems like they both have started to respect each other.

I do see people at car shows snub some cars because of the kind of vehicle. Everyone is entitled to what they think. Me, I prefer Hot Rods but I still respect any car that someone has built not paid someone else to customize it.

I think the scene has died out since everyone who was into it grew up.

But years later, Geoff got married, had a kid, and just doesn't have the extra time, money and effort for suping up cars. I'm guessing this happened to most of the other guys/few gals.

That said, everyone should know the basics of their car. Most mechanics are like doctors, they can always find something wrong to make them a buck.

I think grabbing that 1/2" drive socket set is a fading skill. The ratio of people with mechanical skills have dropped compared to say 20 years ago. But on the other hand society has become a lot smarter to electronic devices such as computers and cell phones. How many people before could not get rid of that flashing 12:00 on the VCR? Still its a shame when some people will call triple AAA to change a flat, actually kinda embarasing.

Was it a Turquoise color? If so I'm dying for pics!

Speaking of pics, how about some of yours.

Here you go ..............

[Luke]

Since we are talking about cars, a HUGE pet peeve of mine is when people/companies/dealers refer to cars as investments.

Less than 1% of cars are investments, and even that figure is a stretch.

Can I afford a Mercedes? Sure. Would I rather put my money into something that has ROI? Definitely.

That said, I love cars with unnecessary amounts of torque.

[CRTGAMER]

Since we are talking about cars, a HUGE pet peeve of mine is when people/companies/dealers refer to cars as investments.

Less than 1% of cars are investments, and even that figure is a stretch.

Somebody tell these wanna be rodders at Mercum who don't know that ............

"You gonna drive it or trailer it?"

[Jrecee]

I wasn't saying that Mexicans only drive ricey cars, I was just saying that 95% of the rice I see is driven by Mexicans. No stereotyping involved, just a factual observation.

There's a guy who goes to car shows around here, I believe he's mexican, and he has one of the most beautifully done mustangs I've ever seen in person.