You know what Im tired of hearing...

[Julio]

MODFYING IMPORT CARS started in California and blah blah blah... bunch of BS if you ask me...

All California did was just make it comercial..


I remember back in the early / late 80's My pop use to modify his old Datsun and 4 door honda civic and went to local car shows and shit... In good old passaic NJ... Not in California.

I honestly have no idea where it really started, I don't think no one will really know...
I just hate California taking so much credit for something they obviously didnt start.

I do agree they made it comercial but thats about it..

[4dmin]

\/ damn straight we had tuners in the south

[Julio]

Git R dun!

Is that a vintage R?

[Pablo]

bwhahahahahahaha

[quickdodge®]

Modifying import cars started in Japan. Later, QD.

[BOOSTEDeg]

Who gives a SH*T???? I know I am enjoying myself today.

[quickdodge®]

Here's a snippet of a research paper done by a student at Stanford:

"The history of the Import scene is not one uniform story, yet most concede that its genesis is in Los Angeles. Ken Miyoshi, one of founding members of the Import scene and of
"Import Showoff," the original Import car show, traces the history of modifying Japanese cars to the early 1970s. According to James Romero in The Los Angeles Times, it was also in 1970 that young Latino males did the "unthinkable" by modifying Japanese cars, which were considered "utilitarian at best." He notes it was not until early 1990s that observers saw Asian American youths visibly "cutting down their Imports as much for lowriding as for ground hugging performance."

Contradictory to Romero's history, Miyoshi notes that it was mainly third generation, Sansei, Japanese Americans in the Los Angeles area who started fixing up their Japanese cars. In the 1980s, groups called Shoreline and Paradise made up of Japanese American males from Gardena, a city in the Los Angeles area, modified their Toyota Corollas or "paradise cruisers." They followed the style of "souping" up cars in Japan by referring to Japanese car magazines and ordering car parts from Japan to modify their cars. The Import scene gained a wider audience and recognition in 1988 when the first Import car was featured in a popular car magazine, Sport Compact Car. "

Not saying this as fact, just showing you something I found on a quick search of the subject. Here is the whole page. Later, QD.

[carrascopa]

im not saying it happened 1st in cali.. but i would bet money that the mexican homies were among the first few to start modding them out! I only know this because my mexican father has been in the body shop industry all his life as well as his father before him... I have talked to him alot about the way they used to do things in the 60's and 70's!

i think that cali initiatted it in the states but not the world