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Born out of the availability of affordable JDM sports cars, the import tuning scene is now the biggest and most diverse it's ever been.

The car tuning culture has a long history and means a lot to many people. Depending on who you ask, its origins are a toss-up between America, Germany, and Japan. Since the invention of the automobile, people have always tinkered on their vehicles with aftermarket parts to optimize them and draw better performance than they left the factory. But the practice became more radical and later became a cultural movement. From the American hot-rods and dragsters of the '30s to the popular body races from Germany and the illegal mountain races of Japan dubbed ‘togue.’

After the oil crisis of the '70s happened and killed the muscle car, there were a few domestic performance heroes left, and they were largely unconvincing. The new wave of cheaper Japanese sports cars making their way Stateside in the 80s outperformed their domestic rivals. Soon, used Hondas, Toyotas, Nissans, and Mazdas became plentiful and cheaply attainable. They were also easy to work on and turn into little pocket rockets. Young adults could now afford to build fast, fun, and economical cars, thus birthing the import tuning sub-culture. Here are ten surprising facts about the import tuning scene.

Southern California has been home to car modifying among youths since the hot rod days of the 50s. Since the city of Gardena from this region has the highest population of Japanese Americans in North America, it’s no surprise it was the first-place early 80s Japanese vehicles gained popularity. And the presence of authentic Japanese parts retailers encouraged modification, and soon street import racing venues and meet-ups sprouted up.

The standard of living was higher here than in many other parts of America. According to Craig Lieberman, they were more receptive to buying Japanese cars and had more modified Supras, RX7s, and NSXs on their streets and car shows than anywhere else in the country.

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Import tuning involves all kinds of imported vehicles, including those from Europe. The import drag racing of the 60s, also born in Southern California, involved modified European cars like the VW Beetle, Austin A40, and the Ford Pop. So Europe did contribute incredible tuner-friendly cars like the BMW 3 Series, Porsche 911, Mercedes AMG, and the VW Golf. However, JDM cars dominated the import tuner scene.

Japanese cars were more affordable and practical, while their German counterparts were already performance-oriented and expensive objects of passion. Kids couldn’t afford a Mercedes AMG or a Porsche 911.

Existing auto repair and body shops from the early to mid-90s played a big role in fueling the culture. Teenage sons of the shop owners realized they could dial up the performance of Japanese cars by adding a few mods. They had the money, ability, and know-how to do this and chose this route over throwing lots of money on American muscle cars that they couldn’t modify. As the practice grew in popularity, new enthusiast import tuner shops budded and grew into reputable shops.

Most shops built authority and street cred by specializing in a few models. For instance, SP Engineering built GT-Rs RX-7s and Supras, Jotech Motorsports worked on Supras, and Jotech Motorsports built the quickest Honda Civic in the world in 1999. Sadly, few of the popular shops live on today.

Street racing was already popular in the 90s across the USA and was all about the bragging rights with their modified Civics and Integras. But the popularity grew considerably and exploded with the release of the first Fast and Furious movie in 2001.

By 1999, multiple tuner car events were happening every weekend all year. Also, the annual SEMA show dedicated more show space for tuners, and car manufacturers were adding them to their booths. And there were more than six tuner-exclusive event series like the Battle of the Imports, Hot Import Nights, NIRA, NOPI, Import Showoff, and Extreme Autofest.

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With the growth in tuning popularity came an insatiable demand for parts. Consequently, hundreds of auto companies manufacturing cool parts for tuners came up. By 1999, Japanese companies like HKS, Trust, and Apex integration set up distribution facilities in the USA.

Also, many auto parts distributors who had previously specialized in selling auto repair jobs like PepBoys and Autozone started stocking accessories for tuners.

First came the cars, followed by modifications that went mainstream, and then the magazines. Back then, fascination with magazines was high. Their page count mattered and varied across genres and popularity. As popularity increased, tuner magazine pages grew from 60 to 80 pages per issue.

By 2000, there were countless import tuner magazines producing issues with over 200 pages and were more than all the pages in domestic tuner magazines. There were several magazines, each aimed at popularizing a niche. But soon, the rise of the internet and tuner websites gradually killed them.

Some people wrongly assume the Fast and Furious franchise sparked import tuning. The scene predated the 1997 Grand-Turismo racing game, which also introduced many young gearheads into the practice and came much earlier than the F&F. The culture had already enjoyed its first golden age before the first movie came out in 2001. But we can’t deny the movies had a massive impact on pushing the cultural mainstream.

It made the scene super popular and provoked everyone to soup up their cars. Many kids installed fart cans and stick-ons on the hood of their CRXs after watching the movies.

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With the rapid growth of the import tuner market, world domination seemed inevitable, but it wasn’t to be. The market contracted after the USA went into recession in 2007. It affected the tuning hobby as many industries took a hit, and people had less disposable income, thus making expansion unsustainable.

Manufacturers caught up by the mid-2000s and started producing cars with good stock performance. There were fewer tuner-specific companies, so fewer parts and accessories were available, and the new cars were no longer tuner friendly.

One downside of the increased popularity was the entry of greedy manufacturers who spammed online stores like eBay with knockoff performance parts. New tuners who didn’t mind faking it until they made it chose these cheap parts over the well-engineered ones.

These parts were cosmetically similar to the original but at a third price and were of poor quality. Still, bargain shoppers went for them—this affected genuine part-makers, which drove many of them out of business.

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The import tuner scene isn’t dead, but one can argue it died a spiritual death and has changed immensely. It is a shadow of its former glory. Most magazines have died with their fellow print media businesses, with only a handful like Speedhunters and Honda Tuning surviving online and keeping the import tuner lights on.

Tuner fans who made the culture popular are now older, and their tastes changed. They can now afford Porsches and BMWs. Also, their hobbies might have diversified into other tuning genres like classic car restoration.

Bryan is a content marketer who works as a staff writer for HotCars.com where he covers a variety of topics, from the first Motorwagen to the latest Electric vehicles. A writer by day and a programmer by night. When he is not writing about cars, catch him tinkering with his old motorcycle.