| Import Scene |
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The Import scene or '''Import racing scene''' refers to the Subculture that revolves around modifying imported brand cars (commonly referred to as imports), especially those of Japan ese brands, for Street Racing in foreign countries. Thanks to movies like '' The Fast And The Furious '' ( 2001 ), it has become a mainstream phenomenon among American youth of all backgrounds. HISTORY Car modifying has been very popular among youth in the United States, especially in Southern California, since the days of series '' Initial D '', which focuses mainly on Mountain Pass Racing and '' Wangan Midnight '' which deals with high-speed expressway racing. CAR SHOWS The car show scene emerged with the pioneer event called Import Showoff and was the first of its kind.1 Modified Cars are often exhibited at car shows, such as Hot Import Nights (HIN) , Extreme Autofest , NOPI and Driven To Perform (DTP) . Hot Import Nights is the largest of the car shows in this space with over 20 events across the US reaching over 250,000 enthusiasts. Endemic vendors sell various products at these car shows including sound equipment for cars and other car modification products. Non-endemic vendors and sponsors like XM Satellite Radio , Hanes , Pepsi and Rockstar Energy Drinks participate in these events to target the young, mostly male, demographics attracted to these shows. Frequently, Spokesmodels are present to attract showgoers and to pose for photographs alongside cars. These models are also known as Import Models or Booth Babes and have gained massive popularity among those in the import scene and now beyond into Mainstream Media and Pop Culture .23 Increasingly, music (mostly hip-hop, urban and Electronic Dance Music ) has become a large part of these events. Whether its DJ 's spinning the latest tracks, up and coming Recording Stars or B-Boys and Go-Go Dancing , the lights, the sound and the movement have become a staple of these multi-faceted shows. MOTION PICTURES The import scene has been portrayed in these mainstream movies:
JAPANESE PRODUCTS Another aspect of the Import scene is Japanese products that either explores or details such racing, which often introduces new fans to the scene. These are usually found through DVDs and books. DVDs Some of the more well known DVDs about the import scene, apart from the movies listed above, include:
Anime and manga Two Japanese Anime and Manga have been attributed to the growing Import scene in some form or another. A common theme is that both characters are seen as complete underdogs with hidden and untapped talent, and drive what amounts to antiquated cars that many would deem either ready for the scrapheap or severely underpowered compared to much better tuned and modified cars.. The anime and manga '' Initial D '' stars Takumi Fujiwara as he is introduced to Touge racing after it is found that he has a natural ability to race his father's nearly bone stock Toyota AE86 Sprinter Trueno . With his amazing skill he is able to defeat Mazda RX-7 s, Nissan Skyline GT-R s and Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution s. With This has spawned several Arcade Games , which utilizes cars from both the manga, plus other cars associated with touge racing. The cars are setup 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. On the opposite spectrum, '' to the 815 HP mark, at the cost of 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 ported to the US by Namco . VIDEO GAMES Numerous video games have been produced about import racing, including:
MAGAZINE PUBLICATIONS featured on the cover of ''Performance Auto & Sound'']] There are many magazines published following this scene. They often include tutorials for car modification and feature sexy models. The following is a list of such magazines (and country of origin, those not mentioned are from the US):
Most of the Tuner Magazines are printed by Primedia Publications (notably ''Import Tuner'', ''Super Street'' and ''Honda Tuning''.) SEE ALSO
REFERENCES EXTERNAL LINKS
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