"5Zigen," the Honda Civic in front of me
says. "Made by Dijon Cars. We create racing spirit." I'm at a
stoplight behind another one of these tuned imports and wondering,
once again, what motivates people to do so much stuff to cars that
are already so good to begin with. How these guys can afford it. Why
this little white spirit racer, with its blue, yellow and green
stripes and massive exhaust and huge tires, is moving so slowly, so
carefully away from the stoplight.
You've no doubt seen these things around. Driven mostly by young
(18-24) males, they're decked out in airdams, spoilers and alloy
wheels, frequently sport huge, rumbling, fuming exhaust pipes with
speed-bump-scraping mufflers. Most of the time they also throb with
some sort of bassy music for which you can't figure out the lyrics.
For the most part, the cars are imported&emdash;Civics, Golfs and
Talons in the lower end and 3-series BMWs farther up the
scale&emdash;though there is the occasional token domestic, such as a
Z24 Cavalier or a Ford Probe.
___________________________
Despite the bad-English exhortation of the car in front of me,
racing spirit isn't what it's all about.
Though it has its roots in Europe and Japan, it's not surprising
that the import tuning fad picked up real steam in California, where
every kid has a car and has, at the same time, to stand out from the
crowd. Hondas and Mitsubishi Eclipses in particular have sold and
have been customized in large numbers over there, because of their
sturdiness and low insurance rates: it's easy for a kid to convince a
parent to buy a reliable, practical import for their son or daughter.
Little do parents know about what many of those kids already have
in mind, says Danny Tang of Kennedy HiFi, a Scarborough-based
high-performance and car audio shop that has won numerous awards and
races with its work: kids buy vehicles knowing beforehand what they
want to do with them; they choose their cars appropriately.
Because of their fine performance right off the lot, and the
variety of parts available for them, Civics have become the car of
choice for kids that want high-profile performance on a shoestring
budget. A quick glance through Sport Compact Car, the movement's
bible, shows why: there are literally dozens of body kits and
accessories for Hondas; there's but one or two for, let's say, a
Mazda 323.
Why imports and not domestics? Fifteen years ago, it was Mustangs
and Camaros that dominated the hot-rod scene, but both cars have
priced themselves out of reach of young gearheads. (I can still
remember when you could get a 5-litre Mustang for less than
$20,000&emdash;today you'd have to pay about one and a half times
that.) Honda, especially, Tang says, has taken great pains to foster
a thriving aftermarket&emdash;"I've said it before, and I'll say it
again. What the Mustang did for the high-performance aftermarket
industry in the eighties, Honda's doing in the nineties. There's so
much choice."
Moreover, the domestic cars that are within reach of these drivers
don't have that much to offer&emdash;looks are there, certainly, but
their engines are mostly antiquated low revving designs that possess
neither the top-end power nor the sound that customers want.
(Transmissions may have something to do with it too&emdash;most
domestic econoboxes are equipped with automatics&emdash;and their
manual transmissions, an import-zealot cornerstone, are nothing to
write home about.)
___________________________
The body is where most people start tinkering. From wheel and tire
packages through to a wing here or there right on up to a full
"combat" bodykit resplendent with nonfunctional air scoops and huge
spoilers, it's the logical starting point for such a
fashion-conscious audience. Depending on the extent of the
modifications, altering a car's exterior can run from about a hundred
bucks for clear turn signal lenses (all the rage right now) through
to body kits that run into the thousands when installed and painted.
A set of basic aluminum wheels starts at close to $1000, and can run
to more than four times that amount, not to mention the low-profile
tires to fit them and the uprated brakes that occasionally nestle in
behind them.
Inside, common changes include aluminum pedals&emdash;a good set
goes for about $400&emdash;and gearshift knobs ($100 and up) through
to steering wheels, and carbon fiber appliqués. Most customers
also want a high-performance audio system installed, which can run
from $3000 and up&emdash;the sky's the limit.
Because the cars that are being modified run so well already, many
shops are reluctant to recommend alterations under the hood. Intake
modifications are expensive (running from $250 on up) and seldom
provide any performance benefit. Not only do open-air systems violate
most emissions laws, but, because they're mounted close to the
engine, they draw in hot air rather than cold, negating much of their
performance benefit. (A new product just out on the market that Tang
shows me has an open-air element coupled to a scoop that draws in
cold air; it runs for $349.) Typically, claims made about increases
of 15-20 horsepower are overblown; real gains are much smaller, and
fuel consumption generally suffers because the engines have to run a
richer air-fuel mix.
Tang instead recommends supercharging or turbocharging as a more
cost-efficient route to increased power. Because of the way these
cars are driven&emdash;constantly gearing down and remaining in the
meat of the powerband&emdash;lag is a non-issue. Jackson Racing, in
particular, has an inexpensive Eaton supercharger that's supposed to
provide instantaneous throttle response.
A shiny exhaust system with a fist-sized tip is almost obligatory
nowadays, but adds no tangible benefit save for a throaty
(flatulent?) sound. The cars that such pipes ($250&endash;1400) are
bolted on to, says Tang, don't have nearly enough power to need such
breathing capacity; his own car has a 5-inch tip stuck on to the
stock exhaust, preserving the California look but keeping
driveability and noise levels in tact.
The relatively low cost of individual modifications is the reason
that most of these drivers have managed to put so much equipment and
money into their cars. While there's the occasional
bring-it-in-and-have-everything-done-that-can-be-done job, most
modifications are made piecemeal, over a long period of time, to cars
that are at least a couple of years old; cars that have worn out some
of their original attraction.
Piece-by-piece modification allows the cars' owners to build a
high-performance machine without the huge initial outlay involved in
buying a much more expensive car. On the shoestring budgets most of
these guys are on, a new BMW is simply out of the question; but one
high-performance goodie every couple of months is a lot easier to
stomach. It also keeps the car in a constant state of
transition&emdash;it never becomes old.
___________________________
It's interesting that many of these tuned cars are very
low-mileage ones; their owners take very good care of them&emdash;and
keep them impeccably clean. For the most part, they aren't daily
drivers. Many owners either use public transit or have a "beater" for
daily commutes, where they're afraid of damaging their cars or having
them broken into. Instead, they're weekend-and-evening cars, cars to
take downtown and be seen in; cars to go on dates in.
Urban life being as it is, there is seldom a chance for these cars
to stretch their legs&emdash;doing so takes a really concerted
effort. Billy Lee, owner of Greenlane Auto Collision, tells stories
of getting up at two in the morning, searching for a perfect stretch
of road that he uses for maybe a few minutes before returning home.
Most of the owners of these cars, explains Lee, do it for their
own interest&emdash;for the fun of working on and driving their cars,
rather than to engage in any kind of active, organized competition.
Instead, it's the late-night solitary drive&emdash;and perhaps the
possibility of a stoplight grand prix with a similarly-minded
enthusiast.
There isn't a single racing series for Canadian tuned
imports&emdash;yet. There are import days at Cayuga Dragway Park, and
Shannonville hosts a couple of import-oriented events a year. A small
percentage of owners also autocross their cars on weekends, swapping
their fancy alloys for racing slicks mounted on steel wheels. It's a
fun and relatively inexpensive way to give their cars a
workout&emdash;without having to convert them over to full-race cars
with rollcages and other equipment that would make them difficult to
drive around town.
Far more common is participation in car shows like Speedorama, or
the Sport Compact Invitational that was recently held in St-Eustache,
Québec; combination races, aftermarket shows and cruise, many
of them draw hundreds of cars from all over the country. While racing
plays a part in some events, the biggest payoff for owners comes when
cars are on display&emdash;in the opportunity to check out others'
cars and stereo systems, allowing them to find out what's new on the
market and what kinds of things other enthusiasts have tried on their
cars. Awards are given out here not for lap times or high speeds;
instead, best-of-show honours go to the best-looking vehicles and
those that win "sound-off" competitions.
Cort Nielsen, a PR intern with VW Canada and owner of a customized
Beetle, thinks the lack of high-performance activity in Canada has to
do with our weather (and thus a short racing season) and a general
lack of bodies&emdash;high-performance import clubs, he says, "are
everywhere in the States, especially in the sunbelt." There are
dozens of clubs in California, Florida and North Carolina; they hold
semi-annual and annual invitationals and races that many Canadians
make the trip to participate in.
Watch out, though, says Tang. Just as it took a couple of years
for import tuning to make its way up north from California, so we are
just waiting for the tidal wave of import drag racing, where hundreds
of cars meet on weekends to duke it out in bracket-style races
reminiscent of the duels between musclecars back in the sixties.
___________________________
Reza Shohreh, who owns a red 1992 Civic, typifies the
import-tuning enthusiast. Over the last five years, he's added stuff
to every part of his car, working incrementally. Its body has been
adorned with a 6-piece kit from B.C. Auto and Design; the stock
wheels have been replaced with centerlock TSW rims.
Inside, the standard Civic seats were removed in favor of
better-bolstered models from an Acura Integra; a set of Greddy gauges
lets him monitor oil temperature and pressure. A Zender shift knob
and racing-style pedals completes the theme.
Engine modifications are extensive, from a revised intake system
to new headers and ignition wires; the clutch is a Centerforce unit.
The stock exhaust was replaced by a Stromung cat-back system.
Like most enthusiasts, Shohreh also installed a top-flight audio
system, with a Pioneer head unit, a set of three Phoenix Gold Amps
and two 15-inch subwoofers mounted in a custom-designed shelf. It's a
powerhouse system, one that takes up the entire hatchback and leaves
almost no luggage space.
With its significantly enhanced engine and lowered suspension, the
car certainly looks like a holy terror on public roads; but it also
looks like a handful to drive&emdash;the sills look low enough to
scrape the ground and the size of the rear spoilers compromise
rearward vision. (Then again, if you're looking back in a car like
this, you've got the wrong idea.)
Billy Lee's 1995 VR6 Golf is at the more extreme end of the scale,
with fiberglass body panels front and rear, a VW Motorsport engine
with polished heads and ports. It's been appraised at just under
$60,000&emdash;an almost unbelievable sum for what was originally a
car that went for $28,000.
Over the last three years, he's worked on it piece by piece, first
retrofitting a lightweight fiberglass body kit and then experimenting
with different intake and exhaust systems (he's on his third exhaust
now, a Hartmann Motorsport unit he flew in from Germany last month.)
The interior's been trimmed in carbon fibre, and the seats have been
replaced by lightweight one-piece models; combined with the weight
savings from the fiberglass body panels and the increased output from
the engine, the little car fairly flies.
Ironically, keeping it off the ground is the most difficult
problem, Lee points out. With an airdam that's only about three
inches off the ground, he has to pick his way through a parking lot
very, very carefully. The VW is fast, he admits, and a lot of fun to
throw around, "but it's like a toy car. Very easy to break."
___________________________
Preserving some semblance of practicality and driveability can be
something of a challenge. Because of the basic goodness that is baked
into them, it's easy to go overboard and ruin the balance and poise
of the original cars. Take, for instance, the lowered suspensions and
low-profile tires: every bump in the road is transmitted directly to
your innards, and the car wants to follow even the slightest ridge.
Pumped up exhausts, so wonderful-sounding under hard acceleration,
quickly become tiring as you cruise down the highway&emdash;and
cruise is what you'll do, not speed, because of how low the cars are
and how easily they leap when they hit a pothole.
Moreover, despite all of the performance modifications that have
been made to most of these cars, they're actually less fun to drive
for two main reasons. First, they're difficult to drive quickly
because of their sensitivity: you're scared of encountering
imperfections in the road that could throw the car off-balance, or
even worse, damage some of that expensive low-hanging stuff. Second,
much of the performance that has been added has been added outside of
the range of driving that you can do on normal streets&emdash;the
chance to hit 8500 rpm through every gear is about as rare as the
opportunity to actually enter a corner with enough force to set the
wide tires a singing. Because the cars' limits have been pushed so
far to the extreme, their performance under normal stresses is
ironically weakened.
___________________________
But a slight loss in driveability, says Tang, "is just part of the
game." It's a price most are willing to pay. Lowered usable
performance or not, these cars' owners love them; love the look of
the stainless-steel intakes under the hood, the ground-hugging body
kits and huge exhaust pipes; the bass rumble from their stereo
systems. Yes, their cars are more sensitive and tempremental than
your typical Civic or Golf&emdash;but then, the logic goes, so are
Ferraris more tempremental than Chevrolets.
Moreover, import tuning seems to be a great way for owners on
small budgets to get themselves involved in high performance. Think
of it as graduated licensing on the way up the car ladder. You start
off with something modest and add horses and roadholding until you've
hit the big leagues. Then you sell your car and start all over again.
I've given up trying to get it. Car customizing, after all, has
never been about rationality. Cars have always been about emotion,
and customizing has always been about making a car your
own&emdash;and if you want it ground-scraping, bass-thumping and
wallet-busting, I suppose that's your right. Racing spirit or not, at
the very least, it guarantees some kind of visceral reaction. And
awestruckedness, admiration or outright loathing are reactions that a
stock Civic could never claim to evoke.