Why no more Import Wars and the like?

Did something happen to the popularity of front wheel drive import drag and street cars?

There used to be a ton of them on the streets and at the local cruise nights around here. We had Nopi-Vision and Import Nights on the cable stations, loads of parts and pieces offered in the speed shops and such. Now nothing.

I haven't heard a "fart can" equipped import whipping down the street in ages. Never see them on the highway either.

Did the interest just die out that quickly? Seems like a couple of years ago the little rocket ships were everywhere, now pretty much absent.

Wondering what happened?

Where do you live? Around here just about every single front wheel drive car fron the 90's is either driven by the elderly or equipped with a fart can and "mad tyte jdm" rims.

I still see them around but not as much as a few years ago. I imagine it's because the fast and furious movies don't use civics anymore.

TeamEvil wrote: Did something happen to the popularity of front wheel drive import drag and street cars? There used to be a ton of them on the streets and at the local cruise nights around here. We had Nopi-Vision and Import Nights on the cable stations, loads of parts and pieces offered in the speed shops and such. Now nothing. I haven't heard a "fart can" equipped import whipping down the street in ages. Never see them on the highway either. Did the interest just die out that quickly? Seems like a couple of years ago the little rocket ships were everywhere, now pretty much absent. Wondering what happened?

You're acting as if this were a bad thing.

I live in Massachusetts, really almost no imports around these days at all. Even at Epping Dragway, seems like the the track no longer sponsors any of the Import events like they once did.

Has NHRA pushed them out? Has NOPI gone bust? I always like the import drag cars, they had some turbo tech that was interesting and innovative, went like mad, and were fun to watch.

They brought an excitement to it all that is missing watching the next belly button Camaro or Fox body Mustang on street night or test and tune days.

Hope that it all isn't just "the economy," you know?

it's the same as what happened to all the street rods built from pre-war cars that were all over the place in the 60's: in general, the people that drove them grew up and got to the point where they could afford bigger and better cars. and the younger kids that are coming up to driving age just don't care as much about that kind of cars as they did a decade ago, so there are less entry level fwd cars being modified..

and they have gone all drifting.. Civics aren't so good for that

They lost their local parking lot hangout for being shiny happy people. Don't see as many around these days either.

I don't miss 'em.

mad_machine wrote: and they have gone all drifting.. Civics aren't so good for that

Yep. Around these parts they either went drift crazy or STi mad and a large percentage went into full on jacked up diesel, coal rolling brodouche mode.

What is the ricer flyby called when it is in a coal rolling cummins?

Ditchdigger wrote: What is the ricer flyby called when it is in a coal rolling cummins?

It's called "Spending Daddy's Money on the Fad Du Jour".

Probably the same thing that the Douchenozzles in tech school did, move from one sub-culture to the next to whatever gave them the most attention.

NOPI is still around. http://www.nopinationals.com/index.php?vn=ABOUT13

I think a lot of the fad died in the recession and just didn't come back.

Gas isn't a buck a gallon.

Drifting happened.

On another note, what's the next big fad going to be?

They found out you could spend less money to go just as fast with better cars.

They've gone hellaflush.

Derick Freese wrote: They've gone hellaflush.

pretty much this

It would seem that around here, the ba-ba-boom-ba-boom bass cranked up to 11 Civics and such have disappeared as well. Not a bad thing.

I caged my Civic and took it to the road course and now it lives in my garage only to be driven on rare occasions on the street. Honestly there are still a few FWD imports tuner cars around but a lot of them got out of Drag racing and went to Drift and Time Attack. That and they grew up and moved on to bigger and faster cars. Have you seen the new Civics they are not exactly built to perform like the ones in the 90's were.

Hipsters happened. Lots of kids don't think cars are cool

The economy went in the toilet over a decade ago and took that fad with it. I never owned an integra or RSX but I do miss them a bit (not riced out though)

Drifting was the next big thing, and drift aesthetics turned into the "stance" movement. The proliferation of turbo AWD cars did seem to result in a subgroup of modding them too for those with more $$. I lived in Pittsburgh previously and probably the most common modded car was a WRX, makes sense in a hilly city that gets snow. I have a friend with a shop that does mostly FWD Honda builds, but even they have branched out into other cars. I will say that overall, it seems that there are less modified cars out on the roads compared with 10 years ago. k!

Even in a big college town like Austin you rarely ever see any floating around. If there is a modified car it's higher end STI or BMW. The only time I see a "ricer" anymore it's in pretty sad shape and a refuge from the old times that hasn't died.

In a time when you can go buy a mustang that is a 12 second car from the factory, why mess with a honda tuned to the ragged edge to get there.

The answer is that we grew up. Though I thank many exist hidden in garages. I am part of that age group that grew up with F&F, import wars, etc. I'm 30 now and only clean rices out civic I have seen lately is driven by a guy older than me. I have found a modded NSX near my work and I own an MR2 that will get some mods, but I think they have temporarily died. I went to a toyota show near me, and there were may be 30 cars from yhe region there (though wekfest was going on). Give it 10 yrs and some guys my age will be restoring modded civics to relive their glory days (Or 300zx, supra, prelude, etc).

fasted58 wrote: They lost their local parking lot hangout for being shiny happy people. Don't see as many around these days either. I don't miss 'em.

it's funny you mention that. Years ago a few friends who were into European Cars and I would get together every wed night at a local shopping centre, shoot the bull for a couple of hours, and go home. Once we were there, we never left. We might start the cars up to show off what was done, but the cars stayed put.

We used to get constant Ricer flybys.. kids in Hondas and the like revving like mad when they drove slowly by. doing burnouts, and cranking their stereos. They never stopped or said hi, they just liked to harass us for some reason. Then one day we got the news were no longer permitted to use the parking lot because we were causing so many problems....

no, I do not miss the ricers at all